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Environment
Our magazines, newspapers and books
Our print and digital products have environmental impacts of various scales. While the lifecycle environmental impact of digital media is still somewhat unclear to everyone, assessments of print products' emissions have been made. The consumer can participate in the pursuit for more environmentally friendly media by e.g. ensuring that paper gets recycled appropriately.
Carbon footprint of a printed newspaper and a magazine
The carbon footprint of a single Helsingin Sanomat newspaper is about 180g CO2e. One copy of the NYT supplement creates 75g of greenhouse gasses (CO2e).
Carbon footprint is a measurement of the greenhouse gases produced during a product’s life cycle.
The biggest Finnish daily newspaper Helsingin Sanomat investigated the emissions of greenhouse gasses of the printed daily newspaper and the NYT supplement in 2009–2010. The calculations were made "from the forest to the customer", including the emissions from newsprint production, printing and transport.
The survey, carried out in co-operation with VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland (VTT), was based on a VTT study of the average carbon footprint of a Finnish newspaper. For calculating the emissions of Helsingin Sanomat newspapers, information was gathered from paper mills, printing houses and various databases. The calculations disregard emissions arising after the newspaper has been read. In the calculations, Helsingin Sanomat contained 51 pages and weighed 243g. The NYT supplement weighed 133g and contained 53 pages.
The energy used in paper production and printing has the biggest impact on a magazine’s carbon footprint. The average carbon footprint of a Finnish weekly magazine is about 230g CO2e.
VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has also investigated the carbon footprint of a Finnish weekly magazine in 2009. The research included the magazine’s full life cycle from forest until end of life phases, including transports and raw material manufacturing. Editorial work was not included in the calculations. The weekly magazine in the calculations contained 86 pages and weighed 250g.
What does this mean in practice? What can it be compared with?
One printed copy of the newspaper delivered to reader’s home or one copy of a magazine generates roughly as much carbon emissions as driving one kilometre by car. As a whole, newspapers and printed advertising materials delivered to households account for less than one per cent of the greenhouse gas emissions of households. The biggest emissions are caused by housing, food products and transport.*
*Source: Finnish Environment Institute, “Environmental impacts of material flows caused by the Finnish economy” (ENVIMAT) study 2009.
Why are the results slightly different for a newspaper and a magazine?
Differences between the two relate mainly to different kinds of paper and printing methods and slightly different recycling rates.
What can readers do to reduce the footprint?
Lots! About 20% the carbon footprint of a printed product is a result of the consumer's own activity. Recycling the magazines and newspapers is the best option. Magazines contain high concentrations of virgin fibre, which is well suited for reuse and recycling.
Sanoma will take part in a Europe-wide Digital Media Delivery research project in 2011.
The overall aim of this British-led media and ICT cross-sector project is to develop a commonly applicable framework for the evaluation of sustainability impacts of digital media delivery (News, magazines, music, books, video/TV), starting with carbon emissions.
