Talking About Green

[I am currently at the very exciting Collabtech Conference at Case Western which is about using information and network technologies for collaborative research and education. This morning Case Western announced a partnership with Amazon to deploy the Kindle DX. Amazon has made arrangements with a number of textbook publishers to make textbooks available on the Kindle for students at Case Western. Not only with this improve access to the textbooks, lower their costs and save student backs, but it will also help to significantly reduce the university’s carbon footprint. According to a study at the Babcock School of Business the production and shipping of average textbook result in 5 pounds of CO2. This means that if carbon is $20 a ton, the carbon offset value of making a textbook available on Kindle is $100, and if carbon trades at $100 per ton, as is expected to happen to the price of carbon with cap and trade then the offset value is $500 per textbook. One Kindle can hold hundreds, if not thousands of textbooks and other documents – so the offset value of a single Kindle can be worth thousands of dollars! (Of course you have to discount life cycle CO2 cost of Kindle itself and additionality of the extra textbooks). There are only 160 students at the Babcock School of Business and they estimate the carbon footprint is 45 tons per year for the textbooks purchased by these students. But not only does the Kindle have a direct CO2 reduction potential it can also be used a powerful tool for “gCommerce” applications where the Kindle DX and its content can be given away for free to students and faculty in exchange for them reducing their personal carbon footprint, for example by taking public transportation, or paying a premium on parking and faculty travel. Collatech is live on second Life – watch for my avatar. – BSA]

Collabtech Conference
http://www.case.edu/its/collabtech09/

The carbon footprint of textbooks, paper etc
http://www.stewartmarion.com/carbon-footprint/html/carbon-footprint-stuff.html
One pound of printer paper generates 4 pounds of CO2; one pound of newspaper produces 3 pounds of CO2; one pound of textbooks produces 5 pounds of CO2; one pound of 20oz plastic bottles creates 1 pound of carbon dioxide; and one pound of aluminum cans produces 5 pounds of carbon dioxide.

Amazon’s Kindle DX
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-DX-Amazons-Wireless-Generation/dp/B0015TCML0

Air Conditioning Monroe

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