Carbon footprint of the knowledge industry and ways to reduce it

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Chowdhury, Gobinda | Fraser, Michael

Affiliations: Director, Centre for Information and Knowledge Management, University of Technology, Sydney, PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia. Gobinda.Chowdhury@uts.edu.au | Director, Communications Law Centre, University of Technology, Sydney, PO Box 123, Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia. Michael.Fraser@uts.edu.au

Abstract: The current practices of content creation, access, and super distribution followed by the global content industry are neither economically nor environmentally sustainable. Since research studies on the carbon footprint of the content industry are few and far between, adequate data are not available. This paper shows that the current practices in the production of printed content produce a massive carbon footprint. It is argued that these emissions can be significantly reduced by developing a digital content supply network. Features of a digital content network are briefly discussed along with an indication of how this can help reduce carbon footprint of information services. The paper also points out areas of further research in this direction.

DOI: 10.3233/WDL-120071

Journal: World Digital Libraries - An international journal, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 9-18, 2011