Lean green reading machine will open new environmental chapter for business

As the environmental debate has intensified, focus has naturally fallen upon offsetting carbon emissions. With the future almost certain to see clients choosing firms and suppliers based at least in part upon their environmental credentials, many have responded with new policies and procedures aimed at improving their carbon footprint. However, with the cost of an offset credit per tonne of up to £10, the smart money is on how to avoid the emissions in the first place.

The use of large amounts of paper are hitting companies' green credentials where it hurts. Paper production exacts a heavy environmental cost, whether it be from sustainable or recycled sources. The process involves de-inking, chemical process baths, bleaching agents and huge amounts of water and power, together with the storage of these chemicals before use and the disposal of exhausted process liquids afterwards. Until now there simply hasn't been an alternative to paper; although the email has rendered the internal memo all but defunct, the amount of reports etc. still printed within organisations is enormous.

Laptops are bulky, and don't offer a comfortable reading experience, plus, there's no way to make the odd note against a pdf document other than by printing it out. However, until now there hasn't been any other device which fulfilled the requirements of reading quality, portability, battery life and interactivity.

The iLiad Reader has been developed by Netherlands based Irex Technologies BV, a spin off from Philips and uses cutting edge electronic paper display technology which looks identical to paper and is perceived as such by the human eye. Weighing in at just 390 grams, its A5 dimensions make it incredibly functional, offering a large enough screen for comfortable reading, coupled with excellent portability. The internal memory of 128MB can be expanded to 25Gb by using MMC, USB and SD flash memory, which is the equivalent of 30 tonnes of printed documents. The battery will allow a full days use, and it offers a full range of connectivity. Both wired and wireless you can connect via Ethernet, cable, or Wifi broadband and add personal content via USB cable. For security purposes the device can be locked with a PIN number.

One of the most compelling features of the iLiad is the ability to annotate documents using the stylus. Now, pdf documents can be read in comfort, annotated and amended and resaved, all on the move, before being re-circulated.

"The internal memory will hold the equivalent of approximately 75 paperback books and a weeks worth of newspapers, so it means that you can have all the reading matter you need with you at all times," says Peter Blanchard of Libresco, distributor of the iLiad in the UK and Eire. "As a former management consultant myself, I am fully aware of the number of reports, board papers and the like which are circulated and updated regularly. There's no shredding of documents at the end of the process - just press the delete key and it's gone forever."

For organisations adopting an iLiad culture, the savings could be significant. Irex Technologies BV calculate that the power required to print a page of paper is eighty-five times the power needed to display the page on an iLiad, and this doesn't take into account the power required to make the paper in the first place, or to dispose of it. In terms of being seen to be green, the iLiad will tackle the problem at source, by avoiding the emissions in the first place.

"For organisational use, the iLiad is really functional. Any printed matter can be distributed securely and efficiently via the in