[philips]

Sort of on topic but I wonder about the CO2e or energy cost of books. My friend recently opened a book store and the supply chain seems crazy:

- Make paper somewhere

- Ship paper to China

- Print the book in China

- Ship the book back across the ocean to the publisher's distribution center

- Ship the book the bookstore to shelve

- Ship the book back to the publisher if it doesn't sell

The CO2e of all of these steps must be crazy compared to an ebook and ereader for most any serious reader.

Anyone know of a definitive study on this? Here is a blog post about it: https://sites.uw.edu/libraryvoices/2025/01/13/battle-of-the-...

[Dylan16807]

Crossing the ocean twice costs less than half a kg of CO2 per kg of book. Rail is almost as efficient and goes smaller distances. The truck portion is probably the biggest factor in shipping but it's still not that much. And it's the part that's hardest to remove from the supply chain.

[TheOtherHobbes]

That's pretty much it, although the US and EU do have local printers and paper sources, so not everything goes through China.

China has become popular in recent years because a number of printers offer special editions - sprayed/deckled edges, high quality hard binding - which authors can sell as high-margin items to genre fiction collectors.

Generally, the print industry is incredibly destructive. In addition to all the shipping, it literally eats forests and uses huge quantities of water.

[philips]

I will have to check my shelves but I can’t think of a book I read recently that didn’t say printed in China.

Although most of my book purchases have been kids books or textbooks. Maybe that is the reason.

[graemep]

They are not that high cost to produce and they can last which makes them very sustainable. Its common for books to last decades.

[philips]

Sure, _a book_ might be sustainable in this system but the average book likely is just shipped around a ton and never used in this system.