The Digital Option
DEC Publishing

There can be many reasons for you to choose DEC Publishing.   The top of your list likely includes saving money, ease of use, the ability to quickly & easily reach a wide (international) audience and control over your project/product.  But don't sell yourself short... you can also show your concern for the environment and significantly do your part.

Here are a few statistics with regards to the impact of the publishing industry on the environment.

1. Pages printed worldwide (2005 figures): over 45 trillion pages are printed annually
2. Carbon footprint of a book (2006 figures): 8.85 lbs, in carbon dioxide terms
3. Total carbon footprint of the book publishing industry (2006 figures): 12.4 million metric tons
4. Number of trees cut down annually to produce the books sold in the U.S.: more than 30 million
5. Percentage of recycled paper currently used by U.S. book publishers: 5%-10%
6. Number of new titles published annually in the U.S.: 172,000 (2005 figures)
   Number of books produced annually in the U.S.: 4.15 billion (2006 figures)
   Number of books sold annually in the U.S.: 3.09 billion (2006 figures)
   
   

It is obvious enough to see an impact when considering the trees cut down and the energy used to process this lumber into paper.  But what of the many others costs involved?

• Transportation - oil used for getting the pulp to the mill, paper to the printer, printed book to warehouses, warehouses to distribution points... then finally to the customer (who drives to the store or has it delivered by Amazon or other retailers)
• Manufacturing - involves processes that require the use of chlorine bleach and sulfur.

• Ink & Binders - chemical-based inks and binders add to waste, and eventually find themselves in a landfill or in the soil.
• Inventory - housing of billions of books requires heating/cooling and many other costs.
• Waste - think of all of the books you have possessed in your life... and how many are still in your possession. They had to go somewhere.  Also, consider the 1.06 billion books produced which go unsold (US only). Besides the costs involved, there is tremendous waste. 

We are NOT anti-books.  There will always be a place for a good book, to curl up with at night in bed! However textbooks, manuals, journals, etc... are not ones to get comfortable with, nor do they warrant the high costs (financial and environmental) that traditional means called for.