Current environmental impact

Are the e-books as environmentally friendly as they sound? This is a question many people have become concerned with; after all, this was the purpose of building them. The point of them of course was to reduce the need for printing books, newspapers and magazines, with 873K subscribers to the NY Times alone (ireaderreview, 2009), and card and paper contributing to 4% of the UK’s carbon emissions (Kindle: Amazon’s electronic book reader, 2009) a huge amount of paper and warehouse space could be saved if some of these readers switched to e-reading them.

This would also reduce carbon emissions produced from making and distributing them across the world, also it is not produced using fossil fuels or chemicals, making it more environmentally friendly (Burdick, D, 2009). As it is so easy to use, with nearly 70% of consumers being over 40 years old (Melanson, D, 2009), there is a good chance this technology will become more widely used, and a lot of the e-books are cheaper than $9.99 (Amazon 2009). Swedish researchers have shown it is the greenest method to read books and papers (Poisso, L, 2009), and with a battery life up to 2 weeks on a single charge, not a lot of energy is used either (Vyas, L, 2009).

Supply chain principle

The Kindle 2 has used a supply chain principle which has helped to decrease its effect on the environment. The Kindle 1 came in a large box(left in the picture), which was unnecessary and wasted a lot of space in storing the product in warehouses and during shipping, and also wasted materials. The Kindle 2 box (right in the picture) is almost half the size of the original Kindle 1 box packaging. (Frommer, D, para, 1, 2009)The new box is about the same size as the Kindle and the parts inside, which means that it is as small as it can possibly get. Because Amazon changes this, they have saved a lot of money with many different companies that provide them with their shipping and storing facilities. To slim the packaging down, Amazon dropped the large hard-bound book volume case it shipped with the original model. (McLean, P, para 2, 2009)

It would be best for Amazon environmentally as well as economically to get more customers to purchase a kindle, and thereby purchasing e-books instead of physical books, as they do not take up any warehouse room, or incur any shipping costs. This of course makes it more environmentally friendly too. Reading an actual newspaper for a year uses 7,300 MJ of energy and emits 700 kg of co2. Compare these figures to reading it on a Kindle, which only uses 100 MJ of energy and emits 10 kg of co2, which of course is a lot less. Making the Kindle 2 is thought to produce 200 MJ and 12 kg of CO2, and the impact of running it is minimal, and therefore, the Kindle saves 6,500 MJ and 690 kg of co2 a year. (Baum, H, para 7-10, 2009)

Product design principle

The Kindle software is available on the iphone so a customer does not have to buy the Kindle to read e-books, this will help Amazon sell their e-books to more people, as well as it helping the environment, as many people already have an iphone and so will not have to purchase a new devise to read e-books, however, the Kindle uses special e-ink that the iPhone does not, that looks like text on a page in a book, this ink uses less energy and so it is more environmentally friendly when it displays the text. This is an example of maintaining independence of functional requirements as the e-books are not exclusively available for the Kindle.

The e-ink that Kindle uses for its display does not have a backlight lighting up the page and requires no energy to display the text, only to change it, i.e. turning a page in the book or newspaper. Because of this, the Kindle effectively goes to ‘sleep’ mode while displaying an image. This makes the Kindle 2 able to last for up to 2 weeks on a single charge. The design is very simple; the Kindle has been proven to be used by many people who do not usually buy new technology and prefer to stick with older, easier ways, recently there has been a poll which has shown that nearly 70% of Kindle 2 customers are over the age of 40 (Melanson, D, 2009). The Kindle 2 is easy to navigate, and the buttons are well placed. It is not hard to understand what the buttons do as they are very generic, e.g. up means up and left means left. There is a large home button and separate buttons for turning pages. It is small and light, which makes it easy to hold for long periods of usage and storing. (Mossberg, W, 2009) This makes the product fit for purpose at it is suitable for a very wide range of customers.

References

-Amazon, 2009, retrieved on May 12 2009,
http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Amazons-Original-Wireless-generation/dp/B000FI73MA

-Baum, H, (2009) ebooks and environmental impact, retrieved on may 14 2009,
http://www.selfpublishingreview.com/2009/02/11/ebooks-and-environmental-impact/

-Burdick, D (2009) KINDLE DX: Big-Screen Kindle Could SAVE RESOURCES While Making Bank, retrieved on May 12 2009,
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/04/big-screen-kindle-could-s_n_195862.html

-Frommer, D (2009), Kindle 2 Packaging slimmer. Greener? Retrieved 14 May 2009,
http://www.businessinsider.com/kindle-2-packaging-slimmer-greener-2009-2

-ireaderreview (2009) Kindle 2 for Blind People + Kindle 2 Environment Impact, retrieved on May 12 2009,
http://ireaderreview.com/2009/02/22/kindle-2-for-blind-people-kindle-2-environment-impact/

-McLean, P, (2009) Unboxed: Amazon Kindle 2gets iPod treatment. Will it sell? retrieved on May 12 2009,
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/02/27/unboxed_amazon_kindle_2_gets_ipod_treatment_will_it_sell.html

-Melanson, D (2009) Informal poll suggests nearly 70% of Kindle owners are over 40, retrieved on May 12 2009,
http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/01/informal-poll-suggests-nearly-70-of-kindle-owners-are-over-40/

-Mossberg, W (2009) Amazon’s Kindle 2 Improves the Good, Leaves Out the Bad retrieved 14 May 2009,
http://ptech.allthingsd.com/20090225/amazons-kindle-2-improves-the-good-leaves-out-the-bad/

-Poisso, L, Newspaper vs. internet: which is the greener choice? 2009, retrieved on May 12 2009,
http://www.supereco.com/news/2009/01/15/newspaper-vs-internet-which-is-the-greener-choice/

-Vyas, l (2009) Is Amazon Kindle 2 a Green Product? retrieved on May 12 2009,
http://ezinearticles.com/?Is-Amazon-Kindle-2-a-Green-Product?&id=1992211