Introduction

 I have looked already at the life cycle of each of the two portfolio options & have decided that the CDROM has no clear environmental disadvantage over the paper version. However, I've noted that the CDROM has the added advantage of being internet-ready which opens up far more potential yields than either of these two 'hard-copy' formats. I am now going to consider the inputs & outputs (the energy efficiency) of producing my portfolio in the CDROM format & then uploading it to the WWW.

Inputs

 In the previous Life Cycle Analysis I have looked at the physical inputs required to produce a CDROM portfolio. I noticed that if I was to generate outputs (inspire people) by using the CDROM format alone, a single copy would be the least energy efficient amount to produce. The inputs that went into mining the raw materials, processing them & turning them into technologies like my computer required a certain amount of energy which will have been used whether I burn even a single CDROM or not. Each extra CDROM requires a comparatively much lower input of a blank CDROM & the electricity required to power the process.

 Now I will consider the non-material inputs to the portfolio; in essence the data that goes into it & the inputs required to generate it. As above, regardless of how many copies of my portfolio I distribute, I will have essentially put the same amount of my own energy into producing it. Therefore, I can more or less consider my non-material inputs to be constant, as the time that would be required for me to burn a few CDROMs or upload my portfolio to the WWW is insignificant compared to the time it has taken me to produce it in the first place.

 The work that I am including in the portfolio I have done anyway, so I am using these outputs from previous design work as inputs to this process. Certain practices, such as taking part in Action Learning Sets I have done as part of the Diploma process, but even these which have required my input of time & energy have yielded their own impalpable outputs (clarity, joy, connection, etc.). For now though I will keep focussed on the production of my portfolio itself. My main input specific to this process has been the time & energy required to assemble these elements into a coherent & easily accessible form that could inspire others (generate outputs). A little extra time (input) invested into this process, could make this a much better generator of inspiration & carrier of information (outputs).

Outputs

 The only material outputs from this process are the burned CDROMs (at least five to cover my accreditation needs), but these are essentially just a vehicle for the information (I haven't created the CDROMs, only stored data on them). This is their only efficient output; it would make no sense to go to all that trouble just to produce a bird scarer for the vegetable plot, although this is still a better input for a damaged disc (output) than filling a hole in the ground!

 An obvious output for myself from all this is the Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design, but how I use that as an input into other processes is entirely up to me. The other main output from this process is as an inspirational resource for others to read & act upon. Initially, my informational output is going to become an input to the Diploma WorkNet's collection of best design work. This will increase the value of this resource, effectively as a by-product of my own output. A lot of other good design work (outputs) already produced by existing Diplomats, will also be utilised as inputs to the Diploma WorkNet pages.

 From there, it will all become a collective output, increased in its value by the fact that it has been accumulated in the one place. This is where the output has the potential to be virtually unlimited; both because of the increase in its value from being collected together & the vast number of access points to it now available (computers linked to the WWW). Whether or not the readers act though is only partly down to me (the quality of my portfolio) & other Diplomats (ditto their best designs), as it still requires the readers own interest & enthusiasm (inputs) to go with it in order for them to generate more outputs themselves (good permaculture work).

Conclusions

 So, we've seen that a single access portfolio (i.e. a CDROM) is the most energy inefficient output of this process. Each new CDROM copy, with it's small extra physical input of a blank CDROM & a little electricity to power the burning process (which could be generated sustainably), creates a net improvement in the input / output ratio. In other words, the amount of energy input to the whole process balanced against the potential output of each copy of the portfolio. A thousand copies could potentially reach a thousand times as many people as one copy, yet still use less than double the energy required to make one, over the whole process.

 This all changes though when we use the WWW to distribute the information, this effectively creates a situation where a single data copy (i.e. disc; the web server's hard drive) can be accessed by anyone in the World with internet access. So in this case it would more energy efficient to have only enough CDROM copies to provide a safe data backup & utilise the WWW solely to distribute the information. The electricity required to do this could even be generated by sustainable means.

 Information is a resource which increases with use, whereas unused information becomes outdated, effectively a pollutant if it is sitting unused as a paper portfolio on a shelf somewhere. Information is however only a potential resource until it is turned into something solid (people use it to create genuine resources using good design). It is therefore a worthwhile use of energy to put existing poorly accessible resources in a much more accessible place (the WWW) & make this usage much more likely. There are plenty of great resources out there begging to be utilised as inputs to the Diploma WorkNet 'design bank', they just need to be harvested.

 Now it's time to look at the CDROM design itself.