I was watching a television commercial recently where a health insurance company said it was saving trees by having a paperless office.  Something about the commercial didn’t sit right with me and I wasn’t sure what it was.  After reflecting on this for a moment I realized what it was.

The myth about saving trees by using less paper is a marketing device.  The natural truth is that you don’t save trees by not using paper.

I grew up in Oregon in a logging family and I’ve lived in Oregon all of my adult life.  I’ve been too involved with the logging culture to not see what is going on here.

Tree harvesting levels are set by the government organizations that manage forests and by tree growth rates, not by consumers.  (Those organizations are the US Forest Service and the state equivalents.)  The public consumes all of the trees available for harvest.  If the forest management agencies increase the number of trees available for harvest, the public will consume them all.  If they decrease the number of trees available for harvest, the public will consume them all.

Government agencies control how many trees are cut down.  Public consumption does not.

When a company decreases its paper use, it does not decrease the number of trees that are cut down.  It only lowers its business expenses for paper.

When companies decrease their paper consumption, they aren’t trying to save the environment.  They are trying to increase their bottom line by saving money.

When companies promote the belief internally that saving paper saves trees, they are really just trying to get their more naive employees to not use so much paper so the companies don’t have as much paper expense.

All this stuff about saving trees is just marketing B.S.  The companies are trying to get more money by marketing “green” to people who don’t know any better.

Some people would argue that we import more wood products from foreign countries to make up the shortfall.   Do you know what happens when you cut down a tree?  Guess what.  Another one grows to take its place.  Most of the deforestation taking place in other countries is about turning forests into farmland anyway, not about making paper.  If you are serious about saving trees in foreign countries, you must address the fact that doing so will cause the poor families in those countries to starve.

So don’t worry about saving trees by not using paper.  You can’t. But you can save money by not wasting resources.

Stumble it!