Can Going Green Help Publishers, or Just Planet Earth?

This question is at the center of an article I wrote, which was just published this month on the Independent Book Publishers Association's (IBPA) monthly journal, the Independent.

Here's the first paragraphs from the article:

Forecasting the future of books and the book industry seems to be becoming a national sport. All bets are open, but although no one really knows what the future holds for the industry, there’s no doubt that changes are happening fast and that publishers who don’t adjust to current trends will find themselves in a very unfavorable position.

One current broad trend is going green. You can see evidence of it almost everywhere and increasingly often. But is going green a good fit for book publishers? Can going green help the book industry meet its ever-growing challenges?

So, Can Going Green Help Publishers, or Just Planet Earth? You're welcome to read the rest of the article here and find out!

You're also welcome to read the last article I published on the Independent - is E-Reading Really Greener?

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

The green agenda of the Green Books Campaign's publishers - part 2: Scholastic

We're continuing today to present you with some of the publishers that participate in the Green Books Campaign and their thoughts on why it's important that books will be printed in an eco-friendly manner.

Our guest today is Scholastic.

Scholastic is the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books and a leader in educational technology and related services and children’s media. Scholastic is participating in the campaign with Magic School Bus and the Climate Challenge by Joanna Cole and Bruce Degen (Printed on 100% recovered fiber of which 50% is post-consumer waste). The book will be reviewed on OurWhiskeyLullaby.

And now to the questionnaire (all publishers were asked to reply the same four questions):

Why do you believe books should be printed on eco-friendly paper?
As a publisher of children’s books, we believe it is our responsibly to the children to ensure that the virgin paper fiber used in our books is sustainably harvested and does not come from areas of social conflict. We also believe that by using recycled paper we are keeping paper out of landfills and helping to reduce the green house gas emissions which result from land-filled paper. Our practices reinforce Scholastic’s commitment to educate and care for children and ensure a safe environment where they can grow and learn.

What is your policy on using eco-friendly paper?
We have a strong environmental paper procurement policy (http://www.scholastic.com/aboutscholastic/paperprocurement.htm) which includes the following 2012 goals:

- 30% of our publication paper to be Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) chain-of-custody certified. We are currently at 17.3%

- 25% of our fiber to be recovered (75% of that to be PCW). We are currently at 19.8%

- Balance of fiber to be free of unacceptable sources of fiber as described by the FSC controlled wood standard

Are there other ways you're going green?
We have reduced our packaging. We have reduced our direct mail book club kit mailings and we use recycled copy paper and have an in house recycling programs

Scholastic also tells our environmental story through the books we publish. Award-winning titles like The Down-to-Earth Guide to Global Warming (winner, 2008 Green Earth Award), You Can Save the Planet: 50 Ways You Can Make a Difference, The Magic School Bus and the Climate Change, and a series based on the BBC’s Planet Earth television program demonstrate Scholastic’s commitment to educating kids about the environment

We also involve kids in a philanthropic approach to acting green. Working with the Rainforest Alliance’s Adopt-A-Rainforest program, Scholastic Book Clubs asked kids in classrooms around the country to read 100 books in order to preserve 100 acres of rainforest. There is now a protected area in Ecuador known as the Scholastic Book Clubs ClassroomsCare Reserve.

What's your advice to readers that would like to make their book purchasing more sustainable?
Do your research and purchase books from companies that have a strong environmental procurement policy.

Thank you Scholastic for your work and your participation in the Green Books Campaign!

The Campaign's page is http://www.ecolibris.net/greenbookscampaign2010.asp .You can also follow the campaign on Facebook and twitter.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

The green agenda of the Green Books Campaign's publishers - part 1: FIELL Publishing

As promised yesterday, we're starting today to present you with some of the publishers that participate in the Green Books Campaign and their thoughts on why it's important that books will be printed in an eco-friendly manner. Our first guest is FIELL Publishing from the UK.

First, let's get to know the publisher a little bit better:

FIELL publishes beautiful, unique, authoritatively written, high-quality illustrated books that embrace the most interesting, important and pertinent subjects within an enticing rage of disciplines - art, architecture, design, digital culture, ethical, fashion, lifestyle, natural history, photography and popular culture.

Peter and Charlotte Fiell have worked in illustrated book publishing for 20 years, and recently founded FIELL with the aim of making content-rich books that inform, entertain and entrance. Books that inspire and help those who aspire to lead better lives, to understand other cultures, to understand themselves, to contribute more to the world.

FIELL is participating in the campaign with the following books:

The Little Book of Shocking Global Facts’ by Barnbrook (in addition to being printed on FSC approved paper, 1% of the profit from this book is being donated to the Rainforest Alliance). The book will be reviewed on Green Design & Other Ideas.


The Little Book of Shocking Food Facts by Craig Holden Feinberg & Dale Petersen (printed on FSC-certified paper). The book will be reviewed on Victoria Klein's blog.




The Little Book of Shocking Eco Facts by Barnbrook, Mark Crundwell & Cameron Dunn (printed on FSC-certified paper). The book will be reviewed on Business Women Blogging, with opinions.


And now to the questionnaire (all publishers were asked to reply the same four questions):

Why do you believe books should be printed on eco-friendly paper?
We at FIELL are very conscious of eco-friendly and sustainable design – Peter and Charlotte have been writing about sustainable design for years, and now with their own publishing house they aim to highlight and support environmentally friendly and ethical design, and one of the best ways for us to do that is for us to use high quality, eco-friendly paper and processes – it isn’t just important to use eco-friendly paper, what you print onto it is just as important.

We want our books to be something to buy to keep, not to just throw away because it’s only relevant for five minutes, or because it doesn’t feel special or considered. Our series of ‘Little Books of Shocking Facts’ have been real eye-openers for us, and we hope for our readers too – it is about time that we considered our use of materials more seriously and it’s time we take responsibility for what we produce and how we produce it.

What is your policy on using eco-friendly paper?
We use paper from sustainable sources in all our publications. Many people think of the future as being in digital books, because of the issue of the sustainability of printed mediums – one way of keeping printed books alive is to make sure that when readers are buying them they can reassure themselves that they are making an environmentally friendly choice, and we know that we are doing our best to make publishing a sustainable industry – we also see a future of an emphasis on these digital book platforms, and during the production and editing of our books we are constantly thinking of their transferability to digital formats.

Are there other ways you're going green?
The whole concept of something being ‘well-designed’ is that you only have to buy it once. In drawing people’s attention to these designs, to true masterpieces of design, architecture, fashion, and photography, we are encouraging people to think before they buy. It’s what Dieter Rams said: Less but better. We’ve drawn a lot of attention to this idea with our book ‘Tools for Living’, which is a book of ultimate products for the home; the ultimate potato peeler, the ultimate clock, the ultimate set of knives. The idea that you can buy one of these items once and it will last you a lifetime not just because it looks good but because it really works: that drives us.

What's your advice to readers that would like to make their book purchasing more sustainable?
If you really want to make a difference in the way that you buy books, or products of any kind, is to ask yourself, is it necessary? Is this the best book I can buy on this subject? Again it’s the idea of buying once and buying the best.

Thank you FIELL for your work and your participation in the Green Books Campaign!

The Campaign's page is http://www.ecolibris.net/greenbookscampaign2010.asp .You can also follow the campaign on Facebook and twitter.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

6 days left to the Green Books campaign: who are the publishers that take part in it?

The countdown continues with 6 days left to our green books campaign: 1 Day, 100 bloggers, 100 green books, 100 reviews.

If you didn't hear about it yet, here's a reminder: On Tuesday, November 10, 2009, at 1:00 PM Eastern Time over 100 bloggers will take a stand to support books printed in an eco-friendly manner by simultaneously publishing reviews of more than 100 such books. Organized by Eco-Libris, this campaign is aiming to promote “green” books by reviewing more than 100 books printed on recycled paper or FSC-certified paper. A full list of the books that will be reviewed on the campaign and the blogs reviewing them is available on the campaign's web page.

Today we want to highlight all the publishers who are participating in the campaign - 39 publishers from the U.S., Canada and the U.K. are taking part in this campaign, providing participating bloggers with their latest books printed on recycled paper and FSC certified paper for review.

We believe it's time to show our appreciation to these publishers who do take a stand and make efforts to print books responsibly. We hope that the campaign will bring more exposure to these efforts as well as further recognition and appreciation of readers for the publishers' commitment to the environment and to green publishing. We also hope it will encourage other publishers to follow suit.

Here is the list of participating publishers and links to their websites. In brackets is the number of their books to be reviewed in the campaign.

Bella Flowers Books (1)

Betterway Home (1)

Bloomsbury Children's Books (6)

Book Publishing Co. (5)

Chelsea Green (4)

Chronicle Books (2)

CommonAct Press (1)

Cormorant Books (2)

D&M Publishers (13)

DS Publications (1)

Emergency Press (1)

Free Spirit Publishing (3)

Fulcrum Publishing (3)

Goose Lane Editions (4)

Green Sugar Press (1)

HarperOne (3)

HeyDay Books (2)

Holiday House (1)

Inkwater Press (1)

Insomniac Press (1)

Island Press (5)

Lantern Books (3)

Lollypop Publishing (3)

Loving Healing Press (3)

Modern History Press (2)

New Village Press (2)

NeWest Press (7)

Nomad Press (4)

North Atlantic Books (6)

Prentice Hall Press (1)

Ronsdale Press (7)

Rough Guides (1)

Simon and Schuster Children's Books (5)

Sterling Publishing (2)

Stewart, Tabori & Chang (1)

The Green Year (1)

University of Alberta Press (2)

Wiley (1)

W.W. Norton & Co. (1)

I would also like to take this opportunity and thank Susan Newman who designed the campaign's new beautiful logo you see at the top of this post. Thanks!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!