Cost of paper

Estimating the cost of paper can be challenging. In a recent blog post, Adobe provided some indication of costs.

Adobe estimates that Adobe Reader was opened over 4 billion times in 2014. The environmental cost of printing those documents would be:

• 2 billion pounds of paper
• 17 million trees
• 11.4 billion gallons of water
• enough energy to power a city the size of Cambridge England for one year

Adobe extends this analysis to users of Adobe e-sign services to estimate that it has saved:

• 89 million gallons of water
• 31 million pounds of wood
• 132,000 trees
• $42 million in paper and printing costs
• 8000 tons of paper

Its GreenMeter lets organizations run these calculations for themselves.