Bug-Eyed stat: ‘College students could save a tree per year using e-textbooks’
“College students purchase about a tree per year in textbooks, according to the founder of CaféScribe.com, a site that sells e-Textbooks at half the cost of standard textbooks.”
The above gem of a news release is from Stephen Fraser of Tenebris fame, who left Lulu, the print-on-demand publishing service, to start Bug-Eyed Marketing.
E-books vs. tree kills and p-stench
Repent, oh wicked ones! Stinky, ravenous paper mills aren’t the best news for either trees or human lungs; why feed them more than necessary?
“I lived right up the hill from the mill for 6 months and in the summer when it was hot we’d have to leave the house and go to north beach or somewhere all day long because the smell inside the apartment was so horrible,” says a Flickr poster in commenting on the above shot by Jan Tik. So go E, or at least tell your school to, when it makes sense.
Potential to save “nearly 50,000 sheets of paper” over four years
“According to the CaféScribe study,” Stephen enlightens us, “a student starting school this fall using digital textbooks rather than their more expensive counterparts would save nearly 50,000 sheets of paper—enough to preserve six, 40-foot trees—over the course of 4-years at a university.”
I know. The paper lobby loves to talk about recycling. Still, couldn’t E be better than P from a tree-hugger perspective, especially when you consider the energy expenditures that recycling requires? And the OLPC project shows how green an e-book-reading device can be.
More details for tree-lovers
For those interested in more paper-saving and/or CafeScribe, an “e-book marketplace and social network for students,” I’ll pass on the whole release.
Update, Aug. 3 at 4 a.m.: Check out our discussions about PDF and, separately, the validity of the paper-yield stats in the release.
College Students Could Save a Tree Per Year Using E-Textbooks
College students purchase about a tree per year in textbooks according to the founder of CaféScribe.com a site that sells e-Textbooks at half the cost of standard textbooks. According to the Caf éScribe study, a student starting school this fall using digital textbooks rather than their more expensive counterparts would save nearly 50,000 sheets of paper — enough to preserve six, 40-foot trees — over the course of 4-years at a university.
August 1, 2007 (SALT LAKE CITY) – An analysis published today by CaféScribe ( http://cafescribe.com), a web site that offers digital versions of popular textbooks at half the price of regular textbooks, asserts that the average college student buys over a tree’s worth of textbooks during the course of a school year. As universities prepare to begin the 2007-2008 school year in the midst of widely publicized criticism of the high cost of textbooks, the CaféScribe analysis suggests that buying e-books would not only save students an average of close to $2,000 over four years, it would conserve six trees.
The e-Textbook company’s figures assume that the average student buys between 17 and 18 books per year at an average cost of $52 and an average length of 715 pages. Ecological advocacy groups have estimated that a single tree is equal to between 16 and 17 reams of paper, or about 8,300 pages. In addition, e-book versions of popular textbooks average half the cost of new textbooks and a third less than used textbooks.
“Looking back at my school career, I’m horrified at how many dead trees I was responsible for,” laughs Bryce Johnson, CEO of Fourteen40, the parent company of CaféScribe and himself a veteran of undergraduate and MBA degrees (about 9 trees-worth of schooling). “E-books make sense on so many levels – they’re cheaper, more flexible, and better for the environment. They’re a lot easier to carry in your backpack as well. Web 2.0 means that the era of digital content is with us to stay: CaféScribe is proud to introduceTextbooks 2.0.”
CaféScribe.com, which is still in in the beta stage of launch, plans to offer a broad selection of e-textbooks by fall along with a social network of online study groups to make reading books and sharing notes faster and more efficient for students. CaféScribe also allows individuals to publish, share, and annotate their own PDF documents.
About CaféScribe
Based in Salt Lake City, Utah, CaféScribe.com is part of Fourteen40, Inc., a technology company dedicated to helping people share knowledge more efficiently. The company recently received its second round of venture funding from SBI Ventures. The CEO, Bryce Johnson, was himself a student not long ago. In the evenings he likes to read e-books to his kids. Contact: media@cafescribe.com
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Dead Trees By The Numbers
- 715 - total number of pages in average textbook*
- 8,333.3 - number of sheets of paper derived from a single tree**
- 11.6 - number of textbooks printed from one, 40-foot dead tree
- 17.3 - average textbooks bought per student, per-year, or 69.2 textbooks over 4 years of college***
- 1.5 - number of trees felled to make the textbooks used by a single college student in the US every year
- 626,000 - tons of paper used in book production in the US each year****
- 69.2 books, 49,478 pages, 5.9 trees - amount of books, paper, and trees used to make the textbooks used by a single college student over 4 years
- 50,000 - projected 2007-2008 enrollment for Ohio State University*****
- 74,548 - estimated number of trees felled in the production of textbooks used by students enrolled at Ohio State for the 2007-2008 school year
- 425,580 - textbooks used by freshman starting at Ohio State this fall by the time they graduate in 2012 ( 36,687 trees-worth)
- 17.6 million - estimated US college enrollment in fall of 2006******
- 24.6 million — number of trees felled to make all the textbooks used by U.S. students this year.
* - CaféScribe estimate. See table below.
** - Conservatree.org
*** - Based on (conservative) estimate of student textbooks costs of $700-1,000 per annum (”Turn the Page: Making College Textbooks More Affordable,” a report by the Federal Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance) at $52 per book ( www.textbookfacts.org, Association of American Publishers).
**** - Woodwise.org
***** - “Ohio State University is Largest Campus In Nation” (Ohio State press release )
****** - National Center for Education Statistics
Average Textbook Length, an estimate:
Below are a handful of sample of titles used to try to estimate average number of pages in a textbook. Obviously the length of these books varies greatly, as does the number of textbooks assigned and purchased. A student in the sciences, for example, could be expected to purchase fewer books, most of which will be lengthy, whereas an English major might purchase dozens of individual novels with many fewer pages on average.
- W.H. Freeman,Chemical Principles The Quest for Insight Third Edition, 1,024 pages
- Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Fifth Edition by American Psychological Association, 439 pages
- Machiavelli: The Prince (Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought), 192 pgs.
- Pharmacotherapy Principles & Practice (Hardcover) , 1,600 pages
- Constructing Architecture: Materials, Processes, Structures, A Handbook (Paperback), 508 pages.
- Black’s Law Dictionary 7th Edition (Black’s Law Dictionary) (Hardcover), 1,738 pages
- Gilbert Law Summaries on Property, 17th (Paperback) , 595 pages
- Wills, Trusts and Estates Including Taxation and Future Interests (2nd Edition) (Hornbook Series and Other Textbooks) (Hardcover), 790 pages [available on CafeScribe]
- Leslie and Sterk’s Trusts and Estates, 269 pages [available on CafeScribe]
- Business Planning: Closely Held Enterprises (Paperback), 764 pages
Average length: 715 pages
Related (not in release): eBooks can spark student interest, says study—an eSchool News article quoting the same report we published some weeks ago in the TeleBlog. Congratulations to Prof. Richard Bellaver at Ball State.
August 2nd, 2007 at 7:47 pm
On the face of it, this sounds good. The article mentions the use of PDF documents, which is to be expected with textbooks. However, the web site says to download “MyScribe Reader”. So, are students locked into this proprietary software, or can they simply download the PDF textbook and use it with other software, like Acrobat Reader or PDF Annotator?
Even if you can use the PDFs with other software, I assume that they will have DRM on them? If so, then they may not be useable in other software, or perhaps useable at all if the so-called “rights” are restricted so you can’t print, copy, annotate, etc.
I have been down this road before. I bought an ebook in PDF format because I wanted to use PDF Annotator on it (for a class). After I wasted my money, I found out that everything but reading was disallowed. I had to purchase a second copy of the same ebook in LIT format (thankfully this particular ebook was available as a LIT). At least MS Reader let me annotate it. So, because of DRM I had to buy that ebook twice. I can’t even sell the useless PDF copy to someone else, because DRM has “licensed” that copy to only me. I can sell an old pbook that I don’t want, but not that useless ebook (gripe mode off now).
August 2nd, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Thanks, Joseph. The item was on E vs. P rather than the PDF / DRM issues, but, yes, I’d agree with you that both can be real pains. The torture of a nonreflowable format like PDF has been a frequent topic in this blog. I myself hope that schools and publishers alike will consider different biz models and improved technology–the reflowable IDPF standard is a step in the right direction. Meanwhile, as usual, I appreciate the additional depth you’ve offered. I pointed Stephen Fraser to the item, and hopefully he can reply the questions you’ve raised. To sum up, I love E in general but do hope that people will move beyond PDF. - David
August 2nd, 2007 at 11:59 pm
These numbers just don’t add up. Ask yourself what would you rather have fall on you: 18 textbooks or a tree?
In fact, according to Infoplease..
Since trees are different sizes, it would be difficult to say how much paper comes from one tree. According to one paper manufacturer, however, a cord of wood measuring 4 feet by 4 feet by 8 feet—or 128 cubic feet—produces nearly 90,000 sheets of bond-quality paper or 2,700 copies of a 35-page newspaper.
Most mature pine trees would be at least twice that.
August 3rd, 2007 at 12:19 am
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August 3rd, 2007 at 2:52 am
Jon: I’m all in favor of truth-seeking here. Let’s see what Stephen has to say in reply, especially about the source of the following information from him: “8,333.3 - number of sheets of paper derived from a single tree.” I did track down source material from the paper industry (PDF alert) that would in effect might raise questions about his calculations.
In addition, here’s some federally distributed information–including the fact that “we get 362 pounds of pulp from the spruce tree. Subtract a few percentage of this for conversion to paper and divide by the weight of the newspaper to find out how many issues could be produced from that single tree.” Same concept presumably would apply to books. Is the student buying 362 pounds of textbooks a year? Hardly! And 362 pounds would be a lot more than 8,333.3 sheets of paper! A 5,000-sheet case of paper from Staples weighs perhaps 20 pounds or just a fraction of the 362 pounds.
So, yes, while not reaching final conclusions until all facts are in and all the analysis is done, I do wonder now about the tree-per-year fig, even allowing for variations among species of trees.
That said, we’re still talking about sizable consumption. I’d suspect, moreover, that with all the energy expenditures considered, E would be greener than P.
Meanwhile big thanks for your own research. We’ll get at the root of the tree/paper issue! - David
August 3rd, 2007 at 9:27 am
The tree statistic did seem suspicious. You might want to keep in mind, though, that paper doesn’t eat the whole tree. There is a lot of waste here.
In terms of e-vs-p on the ecology front, I can’t see that there’s any comparison. Sure my eBookWise requires a charge every week or so, but pBooks not only require paper mills, and trucks and trains, they require huge air-conditioned bookstores, huge air-conditioned libraries, huge chunks of book-lovers homes, land fill (when disposed of), and inks containing (in many cases) heavy metals.
No electrons were destroyed during the creation of this comment.
Rob Preece
Publisher, http://www.BooksForABuck.com
August 3rd, 2007 at 10:56 am
You are correct in that various interested parties disagree quite a bit on the number of sheets of paper that can be derived from a single tree. Obviously calculating the true number would require exact knowledge of many variables, including the weight and cut of the paper as well as waste in the manufacturing processes involved. The number used by CafePress.com to calculate the total trees used to make textbooks each year — 8,333 (coated) pages from a 40-foot tree — came from what struck me as a comparatively balanced analysis by the folks behind the web site Conservatree.com. Their numbers have also been repeated at least once by CNN if I’m not mistaken. Recognizing that intelligent people could easily disagree on the assumptions at the root of the calculation, we posted all the sources of the numbers used in the CaféScribe analysis. Regardless of the specifics, I think we can all agree that the publishing industry as it exists now — textbooks, books, magazines and the lot — is rife with waste. The industry itself is keenly aware of this and it is one of the reasons its margins have been so quick to suffer with the advance of new technology. I am reminded of a terrific WSJ story from a couple of years ago written by the (very good) technology reporter Jeffrey Trachtenburg. The story touches on the true extent of the inefficiencies in the current system for publishing and distributing books. It’s quite shocking. Here’s a link to the summary: Quest for Best Seller Creates a Pileup Of Returned Books (full-text unfortunately available only to subscribers).Anyway, I hope the clarification is helpful. The point of a study like this is really to get people thinking, not to pin down a number scientifically. Take as another example the recent story about a study that identified 237 distinct reasons people engage in sex. It made for great copy, but no one really believes that there are in fact 237 reasons people have sex. Why I thought of 143 more reasons just yesterday….
August 3rd, 2007 at 11:51 am
Hi, Rob. Agree with your energy argument. But remember–the figure of 362 pounds for a spruce tree is the actual pulp one, minus “a few percentage of this for conversion to paper.” So, whether or not there’s waste at the tree level, we’re probably talking about a yield higher than Stephen’s figs imply. But let’s see what he says in return. He’s a good guy, and I’ve invited him to respond to the points we’re raising here. Thanks. David
August 3rd, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Stephen: Thanks for the classy reply—in character. I myself would still find the paper-industry estimates to be more persuasive; yes, there are vast differences here. That said, I know you acted in good faith and look forward to other gems from you. Back to this one. I couldn’t agree with you more about the inefficiencies of the p-book industry! And even by the estimates of the paper industry, we’re still talking about major consumption, so your main point still holds. Thanks. David (who just pulled your comment out of moderation—which you shouldn’t encounter when you post here again)