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2021 Vol.12, Issue 1 Preview Page

General Article

Estimation of environmental impact of paperless office based on simple model scenarios
Jinho Kim1
,
Yonghee Kim2
,
Soorim Oh3
,
Taejin Kim4
,
Dogyun Lee3*
1Associate Professor, Department of Architecture, Incheon National University, 119 Academy-ro, Incheon, South Korea
2Senior Engineer, JNJ CND, 4581 La Palma Ave, La Palma, CA 90623, USA
3M.S. Student, Department of Environmental Engineering, Incheon National University, 119 Academy-ro, Incheon2, South Korea
4Associate Professor, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Daegu University, 201 Daegudae-ro, Daegu, South Korea
*Corresponding Author
31 March 2021. pp. 44-60
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Abstract

The idea of a paperless office has gained popularity since the 1980s when dependence on computers led people to believe that the use of paper would become obsolete. On the contrary, the prevalence of computers has increased the amount of paper used in offices, rather than leading to its demise. Although the concept of a paperless office is rooted in an imagined conversion to an electronic society, there are also environmental impacts associated with this transformation. In this study, by applying life-cycle assessment (LCA) techniques, we explored environmental significance of a move toward the elimination of paper use in an office to compare the costs and impacts of paper use to a projected alternative scenario where an office-worker is equipped with a tablet laptop or slate, home and office monitors, and additional networking capabilities. An analysis based on one worker is extrapolated to a typical office-setting case study.

Keywords
paperless office
life-cycle assessment
environmental impact
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Information
  • Publisher :Sustainable Building Research Center (ERC) Innovative Durable Building and Infrastructure Research Center
  • Publisher(Ko) :건설구조물 내구성혁신 연구센터
  • Journal Title :International Journal of Sustainable Building Technology and Urban Development
  • Volume : 12
  • No :1
  • Pages :44-60
  • Received Date : 2021-02-15
  • Accepted Date : 2021-03-23
  • DOI :https://doi.org/10.22712/susb.20210005
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