Open Collections

An investigation of the sustainability of file folders used by the campus community

University of British Columbia. Sustainability Office

With the development of the sustainability concept and greener manufacture processes, there are more sustainable products on the market. This project has the purpose to analyze file folders used by the UBC community and determine if the “green” file folders are actually more sustainable than the “non-green” similar items and also compare these products to determine if some are better than others. A list of 11 file folders is taken from the most commonly used office supplies purchased by UBC to be analyzed. This process is done by using a Triple Bottom Line (TBL) assessment approach in which social, environmental and financial impacts are evaluated. In order to complete this analysis, an assessment tool combining 15 questions each divided equally between those three factors. Each item is evaluated based on the same criteria and is given a score for each question. After assessing all products, the total score can help compare all products against each other. This assessment using the TBL approach allows a fair and equitable comparison against similar items by making sure the three factors (social, environmental and financial) are weighted equally. This analysis shows that the products branded as “green” actually show some more sustainable characteristics that “non-green” products do not have. With that being said, all the green marketed products do not stand at the same level on the “sustainability ladder”. In fact, their final score varies from 45% to 87% based on our evaluation. As for the non-green products, they have low scores of 32% and 45%.The major differences found between the high score and the low score products are the portion of recycled content, the location of the manufacturing facility and the presence of a variety of materials involved in the manufacture making them hard to fully recycle at the end of their life. There are many differing opinions regarding recycling paper fibers, however, it is a deep and complicated subject and beyond the scope of this paper. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”

Text

University of British Columbia. APSC 261; UBC Social Ecological Economic Development Studies (SEEDS) Student Report

Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library

10.14288/1.0108815

Applied Science, Faculty of

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.5/ca/