Carbon Offsetting Print Production

Hi Gillian,

What you are talking about in some respect is LCA (life cycle analysis), which is primarily useful when choosing between two options. Unfortunately, there are few simple formulas to use, as every project relies on a host of variables.

For print projects, you'd want to consider the footprint of any or all of the following:

- Paper manufacturing (forest management, harvesting, pulp manufacturing, paper manufacturing, distribution at each stage)

- Design process (facilities, design approach/format)

- Print production (facilities, equipment, inks, binding/finishing materials, shipping)

- Final distribution of printed piece

- Usage and disposal I don't yet know of any off-the-shelf software geared toward print production, though I certainly wish I did.

There is a list of LCA tools available athttp://lca.jrc.ec.europa.eu/lcainfohub/toolList.vm?search=true but most are rather expensive and not necessarily appropriate for this particular project type. You might try contacting your paper manufacturer, and your printer, though it's unlikely they'll be able to give you accurate figures. Your chances will certainly go up if you can spec from environmentally- conscious vendors.

Best of luck,
Jess

Jess Sand
Principal, Roughstock Studios
http://www.roughstockstudios.com
PO Box 460010 ?
San Francisco, CA 94146
P: (415) 643-0121 ?
F: (415) 643-4896

I did a whole bunch of calculations in a past life related to this using basis weights and sizes and then determined that actually the most accurate way to do it is to simply ask the printer how many pounds of paper they used. They should always know this and this will give you an accurate number. The less accurate number, then, is the emissions factor. There are a few calculators out there and they vary widely in their numbers, the easiest one to access is papercalculator.org, but it appears from your footer that you have already figured out the emissions from paper, so you might have some emissions factors that you use already. Of course knowing the weight of your paper doesn't tell you anything about the ink, but most likely the error bars in the calculations of just the paper's emissions will overwhelm the ink emissions anyways (I have yet to see any emissions factors for ink).

Good luck.
Tina Woolston

Project Coordinator
Office of Sustainability
Tufts University
617-627-5517