Re-use the printed paper and re-think the process.

Is rewritable printing paper better than just a good idea?

Some of the major companies that supply copiers to our offices have launched the re-writable printing paper. It is a bit like the spy-movies where the agent gets his orders and then the media destroys itself. Only that in this case the text fades after a few hours and you may use the same sheet of paper for a new print. Certainly an idea that will save some energy and maybe also a few curses for having printed something that was hardly worth the pain to read. One estimate is that the carbondioxide emission will go from 6.5 kg per 1000 sheets to 1 kg with this innovative technology.

A case of double-loop learning?

But could this innovation also hint at something more important - The double loop learning? In these days we may have to rethink technologies more profoundly. A lot of the discussions about our future climate concentrate around how far we can trust technology and how many of the changes needed also require behavioural changes. Most of our thinking about the technology is how we can make it more efficient but it could be that we may have to think about how we can use different technologies. Or in other words, not only do things right but do the right things. Ever so often these two approaches are regarded as mutually exclusive but they might rather be causal. If you have exhausted the possibilities of the first loop it will be necessary to run the second, though the solutions embedded there may be very difficult to grasp. But the case with the paper is a good illustration!