[Greenbuilding] Embodied Energy of a sheet of paper

[Tim Vireo Keating]

Robert,

I would suggest starting with the Environmental Paper Network. Joshua 
Martin ("Joshua Martin" <joshua at environmentalpaper.org> - I've copied 
him on this email - hey, Joshua!) is the coordinator and he has 
access to lots of folks who are very knowledgeable on paper issues, 
recycling, etc.

Embodied energy calculations are notoriously difficult to do. Most 
that I have seen neglect large parts of the equation, especially 
those that have been done regarding wood.

There are a number of aspects that would have to be considered, some 
of which are completely dependent on where and how the trees (if 
indeed your paper is tree-based) were logged.

Was it old growth? Was it boreal forest, temperate tree farm, 
tropical rainforest? Paper is originating from all of these, with 
great differences in resulting carbon emissions or destruction of 
carbon sinks. Mark Harmon at OSU has done a lot of work on carbon and 
logging in the northwest forests, old growth vs. non, etc. Woods Hole 
Institute has done a lot of work on carbon and tropical deforestation.

Then there the heavy equipment. Was it helicopter logging or 
feller-bunchers? People with chainsaws? Then the trucking to the 
mill. Then the massive amounts of energy use at the pulp/paper mill 
(some of which comes from the sawdust and wood waste generated on 
site - a suspect claim of offsets, given the trees should never have 
been logged for paper in the first place. The energy to make the 
chemicals (paper from trees is very chemical-intensive - not just the 
chlorine for bleaching).

Then the box for every 10 reams and the shipping to the distribution 
center then to the warehouse and then to the store. And don't forget 
how you got it to the office (delivered, perhaps ("That was easy")?). 
:  )

Joshua, if something like this doesn't already exist, perhaps it's 
about time that it did. The timber industry loves to cite the wonders 
of wood vs. steel or concrete in terms of embodied energy, yet they 
never seem to include all the factors.

tim keating

At 1:23 PM -0400 4/4/08, Robert Carver wrote:
>My organization is trying to be more sustainable in its business
>practices.  One thing we are debating is defaulting all computer printers
>to print double sided instead of single sided.  We have the energy
>monitoring equipment to measure the energy consumption differences between
>double sided and single side printing.  However, we are trying to find a
>citable source for the embodied energy savings for using less paper.
>
>Does have such a citable value?  Any suggestions for where to look for
>such a value?
>
>Many thanks,
>
>Robert M. Carver, P.E. ( - Bob - )
>Senior Project Manager
>New York State Energy Research and Development Authority
>17 Columbia Circle
>Albany, NY 12203
>tel: 518-862-1090 ext. 3242
>fax: 518-862-1091
>rmc at nyserda.org
>www.nyserda.org
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-- 


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measure of our bodies are the same..."
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