[Greenbuilding] Embodied Energy of a sheet of paper
Tim Vireo Keating
t.keating at rainforestrelief.org
Sat Apr 12 18:09:00 CDT 2008
My understanding is that it's about 17 trees for a ton of paper.
I don't know how much a case of white office paper weighs but there
are 500 sheets/ream of 8.5 x 11" and 10 reams/case. Since I don't buy
paper (except the odd ream of 100% PC) I don't have the opportunity
to weigh a case. I'm guessing you can do the math from here, though,
if you can weigh a ream or a roll.
tim
At 9:05 AM -0400 4/10/08, Joshua Lloyd wrote:
>I have a question. How many trees does it take to produce 100 square
>feet of paper? My office just finished a project and one roll of
>drawings was over a 1000 square feet and we were wondering how many
>trees were needed to produce that.
>
>Josh
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org
>[mailto:greenbuilding-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Tim Vireo
>Keating
>Sent: Thursday, April 10, 2008 8:47 AM
>To: Robert Carver; greenbuilding at listserv.repp.org
>Cc: Joshua Martin
>Subject: Re: [Greenbuilding] Embodied Energy of a sheet of paper
>
>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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"The Earth and myself are of one mind. The measure of the land and the
measure of our bodies are the same..."
- Hinmaton Yalatkit, Nez Perce chief
____________________________________________
R A I N F O R E S T R E L I E F
Sparing the World's Rainforests from Consumption
Rainforest Relief works to protect the world's remaining tropical
and temperate rainforests by reducing the demand for the products
and materials of rainforest destruction such as timber and paper,
industrial agricultural products such as bananas, beef, coffee,
chocolate and cut flowers, and mining products
such as oil, gold and aluminum.
New York, NY: (917) 543-4064
Portland, OR: (503) 236-3031
http://www.rainforestrelief.org
info at rainforestrelief.org
Church Street Station * PO Box 298 * NY, NY 10008-0298
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