Picking an Easy Fight with Ink and Paper

Maybe it is easy being green. More display manufacturers are making a case for the environmental superiority of electronic reading devices. Even industry confab FPD International has gotten on board, billing this year’s event as a green technology incubator for the display industry.

After all, 2009 might be the year that brings some serious environmental policy changes to the U.S. Every marketer has a green angle to move product and NEC is not missing out on the party. This year, the company used the convention in Yokohama, Japan to push its new A3 (297mm by 420mm) and A4 (210mm by 297mm) size screens - about the same sizes as paper.

Everyone knows that e-paper technology requires far less power than traditional displys; but NEC is taking it a step further. Company officials are arguing that e-readers provide an alternative to the eco-economic inefficiencies of the newspaper industry.

It’s an easy fight to pick: the dailies of the world aren’t going to win any Sierra Club awards this year. Besides a decade of bleeding money, newspapers score dismal green grades for the amount of paper consumed, litter generated and energy outputted printing the damn thing. Oh and don’t forget the distribution system: hundreds of thousands of vehicles, spitting out carbon emissions at subscribers seven days-a-week.

FPD’s organizers aren’t missing their chance, theming this year’s convention as green “lifestyle revolution.” It’s an easy move, but will the 67,000 expected in attendance be sold on the green benefits of e-paper technologies?

Perhaps - but even some of the early reviews of the E Ink Esquire Cover aren’t generating fuzzy pleasantries. Creating an electronic device that gets thrown away after 90 days isn’t a great example of stewardship. But industry people know the Esquire cover is an anomaly. With energy costs at a premium, it’s easy to see the benefits of a mobile display that requires far little power. Even USA Today can’t argue with that.

By Dave Brooks

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