Raincoast Books and Eco-Libris are collaborating in a green campaign: Buy a book, Plant a a tree

We are very excited to update you on our joint campaign with Raincoast Books, a leading Canadian book company, which is taking place this month for the second year in a row: 'Buy a Book, Plant a Tree'.

Here are the details:

Raincoast Books is best known in green circles as the Canadian publisher of the green editions of the latest Harry Potter books. Currently its provides full-service Canadian representation to a wide range of publishers from the US, the UK and Canada, had a wholesale division (BookExpress) that is dedicated to supplying bestselling frontlist and backlist titles to bookstores and retailers across Canada and owns Publishers Group Canada, which distributes titles from over 100 independently owned book publishing houses from all over the world.

Following our successful partnership last year, Raincoast Books signed up this year Canadian retailers who will be selling a wide range of environmentally themed books starting this month. These books come with Eco-Libris stickers stating that one tree will be planted for each one of them. Participating bookstores include independent bookstores located in British Colombia, Nova Scotia and Ontario (a full list can be found at http://raincoast.com/green).

This year we have 257 new trees that will be planted following this joint campaign! And all together our partnership with Raincoast Books has resulted so far in 4,776 new trees that are planted on behalf of Canadian readers with our planting partners in Central America and Africa.

This project is part of an ongoing effort by Raincoast to work towards being a greener company. Here's some more information about these efforts from the company's website: Raincoast has joined Markets Initiative (CDN) and Green Press Initiative (USA), organizations working with publishers, printers and paper mills to reduce the environmental impact of the publishing industry.

Until the closure of the publishing program in January 2008, Raincoast published fiction, non-fiction and children’s books. Over 95% of Raincoast’s text-based books are printed on ancient forest friendly paper. In June 2003, Raincoast printed the Canadian edition of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on 100% ancient-forest-free, chlorine-free, 100% post-consumer recyled paper. To date, Raincoast has saved over 75,185 old-growth trees.

Raincoast was awarded the 2003 Ethics in Action Award and the 2004 Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Award.

We are very excited to be continue our joint work with Raincoast Books and look forward to many more years of promoting together green-themed books and the need to make a positive impact on the earth.

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

Harry Potter and the Finnish paper

J.K. Rowling is not only a great author, but also an inspiration to anyone who wants to make reading more sustainable.

We wrote here before on her efforts to green up the printing of the seventh and final book in her series, "Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows", and even celebrated the book back in July.

Today I learned that Rowling makes sure that the translation of Harry Potter to Finnish will be green as well. Yahoo! News reported yesterday that Rowling, has blocked the Finnish version of the last Harry Potter from being printed on local paper because it lacks the FSC certification.

It seems that although Finland is one of the world's biggest paper producers, it doesn't have paper with the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certificate. Finland does have Finnish paper has labels, but I guess that none of them is similar to the FSC certificate, which is the most prestigious environmental paper certification, and therefore Rowling insisted that the book will be printed on FSC paper.

I'm only wondering if the Finnish publisher will be using recycled paper (like other Harry Potter publishers around the world). I hope that they do. In any case, this is good news and it's great to know that Rowling is out there watching and making sure that Harry Potter will stay green, even when he speaks Finnish.

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

World's largest publisher of children's books goes green

While we were concentrating last week on green mooching, Scholastic, the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books, announced new steps it intends to take to go green.

I learned about the announcement from Greenbiz.com and went to check the source itself. Scholastic reported in a news release on its new green policy that is meant to "further strengthening its sustainable paper procurement practices".

Scholastic's policy is based on a five-year goal to increase its publication paper purchase of FSC-certified paper to 30% and its use of recycled paper to 25%, of which 75% will be post-consumer waste.

Scholastic worked together with the Rainforest Alliance, the Green Press Initiative and other environmental organizations to set these goals, which Scholastic says are "industry-leading goals".
Are they?

I wasn't sure so I sat down and made a comparison with two other green initiatives of big publishers (Random House and Simon & Schuster) and the Book Industry Treatise initiated by the Green Press Initiative. I checked out the two most important parts in these initiatives - usage of recycled paper and FSC paper. I also checked to what year they set their goals.

And here are the results:

As you can see from the table above, although Scholastic is the last one to set up green goals, it set up very bold goals in comparison with the others. None of the other three match Scholastic when it comes to the usage of FSC paper, and it lags only in 5% behind the treatise and Random House with regards to the usage of recycled paper.

Still, I must say that if they would have gone for a goal of 30% recycled paper content on 2012, it would be much easier to agree that their goals are industry leading ones. You have to remember that recycled paper is a better alternative to virgin paper than FSC paper and therefore more important as a goal.

One more point I would like to emphasize is that unlike the treatise and S&S, there's no commitment of Scholastic to stop using paper that may contain fiber from endangered and old-growth forest areas.

All in all, I think this is a very important step and I believe that the way Scholastic has done in the last couple of years represents the whole book industry.

Although it used recycled paper for many of its books in the past, Scholastic drew fire from some environmental groups in 2005 when it published Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book in the Harry Potter series. Greenpeace, in particular, complained Scholastic wasn’t using enough recycled paper and urged consumers to boycott Scholastic and to purchase the novel from Raincoast Books, the Canadian publisher, which printed the Canadian edition of the book on recycled paper.

In 2007, things changed and Scholastic worked together with the Rainforest Alliance to green up the final part of Harry Potter: every 784-page copy of Harry's final adventure contained at least 30% recycled fiber. On top of that, almost two-thirds of the 15,100 tones of paper used were certified sustainable (FSC). There were also 100,000 copies of the "deluxe edition" which were only made from recycled paper, with the factory powered from renewable sources.

And now Scholastic is taking one more important step forward and set a policy for all of its operations. This is definitely the way we think all publishers should go and of course we hope to see bolder goals in the future that will make reading truly sustainable.

Oh, and I almost forgot this part, which is also very important: "Along with the new policy announcement, Scholastic today launched its new, interactive “green” website for kids called Scholastic ACT GREEN! at www.scholastic.com/actgreen." The site is designed to educate kids about climate change and sustainability and inspire them to take action to preserve the planet. Way to go!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

Planting trees for Harry

The new Harry Potter will be released this Saturday (July 21), and Eco-Libris joins J.K. Rowling and Harry Potter’s fans in the celebration of the new Potter book's release (though we’re sad it’s the last one).

As you may know, the new Harry Potter books are being published on partially or fully recycled paper worldwide. So for us, Harry Potter is not only a great story; it also sets an example for the future of the book publishing industry, and a vision which we share.

To show our appreciation to the courageous author and to the young magician we’ll be celebrating by letting Harry Potter fans plant new trees and win a free copy, made of 100% recycled paper, of the new book.

To participate in "Eco-Libris and The Green Wizards" promotions, Harry Potter's fans need to send a picture of themselves posing with any of the books in the series. The first 50 people to do so will receive a special gift - seven trees planted for them in developing countries, to balance out seven of their books in honor of the seven books in the Potter series. They will also receive seven Eco-Libris stickers saying “One Tree was Planted for This Book” to be proudly displayed on their books sleeves.

Our judges will pick the best photo of all and we'll send a free copy of the new Harry Potter, printed on 100% recycled paper, to the gifted photographer.

So please check out our our special Harry Potter celebration page (http://www.ecolibris.net/harry_potter_promo.asp) and join the green wizard's party.

have fun,

Raz