Environment
PUSHING BACK AGAINST PAPER GREENWASHING
IT IS COMMON KNOWLEDGE THAT GOING DIGITAL FOR DOCUMENTS AND PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL IS AN ASSURED WAY TO MAKE YOUR BUSINESS APPEAR MORE SUSTAINABLE; OR IS IT? COMPANIES ARE CONSTANTLY PUSHING A ‘GO GREEN, GO DIGITAL’, WHEN THE OPPOSITE MAY BE TRUE. PAPER CAMPAIGNER TWO SIDES IS WORKING HARD TO RECTIFY THIS MISINFORMATION SIGNIFICANTLY IMPACTING THE PRINT AND PAPER INDUSTRY. ASSISTANT EDITOR, BENJAMIN AUSTIN, REPORTS.
We see more and more often businesses offering options to go digital. You buy something on the high street and as you get to the counter, the cashier asks ‘Can I have your email address to send you the receipt?’
Industries too are pushing people to go digital all under the guise of ‘going green’ but this is at a huge detriment to the print industry. However, organisations like Two Sides are pushing against this ‘greenwashing’. Set up in 2008, the global not-for-profi t organisation has been campaigning to reveal the truth behind paper sustainability in an ever-growing digital world. According to the organisation’s latest statistics, 41% of UK consumers believe paper is a wasteful product, while 62% believe electronic communication is more eco-friendly. However, the latest fi gures show that paper has one of the highest recycled rates of all materials in the UK at just over 70%.
The campaign manager for Two Sides UK, Josh Birch, said: “Print remains one of the most powerful and
20 | February/March 2025
sustainable forms of communication. “Yet consumers and users in the media world are now distracted and enticed by a wide range of alternative media choices.”
PULLING THE WOOL OVER OUR EYES Two Sides ran a survey in 2023 on consumer attitudes towards print and discovered that 55% of European consumers believed claims made by brands switching their customers to digital for environmental reasons were misleading. Furthermore, 76% said they wanted the choice to remain with paper communication. Yet companies still push this facade of ‘going green’ as the sole reason to convert without any related evidence. It is usually claimed that paper production leads to deforestation but actual fi gures show the opposite with European woodlands growing at a rate of 1,500 football pitches every day. Yet 60% of European consumers believe forests are shrinking which shows the impact of this misinformation. Josh continued: “Paper has one of the highest recycling rates compared to other materials yet the industry gets a lot of bad press. “People think it leads to deforestation and other
environmental issues and businesses will tell their customers to go green and ‘save a tree’. “But more often than not these are empty statements. Most companies push for digital communications to save costs.”
These statements are hugely damaging to an
industry that employs in the UK alone, 116,000 people (1,096,000 EU), in more than 8,400 businesses (115,700 EU).
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