Yell increase turnover to £2075 Million - how many trees paid the price?

Hi

I just read the chairman's statement in the Yell Group Plc annual report. He is pictured with a big smile on his face. No wonder, turnover is up an incredible 28% to over £2 Billion ! And EBITDA grew by 35% to £678 Million! Just imagine the enormous bonuses being paid to senior management.

Now, I just borrowed a neighbour's Yellow Pages, as we refuse to accept these free directories due their impact on deforestation. According to Conservatree, an average of 12 trees are cut down to make 1 ton of paper of the type used in telephone directories.

I weighed the copy of Yellow Pages I have borrowed for this experiment on digital scales and it weighs about 1.6 kg. Now Yell distribute over 20 million copies of their directories free in the UK, whether you use them or not. They are just left on your doorstep. I only use online directories myself, like many other people living in the 21st century, but I can't say no because they are delivered when I am out.

Can someone comment on these figures please. If you multiply 20 million by 1.6kg it gives 32,000 metric tonnes and this means by Conservatrees estimates (www.conservatree.com) about 384,000 trees are cut down to make Yell's print directories.

Thomson Local and BT also deliver their competitor product to your door on the same basis and with less weight per directory, about another 500,000 trees are cut down for this process.

All 3 companies run online directories and so I have to ask, "Why not make paper directories available only upon request and reduce deforestation massively?"

Yell Group point out on their website that many of their directories are recycled and they give about £82,000 to the Woodland Trust each year. This is about 0.0125% of their EBITDA.

So, they have online directories and could provide printed directories upon request only and save hundreds of thousands of trees and make a huge contribution to reducing global warming and deforestation. So why don't they do it? Money.

You have to pay money for most newspapers in print format, but can read them online for free. A reasonable incentive to do so. Is it not time these corporates put the future of our children's tomorrow ahead of their enormous profits of today?

I urge the big telephone directory companies to re-think their product emphasis and put conscience ahead of profits. The fat cats need to understand that global warming and co2 will cause climate change in Bermuda and on the Piste too !

Denny