Take for example printing e-mails. We've all seen the messages at the end of an electronic mail, asking the recipient to please not print out this e-mail to save paper, energy resources, etc. Many of you put those messages at the end your e-mails.

The other day I came across this message at the end of a note: "It's GOOD to print this e-mail. Paper is a biodegradable, renewable, sustainable product made from trees.

Growing and harvesting trees provides jobs for millions of individuals, and managed forests are good for the environment, providing clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat and carbon storage."

Now many of you at this point might be going to your e-mail to send me a paperless rebuttal to this argument. But it makes a lot of sense.

Maybe the environmental advantages aren't as obvious as going paperless, but those advantages are there.

One thing we have to remember with environmental decisions is that we have to live in the world.

Decisions might have an environmental component, but they almost always have a lot of other impacts and variables as well.

I'm an e-mail printer, I admit it. It's my way to keep track of all the things I have to keep track of.

I file some e-mails electronically only if they have links I need and such, but there's only so much server room, paper folders are still more portable for meetings, etc.

I've felt a little guilty printing these out, but then I think, give me a break, I'm doing the best I can with the hours in the day, blah blah.

I'm not saying going paperless with e-mails isn't a good thing. But we need to be practical. There are environmental and economic pros and cons with most decisions. And we live complex lives.