Myth debunked: While paper media rests on desks and in filing cabinets, digital media lives in data centres. Information technology accounts for 2% of the CO2 generated worldwide, which is roughly equivalent to that from the aviation industry, according to Simon Mingay, research vice president for Egham-based analyst Gartner.

According to a 2007 report from the US, electricity use associated with computer servers doubled from 2000 to 2005 with over $29bn spent on power and cooling for data centres. Despite the fact that capacity use at the average data centre stands at less than 10%, new server capacity is constantly being added. A more green approach would be to share servers.

Whether paper is any better is difficult to tell, only a comparative study of environmental impact across the life cycle of specific digital and paper media products would reveal the truth.

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