Working out how to use fewer resources is an in-built feature of the market economy - because fewer resources means a lower cost. Green campaigners work most effectively when they combine an argument for being green with an argument for saving money.

GreenGuardian.com has an Economically Preferable Purchasing Guide. It makes a many worthwhile points, but doesn’t always make the mark. It contains a “success story” in which the Washington County Department of Public Health and Environment in the United States added duplex units to a couple of laser printers (that is, things that let printers automatically do double-sided printing). Duplex printing is a great way to save paper, but the duplex units the Department bought cost $300-$400 per printer. Add to that cost the time for one of the Department’s staff to install it and then to train about 70 staff how to use it. Let’s say $500 a machine all-in, or $1000 overall. In the first full year of use, the duplex facilities apparently saved over 10,000 sheets of paper, saving the Department $57.

That does not sound to me like much of a success. These duplex units were bad for taxpayers and will never bring an economic a return for the investment. And what’s the environmental benefit, when you factor in the cost of manufacturing, packaging and shipping them?

There were opportunity costs to investing in these duplex units. The economic resources could have been used to invest in other environmentally-friendly products that would have produced an economic return. Where governments buy green products that cut costs, they not only save environmental resources but they also free up economic resources which can be used for further investment in green products. There is thus a virtuous circle, freeing funds to invest in other resource-saving equipment. Savvy environmentalists should therefore recognise the value in green investment that also makes economic sense.

It’s worth noting, though, that the economics here is changing. Printer manufacturers, locked in a brutal war of competition, are starting to build in duplex facilities as standard on many office machines. Kyocera, for example, now offers duplex as standard on its sub-€300 FS-1030D printer. Government purchasers would generally be better off forgetting about adding duplex facilities to existing printers but instead just pick ones with the facility when they buy new.