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The Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi (EAD) is organizing Paperless Day for the fourth time on 23rd of this month and has urged public interested to register online.
At the heart of the campaign is the Paperless Day website, where participants can register their intent to partake in Paperless Day 2011, gain tips for paper reduction through a variety of toolkits, and also add in their paper savings (which are automatically translated into savings of Carbon dioxide, a Greenhouse gas contributing to climate change).
More than 200 organizations took part in EAD’s Paperless Day in 2010, an initiative that was first launched by EAD in 2008 in partnership with Abu Dhabi Gas Liquefaction Company (ADGAS), to encourage people to review and reduce their paper usage. A staunch supporter of the Paperless Day initiative, (ADGAS) has continually managed to reduce paper use throughout the 3 years of the campaign.
Despite access to advanced digital technology, organizations and the general public are still consuming large amounts of paper, much of it unnecessary. However, with high paper consumption leading to high energy usage levels, in 2010 the UAE business community came together to tackle the issue and organizations representing 126,756 individuals throughout the United Arab Emirates and the Arab world took part. They contributed to an estimated reduction in 4,287 kilogrammes of carbon emissions.
Following that day, EAD recognized the efforts of the organizations that participated. Over 50 organizations signed a charter calling for Paperless Day to become a fixed event on the global environmental calendar. The charter was presented to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) which is now supporting the initiative.
Razan Khalifa Al Mubarak, Secretary General of the Environment Agency-Abu Dhabi (EAD), said: "With the United Nations General Assembly having declared 2011 as the International Year of Forests, Paperless Day is contributing to the cause by asking people to really think twice about their paper consumption." She added: "Every step in the life cycle of a sheet of paper contributes to global climate change. Working together with the business community and partners, we can encourage positive environmental behaviour change which can result in measurable reductions in both paper usage and Carbon dioxide emissions." The paper production process contributes to the destruction of forests. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the global conservation organisation, around 40% of the world’s commercially cut timber is processed for paper. It also threatens the habitats of many rare and endangered plant and animal species. The paper production process also consumes vast amounts of water and discharges water pollutants, in addition to omitting large quantities of greenhouse gasses - the main cause of global climate change.
Nick Nuttall, Spokesperson for the UNEP Executive Director, said; "A paperless day is one powerful way of engaging a national and global public on the environmental challenges of our age. UNEP’s International Resources Panel estimates that by 2050 the world could triple its resource use which would require one or two additional planets if there were any to spare. Cutting back on excessive paper consumption, including the heavy and glossy paper used in for products such as newspapers and in photocopiers, is one small but important and straight forward way towards ensuring that sobering projection is not met," he said.
On this occasion, Fahim Kazim, ADGAS CEO said: "Paperless Day is one of the initiatives that reflect ADGAS policy in supporting environmental issues and sustaining its natural resources. We are proud to be EAD’s strategic partner in launching this campaign globally; which plays a vital role in spreading awareness among society about the importance of protecting the Earth and reducing the harmful effects of global warming".
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