Digital Esquire Cover Full of Flashing Lights, None of Them Green

You may have heard that Esquire‘s next issue will feature an “electronic” cover; something called EInk will allow the cover to flash on newsstands like a billboard, though only for ninety days. According to Esquire editor David Granger the cover is “a 21st-century technology with a 19th-century manufacturing process.” However the environmental implications may be entirely 19th century.

FastCompany.com says that between the manufacturing of the cover (in China and Mexico) and the shipping (the finished product needs to travel in a refrigerated truck) the carbon footprint of this digital publishing adventure is fairly large. Not only that it can’t be recycled. All of which may not be totally surprising considering Green hasn’t been selling so well of late. All that glitters (in press coverage, anyway) sells better, at least for the moment.

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