Two Sides Accuses Toshiba of Greenwash with ‘No Print Day’ Campaign

HELLIDON, U.K.—June 13, 2012—Greenwash is an unfortunate and growing phenomenon as marketing departments jump on the sustainability bandwagon. In what is one of the most blatant examples, a division of Toshiba—Toshiba America Business Solutions—has announced that Oct. 23, 2012, will be “National No-Print Day.” On that day, Toshiba propose to “raise awareness of the impact printing has on our planet” and of "the role of paper in the workplace.”

The company is asking people and businesses not to print or copy anything that day. This campaign is backed up by a number of contentious and unsourced claims designed to support this ill-conceived initiative.

There are many flaws surrounding Toshiba’s campaign including:

Toshiba seems to have ignored the environmental impact of electronic communications. Just saying you are eliminating print and paper really does not mean you are necessarily helping the planet. It’s a lot more complex than that. If the alternative is, for example, electronic communication, then what is the environmental impact of this? Greenpeace has identified electronic waste as the fastest growing component of the municipal waste steam.
Toshiba has linked paper use to deforestation (or killing trees and destroying forests) when, in fact, responsibly made paper can be a sustainable way to communicate. Paper is a highly recycled commodity in Europe, with a recycling rate approaching 70 percent. Does Toshiba recycle their products so effectively? We think not.
Paper is based on wood, a natural and renewable material. Electronic equipment, ink and toner cartridges, including those with the Toshiba brand, are made mostly from non-renewable resources and are not so easily recycled. Have Toshiba considered the life cycle of all their own products before professing expertise on others?

What do the thousands of men and women employed by Toshiba to manufacture, sell and distribute copiers, printers and toner cartridges world-wide think about this campaign?

Two Sides openly challenges Toshiba’s claims and would like to understand if it has taken into account verifiable and accurate environmental facts about print and paper in a multimedia world.

Before withdrawing this flawed campaign Toshiba should consider the plethora of accredited facts on the Two Sides website including:

Since 1950 Forests in Western Europe have increased by 30 percent.
European forests are increasing by 1.5 million football pitches every year—an area four times the size of London.

Two Sides promotes print and paper as a versatile, sustainable communications medium. We do not usually comment on the comparative environmental performance of other industries but we cannot let this unwarranted attack on our industry go unanswered.