Why conserve?

Many businesses are only now just beginning to understand the concept of sustainable marketing and it's impact on the environment. The current global strain on our planet and environment creates opportunities for businesses to utilize marketing practices that are more environmentally conscious.

Here is some food for thought on why you should conserve ...

The average American uses more than 748 pounds of paper per year. ¹

Approximately 68 million trees are consumed each year to produce the catalogs and junk mail Americans receive annually, yet nearly half of this mail is thrown out unopened. ²

Paper manufacturing is the third largest use of fossil fuels worldwide and the single largest industrial use of water per pound of finished product. ³

Waste paper is America’s single largest export by weight. ⁴

Discarded packaging represents over 30 percent of the soil waste buried in U.S. landfills each year. ⁵

Approximately 5% of the resources used to produce a product are contained in the final product. The other 95% has been discarded during the production process. ⁶

If everyone on the planet consumed as much as Americans, we would need 4 planet Earths to support the total amount of consumption. ⁷

Printing inks and toner are the second largest uses of carbon black, which is primarily derived from oil. Even the manufacture of soy-based inks typically involves the extensive use of diesel fuel, petroleum-based pesticides and herbicides. ⁸

The United States, with only four percent of the world’s population, is responsible for 22% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.⁹

The Northeast region of the U.S. is the 6 largest emitter of greenhouse gases on the planet. ¹⁰

More than a million species worldwide will be on the path to extinction by 2050 if business as usual continues. ¹¹

1. American Forest and Paper Association
2. AIGA: Print Design and Environmental Responsibility
3. Ibid
4. Ibid
5. Ibid
6. Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things - By William McDonough & Michael Braungart, North Point Press, 2002
7. Union of Concerned Scientists: Citizens and Scientists for Environmental Solutions
8. AIGA: Print Design and Environmental Responsibility
9. StopGlobalWarming.org
10. Union of Concerned Scientists: Citizens and Scientists for Environmental Solutions
11. Conservation International: New Cover Story Published In "Nature" Represents Most Comprehensive Analysis To Date