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The same goes for each newspaper, magazine, catalog and phone directory you read online. A study by the Boston Consulting Group says the Internet will reduce worldwide demand for paper about 2.7 million tons a year by 2003, and this is going to happen despite the fact that we're actually using more paper in our offices than ever. So where do the savings kick in? Well, think about all those letters to Grandma you would send by post if it weren't easier to e-mail her. Or all those catalogs Lands' End doesn't need to send because it's doing such a roaring trade online. Or newspapers. Worldwide, $27 billion in advertising will be siphoned away from your daily read and onto the Internet during the next five years, according to Forrester Research. That includes the 15% of all classified ads--cars, homes and lonely hearts--that are moving online. Your Sunday paper may never feel quite so weighty again. (Whether magazines like the one you're holding will shed a few grams remains to be seen.)
Consider the tremendous savings now that millions of us are able to work from home--or at least, dial into the office more than we drive there. After all, your refrigerator's always on; the heating is always on in the winter. You might as well be there, especially with lightning-fast broadband Internet connections. In the past three years there has been a 12% increase in the number of home-run businesses in the U.S. (not counting folks who quit their job to become full-time auction jockeys on eBay). As for the rest of us working stiffs, our firms may soon be grateful for the time we spend telecommuting. Some are already regulating electricity in their offices remotely, darkening unused areas and saving a ton of cash on energy bills.
The ease of e-commerce can also be a curse. If you demand overnight shipping on those books, it'll take six times the amount of fuel to get them to you as would normal delivery, thanks to jet-fuel costs. But environmental groups welcome the Net's energy efficiency. Says Ned Ford of the Sierra Club's energy committee: "Almost anybody who uses the Internet on a regular basis will feel the savings occurring." Given time, we might start to think of malls and offices as the 20th century version of horse manure--an unpleasant threat that, all of a sudden, got cleaned away.