An often-cited but rarely seriously discussed advantage of computer and Internet technology is saved paper waste. It’s quite simple; you read electronic versions and society gets to keep the forests of the world. Most people have heard about this potential, benefit but have they considered the scale of change that this might effect in consumption patterns? One reason for not considering the scale at which paper might saved is that it might occur to you just how much paper we produce. I won’t bore you with numbers, but I think it falls into the realm of common sense that producing, circulating, and removing documents is a huge part of our nation’s economy. Largely this cannot be avoided but electronic programs and media help to scale back the clutter. Guilford has recently started have students register for classes over banner web, that’s twelve hundred pieces of paper that don’t have to be handed in to the register.

It’s not only the necessary functions of the economy, but also the inefficiency that has contaminated certain industries. Health care industries at one time spent 40% of budgets on maintaining paperwork and records. The nation’s tax code has grown to such size that billions of dollars are spent just keeping track. Its not a matter of tree-huggers wanting fever trees cut down; it is also a matter of nation productivity. Here at Guilford, our use of technology serves both goals.

Using Econ 221 and Geology 121 as examples, we will see that the Internet does in fact both cuts down how much paper we use and gives the students the ability to be more productive. These classes have two qualities alike that make them particularly appropriate for this discussion: first they are both quite large and they both transfer vital information through the Internet and network based technology. Because of this, they more resemble the average college course than other classes at Guilford.

Econ 221 has well over 200 pages of material on Learning Space along with many power point presentations. Geology 121’s web site offers students a chance to view all sorts of goodies for students willing to make the extra effort and easy ways to find materials you need to make lab assignments and other homework. It’s impossible to tell how much paper is saved; it is even possible that more paper is used. It seems clear that neither professor would ever choose to print up and hand out copiesof that many documents, so if every student printed every document offered, then more paper would be used.

In reality, however, even people like me who can’t stand to read more then a few a pages of text on computer screen doesn’t need to print out every document offered because some of them are so short it isn’t problem. Also we all know not every student does the reading assigned in a given week, why waste paper on lazy student? Make long assignments available on the Internet and let each student choose.

What of the students trying to make the best grades, well professors can put as many potential resources as they can produce at the touch these students finger tips. I’d figure that I have printed at least 100 pages less then the professor would have handed out or had to replace with some kind of document. If I am a typical case then a hundred pages for almost a hundred students is 10,000 page per semester. I know there are a lot of other things you can do for the environment, but every step in the right direction counts.