Our top green publishing and printing stories for 2009

2009 is almost over and we want to take a minute and remember the stories we had on the two issues we mainly cover here: green publishing and green printing.

We had an exciting year with many news stories, so we sat down and chose the ones we found most interesting, important, creative and funny, or to make it short - the stories we loved! We hope you love them too. So here it is, one story for every month of 2009:

January 2009 - The invitation to the inauguration is printed on the greenest premium paper in the world

The inauguration of President Barack Obama took place on January. This was not only an historic and special event, but also a green one, at least when it came to the invitations to the inauguration, which were printed on the eco-friendly CLASSIC CREST papers of Neenah Paper, who says it's the greenest premium paper in the world.

February 2009 - A green publisher beats the recession!

Did all publishers do badly on 2008? Well, apparently not. Chelsea Green Publishing, a publisher that is focusing on politics and the practice of sustainable living, actually had the best year ever! Margo Baldwin, the president and publisher of Chelsea Green Publishing, explained on the connection between the topics of their books and their success in times of recession: "Our books do very well in recessionary times. If you want to eat, you learn how to grow your own food. If you want a house, you can learn how to build it yourself. If you want to reduce your energy use, you can figure out how to harvest your own power. Survival is a wake up call and we have the books to educate people on that front. "

March 2009 - When economic constraints meet Planet Earth: HarperCollins' catalogs are going digital

One more time savings are meeting the environment: The HarperCollins Fall catalog is going paperless, or in other words: no more printing and mailing physical catalogs. From now on, it's all digital. And it actually has many advantages: HC's digital catalogues will, in addition to featuring the standard information in print catalogues, include reviews, interviews and promotional videos. Josh Marwell, president of sales at HC, said the new online catalogues mark the "next step in the evolution of how we bring our books to market.

April 2009 - Green news for Earth Day: the book industry is announcing carbon reduction goals

The Book Industry Environmental Council announced a goal of reducing the U.S. book industry’s greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2020 (from a 2006 baseline) with the intent of achieving an 80% reduction by 2050. This industry-wide commitment is a global first in publishing.

May 2009 - The latest alternative to printed books is announced in Japan

No, we weren't talking about a new technology or a new book reading device. This time we were talking about a story printed on toilet paper. Each roll carries several copies of a new nine-chapter novella written by Koji Suzuki, the Japanese author of the horror story "Ring". "Drop," set in a public restroom, takes up about three feet (90 centimeters) of a roll and can be read in just a few minutes, according to the manufacturer.

June 2009 - Creative recycling: THEY are making a book from waste paper in the Netherlands

How you can make products out of waste? how you can recycle creatively? THEY, a communications agency of the Netherlands, presented an option. They designed a book for one of their customers, where the inside of the book is entirely printed on paper that’s been used for test prints. They explain that on average with every printing run 1-2 percent of the paper gets used for testing. So printing 100.000 sheets leaves 2000 sheets of waste paper. THEY collected different types of test paper and printed 500 books on the backside of the test pages, using Japanese stab binding, by which you leave the old, ‘wrong’ side on the inside and the ‘right’ side, the side you want to read, on the outside. The cover of the book is made of misprinted packaging for juice and milk.

July 2009 - Green printing is going mainstream!

We were happy to read that green printing is now not only the quest of a small number of printers, but it's also on the agenda of the the world’s largest graphic arts trade association - Printing Industries of America.Yes, Printing Industries of America is providing now its members with a new tool for who wants to go green: The Green Guide for Graphic Communications.

August 2009 - Scholastic make an impressive progress to meet their sustainable paper procurement goals

Good new from Scholastic - the global children's publishing, education and media company announced that significant progress has been made toward the company-wide sustainable goals!
Scholastic announced in January 2008 the following goals for 2012: to increase its purchase of FSC-certified paper for its publications to 30% and its use of recycled paper to 25%, of which 75% would be post-consumer waste. Their progress toward these goals is impressive - already in 2008 19.7% of Scholastic’s paper purchased was FSC-certified, and recycled paper's share of paper purchased was 15.1%.

September 2009 - New report finds Kindle greener than physical books - is that really so?

Last month Cleantech Group published a report that was supposed to put an end to an ongoing debate on the question if the Kindle and other e-readers are actually greener than physical books. The release following the report gives you a good idea on the report's conclusion - E-readers a win for carbon emissions. This was supposed to be the life cycle analysis many people, including myself were waiting for, and I decided to read it and see if it's really over. I found a well-written analysis that integrates many pieces of information,creating a more coherent picture. At the same time the validity of the findings was unclear.

October 2009 - Mohawk Fine Paper became the first paper company to leave the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

Mohawk Fine Paper, one of the two largest premium paper manufactures in North America, is a leading force in the pulp and paper industry when it comes to sustainability. The company enforced its leading position when it left the U.S. Chamber of Commerce due to the Chamber’s position on climate change. George Milner, Mohawk's vice president for environmental affairs, explained this move to AP, saying that "it hurts the company's credibility as an advocate for environmental protection when it belongs to an organization that vigorously opposes action on climate change."

November 2009 - It's cool and even greener to read books on a mobile phone, but can a 3.5 inch screen beat the Kindle?

An interesting article was published on the New York Times about the growing popularity of the usage of cellphones as e-readers. It looks like more people are willing to read books on a 3.5 inch mobile screen and some wonder if mobile phones are indeed the ultimate Kindle Killers. This can be a new round of a struggle between a device that is basically limited (almost) to just one main function to a multi-functional device. Another element to be taken into consideration is that it's much more environmental-friendly to use a multi-functional device because then you just need to manufacture one device and that's it. And the same goes to ending the life of the device - it's almost always greener to deal with one device than two or three devices. But, and this is a big but, can we really read books on cellphones?

December 2009 - ForestEthics is releasing its annual Naughty / Nice list of companies in the direct mailing industry

An irritating byproduct of the holidays season is the growth in junk mail. So much waste of paper that in the best scenario will go directly to the recycling bin and in many cases will just end up in the landfill. Some companies are better of course than the others, but how can we know who is good and who is bad? Fortunately ForestEthics comes to our help (like they do every year) with their annual Direct Mail Industry Scorecard that grades companies according to their paper choices and the steps they're taking to minimize their direct mail's footprint.

Looking forward to more great green publishing and printing stories on 2010!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!

Webcast alret: Successful “Green” Publishing: Production Marketing and Beyond.

Interested in green publishing? Tomorrow, February 26, 2 pm EST, Publishers Weekly and Green Press initiative will co-host a webcast titled “Successful “Green” Publishing: Production Marketing and Beyond."

What's it's going to be about? Here's the description from the event's website:

Even in today’s economy, it is possible and advantageous to be an environmentally responsible publisher. There are savings to be found in everything from reducing energy costs to basis weights. This free and informative webcast discussion will feature publishers who have made the commitment to be environmental leaders in publishing and have benefited. Attendees will learn how to be proactive about environmental initiatives that can help build recognition for one title or an entire program and will also discover the many ways that green practices can both support all areas of their publishing program as well as the environment.

Panelists include Mary Choteborsky, associate publishing manager and associate editor at Crown, Judy Galbraith, founder and president of Free Spirit Publishing, Tona Pearce-Myers, Production Director at New World Library. The webcast will be moderated by Tyson Miller, Founder and Director, Green Press Initiative.

The inaugural showing of SUCCESSFUL “GREEN” PUBLISHING: Production, Marketing, and Beyond is on February 26, 2009 at 2:00 PM EST, and will be available from the webcast archive for one year following the initial webcast. You can listen to it at no cost - you just need to register.

This should be a very interesting webcast and we recommend anyone involved or interested in the green publishing to listen to it. We will cover it on our blog in a couple of days so stay tuned.

For more details and to listen to the webcast click HERE

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris
www.ecolibris.net

How to green up your book's printing? check out this eco-kit

Many times it's easier to know what not to do than what to do. If you're a publisher or an author that is trying to go green, you probably know what I'm talking about.

We know that doing the right thing can be a little complexed when it comes to printing, and we try to provide on our website and blog as many helpful resources as possible. Today we're happy to present you with an eco-kit.

This eco-kit (available in a PDF format) is found on the website of one of our most favorite green organizations - Markets Initiative. It's a "compendium of tips, terms, resources and papers for environmentally friendly publishing" and was prepared by the Association of Book Publishers of British Colombia.

Why it was initiated in the first place? You can find the reason on the introduction as follows:

"Premiums on environmentally friendly paper have been reduced as a result of the increased used of ancient forest free papers and the quality of the papers are virtually indistinguishable from traditional book papers. However, sorting through the various terms used to describe papers and their recycled content can still be daunting. Making informed choices about other environmental considerations such as chlorine treatment or inking can be overwhelming. And finding out exactly what papers are available and working effectively with print professionals is essential. Hence the need for this EcoKit."

This guide is from 2006 and may not include all the information you need, but it's definitely a good resource with regards to printing terms (what's Elemental Chlorine Free?), work with printers and how to make sure your readers will know about your green choices. It also includes a detailed list of eco-friendly papers and links to more important resources.

You can find this eco-kit on this link: http://www.marketsinitiative.org/uploads/book-ecokit_for_web_en.pdf

And by the way, there's an eco-kit for printing magazines a well - http://www.marketsinitiative.org/uploads/ecokit-magazine.pdf

For more resources, please check our resources page - http://www.ecolibris.net/greenresources.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant a tree for every book you read!

BookExpo America - here we come!

Tomorrow will start in Los Angeles BookExpo America (BEA) 2008, the premier publishing industry event in the U.S.

This is very exciting event and with over 2,000 exhibitors from around the world, BEA showcases the world's largest English-language selection of books. It will also have special industry and author events, including some very interesting panels on green issues.

If you're looking for green panel, Friday (May 30) is your day:

9:30 -10:30 a.m. (room 402B) - Environmental Trends: Where Does the U.S. Book Industry Stand Today?

This panel is sponsored by the Green Press Initiative with the following panelists: Michael Healy (Executive Director, Book Industry Study Group), Tyson Miller (Director, Green Press Initiative), Nicole Poindexter (Director Strategic Planning, Hachette Book Group), Jen Slajus (Operations Manager, Borders Group, Inc.)

10:00 - 11:00 a.m. (room 402A) - Buying, Packaging & Publishing Green Books: The Publishers' Perspective

Beyond the physicality of Green books, rather, an in-house discussion perspective; finding niches and meeting the demands of an explosion of green lifestyles. Today, Green is pervasive in just about every aspect of daily living - building, investments, travel, retirement, cooking etc., - which was not the case two years ago. How are publishers addressing this phenom?

Moderator: Edward Nowotka - Books Columnist, Bloomberg News & Southern Correspondent, Publishers. Panelists: Mark Tauber - Deputy Publisher, HarperOne, Kathy Schneider - Assoc. Publisher, HarperCollins, Martin Rowe - VP & Editor-in-Chief, Lantern Books and Suzanne Taylor - VP, Gibbs Smith

11:30 a.m - 12:30 p.m. (room 402A) Raising Dangerous Boys and Daring Girls: Children, Literature, and the Green Movement

There was a time when literature inspired children to explore nature and reveal in the great outdoors, but a new generation of plugged in children raised on Ipods, Guitar Hero, and the Internet shows little interest in discovering the natural world. What's the future of the environmental movement if kids choose the virtual world over the real one? Can literature continue to inspire children and parents to go outside and play?

Moderator: Collette Morgan - owner, Wild Rumpus bookstore. Panelists: Jessica Woods - Children's Mgr., Northshire Books, Chris Morrow - GM, Northshire Books, Richard Louv - author, Last Child in the Woods and TA Barron - Audubon Medal recipient, The Great Tree of Avalon

1:00 - 2:00 p.m (room 402A) Investing in a Sustainable World: How the Green Revolution will Create New Industries, Opportunities, Economies and Fortunes

Moderator: David Andelman - Executive Editor, Forbes and author, A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay. Panelists: Dr. Matthew Kiernan - Founder and CEO, Innovest and author, Investing in a Sustainable World and Michael Shellenberger - author, BREAK THROUGH: From the Death of Environmentalism to the Politics of Possibility

1:30 - 2:30 p.m. (room 402B) Climate Change and the Book Industry

Many U.S. publishers, large and small, are responding to environmental challenges in innovative and successful ways. Join this session to discover more about these innovations and to learn how leading industry pioneers have conducted their own carbon audits, calculated the average carbon output from the lifecycle of a book, and taken simple steps to reduce climate impacts, use renewable energy, and much more.

Moderator: Tyson Miller - Director, Green Press Initiative. Panelists: Tona Pearce-Myers - Prod. Dir., New World Library, Andrew Van Der Laan - Sr. Project Manager, Random House and Michael Powell - President, Powell's Books.

2:30 - 3:30 p.m. (room 402A) Changing How We Shop: Understanding the Shades of Green Consumerism

Panelists: Lori Bongiorno - author, Green Greener Greenest, Diane MacEachern - author, Big Green Purse, Richard Bangs - author, Adventures with Purpose and Quest for Kaitiakitanga

Two more events that we would like to recommend on are:

1. Panel on Green Retailing at the, on Thursday (May 29, 2008) - 11:00 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. It's part of the ABA Day of Education at BookExpo America. The program is open exclusively to ABA bookstore and provisional members.

This session will present a panel of experts from bookselling and beyond who will discuss how we can all be smarter, cleaner, more efficient retailers, and how we can save money by going green!

Moderator: Oren Teicher of ABA

Panelists: Suzy Staubach, Manager of University of Connecticut Co-op (Storrs, CT), Natalie Freidberg of All Shades of Green (Los Angeles, CA), and Ferris Kawar, VP Sustainability Greenopia and The Green Media Group, LLC.

2. On Friday (May 30), don't miss Thomas Friedman who will discuss his new book: 'Hot, Flat and Crowded'.

As you can see BEA will have many interesting green events, but does it also walk the talk? well apparently not so much. According to AP, around 30,000 event guides, just over 40 pages long, will be distributed at the Los Angeles Convention Center, along with 19,000 copies of the 700-page program guide. More than 10 million pages in all will be printed, none on recycled paper.

When asked about it, BookExpo vice president and show manager Lance Fensterman told The Associated Press that "we are fully aware that improvement can be made in our green-related efforts," and also that BookExpo welcomes any "constructive suggestions". Well, here's a constructive suggestion - give us a call! We have few ideas that can help you green BEA up.

My colleague, Eylon Israely, who runs Eco-Libris in Seattle will attend the show and will send us reports from there, so stay tuned for more news from BEA.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!

How green is the book publishing industry? Review of the new report on the industry's environemtal impacts

About three weeks ago I wrote here about the publication of the 'Environmental Trends and Climate Impacts: Findings from the U.S. Book Industry', the new detailed analysis of the book industry's ecological footprint. Yesterday I finally finished reading it.

Firstly, I would like to give big kudos to both to The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) and The Green Press Initiative (GPI) for the report. I enjoyed reading it and I found it thorough, well structured, substantial and very clear. Since the 86-page report is all about findings from the book industry, I would like to share with you the findings I found the most important in the report.

1. What's responsible for the biggest part of the book industry's carbon footprint? The answer is very clear from the report: forest and forest harvest impacts with 62.7% share of total carbon emissions. Second is paper production at the mills with 22.4% share.

The conclusion is very simple - the paper consumed for the production of books (1.6 million metric tons in 2006) is the main responsible for the industry's carbon footprint of 12.4 million metric tons or 8.85 lbs. of carbon dioxide per a book (2006 figures).

The report puts its finger on many environmental issues associated with the life cycle of books - from transportation and energy consumption by publishers and retailers to the huge amount of books that are printed but are unsold (more than 1 billion books in 2006!) and then are either returned for pulping or reach landfills. But it is very clear that the main environmental issue, when it comes to the industry's carbon footprint, is the amount of carbon taken from the forest when the trees are cut down for the production of paper. Any change in the carbon footprint of the industry should start right there.

2. The sources of paper and Endangered Forests: The report shows that the sources of paper used for the U.S. book industry are all over the world. The paper is sourced from the U.S., Canada, parts of Asia and Europe, and in addition wood chips, pulp and roundwood that are used by paper mills in these areas come from South America (Chile for example), Tasmania (Australia) and Indonesia.

One main problem with the use of forests in these areas as source of paper is that in many of these areas, trees are cut down in Endangered Forests, which results in significant environmental impacts. One result of this process is the conversion of reach ecosystems in these areas into tree plantations, which means severe damage to biodiversity, fundamental changes and losses in natural systems, severe impact on species, etc.

Two examples for such areas outside the U.S. are the "interior temperate rainforest" in British Colombia, Canada and the native siempre verde forests of Chile. In the U.S., a good example is the Mid-Atlantic Coastal Forest of the Southeastern United States. Unfortunately, it seems that though the use of FSC-certified paper becomes more popular (though as you can read later, this is not totally clear from 2007 data), too little is done to protect these natural resources from the exploitation of industries, including the paper industry.

3. Some increase in the use of post-consumer waste (PCW) recycled paper: In the report it is estimated that the percentage of recycled paper in books was 5% in 2006, which is no different than previous data, but it also presents few more indicators that show that this assumption might be a bit conservative and the actual percentage might be higher.

For example, 13 printers who took part in the survey, reported on increase in the use of PCW recycled paper from 2,038 short tons in 2004 to 19,145 short tons in 2006. Also, the six mills that participated in the survey reported on increase in recycled content from 2.4% in 2004 to 13.3% in 2007. Of course, these data may be biased and hence the caution of the report, but nevertheless it seems that there is a growth in the use of PCW recycled paper, not only in absolute numbers, but also relatively to the total use of paper.

4. More policies, but not enough quantitative targets: Many publishers, printers and other companies in the book industry are developing or have developed environmental policies (60% of the companies responded to the survey). The Green Press Initiative Book Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper Use that was already endorsed by 150 publishers, is being used as a benchmark by many others in the industry.

This is good news. The problem is that some of the issues that these policies refer to lack quantitative targets, which are very crucial to the successful implementation of these policies (just think of the difference between saying 'I'll lose some weight this year' and 'I'll lose 10 pounds this year').

For example, only 11% of the companies that replied to the survey said they have quantitative targets for limiting the sourcing of fiber from Endangered Forests or High Conservation Value Forests. Only 14% have policies that advocate reduction of paper consumption. The only exception is with the increased use of recycled paper - 54% have quantitative targets.

5. Certified paper use: The report explains that due to partial reporting for 2007, total increases in certified paper use cannot be reliably calculated. Nevertheless, four of the six mills that replied to the survey reported on an increase in Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper for books. The FSC certification is also the most preferred certification program on publishers and printers - 94% of the publishers that replied to the survey chose it as their preferred certification program (SFI reached the second place with 35%).

The report also brings few stories of publishers mainly that went through a process of green changes in the last couple of years, such as Random House, Scholastic, Lantern Books and others. These stories as well as the data and the analysis in the report are evidence of the change that is going over the book industry. It is only the beginning, but it's definitely there. Now the question is more and more not when or if the change will happen, but how long it will take.

All in all the report is very extensive, but there are still few points that I wanted to learn more about and I hope to see in the next report:

- There was no reference to the growing e-book industry. True it is still a fraction of the whole book industry, but it has the potential to grow fast with the last developments (Kindle for example), and we see more and more publishers that are experimenting with publishing digital versions of new titles. I think it's important to evaluate the environmental impacts of e-books and analyze whether or not e-book can be considered a green alternative.

- I also hope to have comparative data on the book industry in other areas such as Europe. Is the U.S. book industry in better or worst position compared to its European equivalent? are there any lessons it can learn from the experience of others? I think it would be interesting to get that perspective.

- What are the main reasons that stop publishers and other companies to go green? is it lack of supply? financial reasons? lack of green vision? The report brings a detailed list of the primary challenges in the process of going green in the book industry. What I would like is to learn more on the significance of each one of these obstacles that stop the industry from moving faster. Similar to the way the carbon footprint is analyzed by segments to see which is more significant in order to know where the focus should be, these obstacles can be further analyzed to learn which obstacles should be dealt firstly.

Last word: If you are involved in the book industry, it's a must reading. If you want to order the report, you can do it on GPI and BISG websites. The summary of the findings is also available for view.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: plant a tree for every book you read!

Going green - a Literary Publicist's Perspective

We were first contacted by Phenix & Phenix, literary publicists based in Austin, to review The Ovum Factor, and that article is coming up tomorrow. However, we were also intrigued by some green themed posts on their blog and asked them to elaborate on the topic.

They embraced the challange enthusiastically, and here are the results:

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Like everything else right now, literary publicity is going green. While it doesn’t seem as likely a candidate to need a green makeover as say, cars and grocery bags, there are plenty of opportunities to help save the earth in book promotion.

As publicists, we rely on galleys, the unedited bound manuscipts that help us leverage long-lead coverage and pre-pub attention for our clients' books. But when a particular title doesn't make the cut, the galley graces more rubbish bins than book review columns and magazine spreads. Needless to say, we are thrilled to hear of a new service announced recently in PW DAILY:

Publishers Weekly has signed up with Rosetta Solutions to use the company’s netGalley service in connection with the magazine’s book review section. NetGalley, which Rosetta introduced last year, allows publishers to send and track galleys online. PW will use NetGalley to capture information on books—such as title metadata, press materials and promotional plans—when the books are submitted for review. At the current time PW will still accept printed galleys for review purposes, and will primarily use the service to collection title information, which publishers can upload.

Green literary PR practices don’t end there. Alongside online Galleys, virtual press kits (the ‘VPK’ to industry patrons) are also playing a growing role in the green movement. The average press kit is usually stuffed with papers - author biographies, press releases, examples of past interviews, sample interview questions for the author… Just like galleys, if the media isn’t particularly interested in an author or book, the press kit makes a b-line for the garbage bin. Now is the time to take advantage of technology and the VPK and virtual press room. Besides, doesn’t everyone prefer email these days? Putting an emphasis on a virtual exchange of press matieral, rather than the old-school blanket mailout/fax methodology, publicists can save a a forest full of trees, thereby reducing its landfill byproduct.

Don’t forget about this environmentally-friendly PR tool (a practice that is already in widespread use!) -- YouTube. Today authors and publicists can post their video interview footage, book trailers and material from recent speaking events on video sharing websites. Gone is the need to burn DVDs to then mail to media prospects. Thanks to the popularity of viral marketing, this technique gives authors even more exposure than they would with burned DVDs, and reduces energy consumption and waste.

One more opportunity that we have to promote sustainability is to use the services of other companies that work to reduce their carbon footprint. At Phenix & Phenix, we use the services of DHL to send mailings several times a day. They maintain energy efficiency by optimizing delivery routes, using hybrid vehicles, and by raising awareness of environmental protection initiatives.

We’re just one chapter in the green movement story. We’d love to hear what practices you’ve adopted to make a difference for future generations of readers.

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Phenix & Phenix is a literary public relations firm that has been serving the unique publicity needs of authors and publishing houses since 1994. Our client list includes a wide range of authors, such as Philip Carlo, Stephen Baldwin, Vicki Courtney and Les Parrott; publishers such as St. Martin’s Press, Tor/Forge, FSG/Sarah Crichton Books, Zondervan and Thomas Nelson; and best sellers such as Crucial Conversations, The Ice Man and Revolve. Over the past two years, P&P has added 16 best sellers to our overall tally of nearly 30. We also frequently work with literary agencies and are among the list of recommended publicists at top distributors around the country. For more information, please log on to: http://www.phenixpublicity.com or visit our blog at: http://phenixpublicity.blogspot.com.

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How green is the Book Publishing Industry? A new report provides the answer!

This is a very exciting week for the book industry and anyone involved in the efforts to green it up. The reason? 'Environmental Trends and Climate Impacts: Findings from the U.S. Book Industry' has been published.

This 86-page report was prepared by The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) and The Green Press Initiative (GPI) (with support from a number of industry sponsors). 76 publishers, representing just under half of the market, participated in the study, along with 13 printers (about 25 percent) and 6 paper mills (about 17 percent).

Why is this report so important? because this is an up to date analysis of the industry's ecological footprint. This is the most detailed survey someone has done for years to receive a clear picture of the book publishing industry's environmental impacts.

These measurements will help not only to know better where the industry is standing now, but also to better plan how to move forward and green up the industry as well as to evaluate the progress later on. In one word: Benchmark. Or as BISG describes the report on its website - "a benchmarking survey which will establish a baseline for tracking climate impacts and progress by the U.S. book industry in environmental improvements."

The report also gives us a better perspective on the steps taken by few of the big publishers, such as Simon and Schuster, Random House and others in the last two years, and how much at all is already done within the industry both on the level of creating green policies and greening up the operations.

Here are few highlights from the report that were published by AP on their article 'Report: Book publishing industry getting greener':

- The book world (in the U.S.) uses up more than 1.5 million metric tons of paper each year.

- Just over half of publishers have set specific goals for increasing use of recycled paper. About 60 percent have a formal environmental policy or are in the process of completing one.

- Around 150 publishers, along with 10 printers and four paper manufacturers, have backed a treatise (initiated by GPI) supporting recycled paper and fiber from forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council.

This is the first part of our coverage of this report. I intend to dive into the 86 pages and bring you next week my point of view of the results. If you want to order the report, you can do it on GPI and BISG websites.

Yours,

Raz @ Eco-Libris

Plant trees with Eco-Libris!

SolFest, Green Publishing, and a mini interview with Stephen Morris

And this time it's Eylon, guest-blogging for Eco-Libris from sunny and green California.

SolFest at the Solar Living Institute in Hopland California, was being promoted as “The Greenest Show on Earth” and I have to say that it was impressive. Thousands of people, good music, excellent food (I just had to get the combo plate from Amma's Kitchen's,) several big tents with ongoing workshops and lectures, and many many vendors booths with everything green under the sun.

One session in particular had my Eco-Libris spider sense tingling. The “Green Publishing”session with Stephen Morris, promised to explain about new technologies that “have made both book and magazine publishing more accessible than ever,” and to examine “the opportunities and the pitfalls of starting a local publishing “empire.”” I just had to go and report back, thus awakening my dormant journalist persona.

Morris has a very impressive track record in green living and green publishing. He was involved in the set up of several successful organizations, in publishing both in Chelsea Green, and recently in his own The Public Press. But more central to his presentation was his involvement in the publication of the Green Living journal, a quarterly publication, serving the “friends of the environment,” with an interesting multi-local and sustainable business model, that aims at bringing local news back home.

Since we're talking about a business model here then the first thing to ask is what is the problem being solved exactly? According to Morris, local news aren't local anymore. Dedicated local publishers experience a burn out based on lots of work and low returns and end up being gobbled up by national entities. Advertising money is siphoned out and outside interests are coming into the local reporting.

Green Living is based on a licensing model where a local publisher can get a license to publish a local edition of Green Living in their locale. Currently there are two editions being published. The original Vermont edition, going on for more than a decade, and the more recent Southern Oregon/Northern California edition. By acting as editor-in-chief, and providing administrative services to the local editions, Morris manages to cut on some expenses and provide the local publishers more time to focus establishing relationships locally in order to serve it better as far as localized content, and selling of advertising. According to Linda Pinkham, the licensee for the Southern Oregon/Northern California edition, she broke even by the 2^nd issue and went into profit by the third. This is apparently unheard of in local publishing.

Some of the content is original but most of is re-used by permission of the original publishers and authors. When a certain local edition requires more content on specific topics, Morris supply it to the local publisher. For example, Pinkahm found out that in Oregon she is serving a growing community interested in green building.

Since I managed to miss Morris at the booth at the show I had to resort to e-mail to clarify some questions I had:

Q: How did you choose to publish a Southern Oregon/Northern California edition specifically?

“I received an inquiry from Linda Pinkham for editorial work. She is a former Managing Editor for Home Power Magazine. I am familiar with the territory from my days with Real Goods. I was looking for a test location that had a high environmental consciousness, but one that was far enough from our home turf in the Northeast, so that if it didn't work out, it wouldn't hurt the core business. I wasn't quite ready to expand, but Linda was such an ideal candidate that I held it out as an option. The rest, as they say, is history.”

Q: What do you see as the minimum geographical region size or demographics that could support a local edition?

“The geography will be different everywhere. You can probably find more "friends of the environment" within 5 miles of Berkeley than you can find in the entire state of (not meaning to pick on them) South Dakota. In general a population of 125,000 is enough to support a local edition of Green Living Journal.“

Q: Do you have any upcoming new local licensees lined up already?

“We've just signed on to do a new edition in Northern Vermont. We have had inquiries from another 50 people around the country, but we do not want to expand until we're convinced we've debugged the mechanisms to support multiple editions.“

Q: Since you provide the licensees with a lot of the contents, where does their creativity come into play?

“From their suggestions about what topics are hot and deserve coverage; from their selection of which article that we provide that they choose to run; to their comments on cover images; to new voices that they develop from their areas; to what they write in the Publisher's Page ... Those with no creative input need not apply.“

Q: What is the personal profile of the new independent publisher?

“All over the map. We've had expressions of interests from recent college grads looking for entrepreneurial activities to energetic retirees looking for a means of doing something more closely aligned with their beliefs to community leaders looking to enhance the "green profile" of their locales. The only commonality is that these people all consider themselves 'friends of the environment.' “

Q: You mentioned 16,000 copies are printed for each edition. How many would you say are actually picked up and read? Where do the rest go?

“100%. If we find remaining copies from the previous issue we pick them up and distribute them at the events we attend. (We just handed out over 1000 copies of the Southern Oregon/Northern California edition at the Real Goods SolFest. I can't think of a more fuel-efficient means of distribution.)”

Q: Green Living is printed locally, with soy based inks and on recycled paper, and that is great, but do you see magazine publishing moving away from tree based paper anytime?

“Never say never, but I don't see us abandoning the paper edition any time soon. It's still the best way to present printed information. We've put a lot of effort into reducing our overall carbon footprint, however, from electronic invoicing to posting stories on our website so they are accessible for people who prefer getting their information that way. The whole idea behind our localization strategy is to produce and distribute as efficiently as possible. The backbone of our business are the small, local enterprises who are environmentally responsible. We want the dollars generated to stay right in the community.”

Q: How can any of this be applied to book publishing? Or do you have a different vision for that?

“We have a book publishing division called The Public Press. Here the goal is very different from Green Living because we are exploring the economies of scale, but SMALL scale. Our goal is to produce the right amount of product for the demand, and no more. Conventional publishing rewards the economies of large scale and is characterized by extraordinary amounts of waste. We may never have a best-seller, but you won't find our books filling up the landfill either.”

Till next time...

eylon@ecolibris.net