low carbon credentials
The track record of Richard Stephenson suggests that Yudu is a profit-focused enterprise
which had identified a demand for services provided with minimal environmental impact.
Minimising loading time
certainly for ephemeral media like daily
newspapers – is achieving a reduction in a
Keeping page sizes down to the minimum publisher’s carbon footprint. The Yudu team is
does mean that they load faster and improve keen to proselytise its low carbon credentials.
the user’s total ‘experience’ of viewing publi- The company has a free version of its soft-
cations online. ware which allows users anywhere in the world
Having reduced the impact of its publishing to create and store a digital publication. The
technology in this way, Yudu pays for the re- ‘price’ of their doing so is that every edition
maining power consumption to be offset. produced this way has an opening page show-
Notwithstanding the questionable effects of ing the tree that has been saved in the process.
offsetting, such a move should be seen as a
step in the right direction.
Stephenson is prepared to take the carbon
A surfeit of worthiness, perhaps?
reduction strategy as far as it will go; examin- Reference to ‘free’ publishing and an overt
ing not just the amount of processing power commitment to carbon reduction could make
needed to create a Yudu page, but the source the Yudu organisation appear endowed with a
of the energy used to power the data centre surfeit of worthiness.
where the application is hosted. The fact that the company has made major
“While the ultimate step would be to locate advances in making its digital publications
the hosts in Iceland, where they could be run accessible to the blind and partially-sighted
from geothermal power, we believe it is rea- (an aspect considered in the analysis of the
sonable to employ data centres that can dem-
onstrate their use of renewable energy. That
is the next phase in the company’s development.”
“The amount of carbon being saved by every person who
takes a periodical online rather than in print is substantial –
Online editions save carbon
one credible estimate is 250 kilograms a year for each
The Yudu chairman put forward a second ar-
gument for publications to switch to digital
publication. Our system is used, for example, to produce an
format, pointing to the resources being saved.
edition of the Metro newspaper online every day, along with
“The amount of carbon being saved by every
person who takes a periodical online rather
many other papers and magazines.”
than in print is substantial – one credible esti-
mate is 250 kilograms a year for each publi-
cation. Our system is used, for example, to
produce an edition of the Metro newspaper
online every day, along with many other pa-
pers and magazines.
“While environmentalists often point to the
number of trees being cut down to produce
the printed word, the driver there for the paper
industry is in fact sustainability.
“Large amounts of energy are consumed in
the paper production process: recycling may
avoid the loss of further trees, but it is expen-
sive to reprocess in energy terms.”
It can be accepted, therefore, that any move
away from paper to electronic publications –
The Informed Executive
83
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98