Truly Green Initiative

So it turns out I'm old enough to have a son who started college this fall as an incoming freshman. Two somewhat unrelated events got me to thinking about a true green initiative.

By 'true' I simply mean that if you look at the entire process or event that it has a net positive effect or outcome. Unlike turning corn into ethanol for example, which, when you take into account the fertilizer to grow it, the fuel to run the farm equipment to plant, tend and harvest it, the amount of energy you can get from it afterwards is less than what you had to put into it's production. See Steve Wozniak's interview for a more thorough example and further background into applying engineering to energy usage and green thinking.

Back to the events. The first thing to happen was that we needed to pick a few things that my son forgot to take to school and in doing so ran across the new Sony electronic book Reader. The second thing to happen was for my son to have the pleasure of spending some of his hard earned summer job funds to purchase his books for the fall. The total for the books wasn't all that much more than what I remember having to spend all those many years ago, but that's not the point.

Why do university professors require students to purchase books at all? Why not have the school inform parents and students of the option of getting their books as electronic books for something like the Sony Reader? Imagine having a single slim device that you could take to every class and have all of your books with you? The cost for the books would/should be lower and there wouldn't be the whole buy-use-sell dance at the beginning of each semester of school. I mean it is the 21st century isn't it? Why, with all the technology we have at our fingertips, do we still insist on kids lugging around paper books when there are alternatives that make more sense?

Just a thought. Probably too much money being made to have it change any time soon, but you'd think all the 'environmentalist/activist' university professor could get behind something like this, wouldn't you?