The desire for efficiency and reducing consumption is leaving paper in the dust, but could the use of the wood derivative someday slow down enough to impact the timber-focused exchange traded fund (ETF)?

The need for finding exactly what you want the moment you think of it has driven the age of digital scanners into the here and now. Household paper products such as phone books, lists, letters and calendars have become entirely digital in some homes. But the motive isn’t entirely based on environmental issues. Most people just want more efficiency, reports  Hannah Fairfield for The New York Times.

Inexpensive document-fed scanners, multiple computers, digital cameras and electronic book readers are causing paper to be put onto the endangered species list. A paperless world is good for the trees, but it isn’t necessarily a boon for the environment because there are other less positive side effects.

In the world’s richest countries, while paper consumption has dropped 6% between 2000 and 2005, the use of energy has increased. Many of the devices that make a paperless world possible gobble up power when they’re in use, plugged in or recharging.

Reducing paper use, however you cut it, puts less pressure on the world’s trees and timber. Claymore/Clear Global Timber Index (CUT) is down 13% year-to-date.

Graphic courtesy of the New York Times

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