Better Paper Project offers a free webinar on sustainable publishing in the 21st century

Our friends at Better Paper Project will run on July 11, 1:00pm a free webinar on sustainable publishing. It's a 1-hour webinar and free - magazine publishers interested in getting greener are welcome to check it out. Here are some more details on the webinar:

You are invited to join the Green America Better Paper Project for this event, in recognition of your magazine’s efforts at improving paper consumption practices. This webinar will provide participants with information on existing tools and best practices to forward paper procurement policies and provide a snap shot and update on global forest hotspots, including the Great Bear Rainforest, Canada’s Boreal Forest and the rainforests of Indonesia.

Staff from Canopy will also join the Green America Better Paper Project to help answer questions on how to engage your suppliers and mills to promote lasting solutions that provide certainty both in terms of supply of environmental paper for your company, as well as ecological protection of our global forests.

For more details on Better Paper Project visit their website - http://betterpaper.ning.com/. You can register to the webinar at https://cc.readytalk.com/cc/s/showReg?udc=1uz0rjo4wszn

Yours,

Raz @ecolibris

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

Poets and Writers Magazine is moving to use recycled paper

As you know magazines, just like books, have their own environmental issues and there's now a greater exploration of ways to reduce their carbon footprint, from using sustainable paper alternatives to eliminating the paper at all by moving to e-publishing. One of the examples for the former is Poets & Writers Magazine, an award-winning bimonthly published by the nonprofit organization Poets & Writers, Inc., which decided to use recycled paper.

In the 3-minute video below Suzanne Pettypiece, Managing Editor of Poets & Writers Magazine, shares how her magazine transitioned to a body stock that contains a minimum of 90% recycled content with 30% postconsumer content and a 10% postconsumer recycled cover stock that is FSC certified, choices that set it apart from other periodicals, over 97% of which still use virgin paper.



Before switching to environmentally friendly paper in 2008, Pettypiece was concerned, like many publishers, about quality. However, she notes that, since switching, "We haven't had any complaints from advertisers, photographers, or readers. It's a beautiful product."

For Poets & Writers Magazine, the move to recycled paper set in motion a larger commitment to sustainable business practices. Now staff members pitch in to do small things that have a larger impact, from creating a better recycling system to re-using office supplies and cutting down on waste.

Let's hope more magazines will follow suit!

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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

What can you do with your old newspapers? How about flip flops (or paperflops..)

Don't believe it? Check out Paperflops, flip flops that are made from entirely natural and biodegradable materials.This is not just a great idea, but also a great example of upcycling.

According to Paperflops, which is based in Indonesia, these Flip Flops are made of recycled and up-cycled newspapers. It takes approximately 1kg of old newspapers to produce a pair of PaperFlops Flip Flops. Other materials for the PaperFlop Flip Flops include root from old palm trees, coconut shells, and 100% natural rubber. The PaperFlop Flip Flops are quite durable and water proof since they are protected with a natural rubber sealant. 

Here are some more details about Paperflops from Ulule:

PaperFlops is a creative workshop that employs underprivileged people including street children and disabled people throughout Yogyakarta, Indonesia. This workshop trains and educates these people in arts and crafts to creating amazing products so they can be entirely self-sufficient.

The workshop creates various unique handmade products made from recycled and up-cycled newspapers and other natural materials. All of the materials used in our workshop are environmentally friendly and sustainable. The products produced in our workshop include flip flops, sandals, bags, pencil boxes, and more.

The PaperFlops flip flops exist in different models and of course different sizes.It seems according to Ulule, where Paperflops were looking for funding couple of months ago, that their price is between $50-$60 including shipping, but it's not really clear where and how you can order them right now. If you want a pair, you might want to email Paperflops at thepaperflops@gmail.com to get more details.

Photos credit: Ulule

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Plant trees for your books!

Better Paper Project Webinar: What Makes Better Paper Better?

Are you confused by the variety of paper options? well, if you are, this webinar might be just for you.

I learned on the details from Better Paper Project, which is "a collaborative effort of magazine industry stakeholders to increase the use of environmental paper" with a mission "to foster collaboration between paper manufacturers, merchants, investors, businesses, nonprofits and consumers to achieve our vision and encourage the production of socially and environmentally responsible paper – Better Paper."

So here are the details on this webinar from their website:

Time: April 2, 2009 from 2pm to 3pm

Organized by: The Better Paper Project + EPN

Information: This month's Better Paper Project Webinar builds on January's event, "Building Blocks for Wise Environmental Publishing", with further discussion of both the problem of deforestation and the environmental paper solutions available to magazine publishers. The Environmental Paper Network (EPN) will be co-hosting this Webinar, explaining what makes better paper better and how to use the EPN’s Paper Steps from the What’s In Your Paper Web site. To register, please visit https://cc.readytalk.com/r/lb5nh8vdnh1u

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

A new collaboration with Zinerrific

Today there was a big celebrations in Washington and we followed the Inauguration of President Obama with excitement, joy and hope for a better and greener future to come now.

We also have a small celebration of our own with a new collaboration we're happy to announce on. Eco-Libris is partnering with Zinerrific, an online magazine subscription retailer. Zinerrific will be offering their customers the option to balance out any subscriptions they buy through Zinerrific with an Eco-Libris tree-planting! To show their commitment to sustainability, Zinerrific will match every Eco-Libris tree planting purchase with a second tree!

Here's some information on our new partner - Zineriffic sells magazine subscriptions at the lowest prices allowed by publishers (in most cases) and they have an inventory of over 1400 magazine titles available for sale through their site.

Zinerrific pride themselves on their large selection of magazines, ease-of-ordering, fully honoring customer privacy, and readily-available customer service through email or their toll-free telephone number (1- 877-262-7641).

You're invited to check out their offers at http://www.zinerrific.com

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

New survey: 40% of magazine readers will pay more for greener magazines

I learned on Treehugger on a new survey of Hearst Magazines subscribers, which has a very green bottom line: many magazine readers care about the environment and are ready to pay more for magazines printed on recycled paper and committed to eco-friendly practices.

Net Ives reports on Advertising Age on the survey's results:

- Almost four out of five respondents agreed that everyone should care about being eco-friendly.

- 43% of respondents agreed with the statement "If I learned that a product I regularly use was not eco-friendly, I would stop buying it."

- 43% said they would pay more for a magazine printed on recycled paper

- 39% said they would pay more for a magazine committed to eco-friendly practices.

These are pretty good results, although you see an approximate 50% transition ratio - about 80% think everyone should care about the environment, but only about half of them translate it into action, whether negatively to stop using products that are not eco-friendly, or positively by paying a premium for magazines that go green.

Nevertheless, it is encouraging to see that level of support and willingness to pay a premium for magazines that go green. But how much eco-conscious readers are really willing to pay? I guess that when you break it into numbers (more than $1, less than $1, etc.), you will get better understanding of the value readers see in the usage of recycled paper or using eco-friendly practices.

You can see it on a 2005 study of American book and magazine readers that found that almost 80% of consumers are willing to pay more for books printed on recycled paper. At the same time "only" 42% were willing to pay $1 more per book according to the survey.

In any case, it is clear that there is a growing number of readers that are willing to show their support for greener books, magazines and newspapers by paying a reasonable premium for these products, just like they pay it for many other green products they purchase.

More related articles:

Can wheat straw replace trees as the source of paper?

Green Options - ReadyMade Magazine Goes Digital in Green Issue

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

New Yorkers - Recycling Magazines is Excellent!

I was in New York today, and I saw in one of the subway stations a big ad for a recycling initiative for magazines and catalogs that was recently launched in New York by Mayor Bloomberg. It is called: ReMix- Recycling Magazines is Excellent.

ReMix is a national public education campaign aimed at increasing residential recycling of magazines and catalogs. The campaign conducted pilot programs in Boston, Milwaukee, and Portland. Now the campaign is bringing the need to recycle magazines and catalogs to the attention of the New Yorkers with promotions on buses, taxis, subc\ways, in movie theatres, on cable television, on billboards and in full-page public service advertisements in consumer magazines. The total budget of the campaign in NY is above $3 million.

According to the Environment News Service (ENN), The ReMix campaign began when a study by Time Inc. and Verso Paper found that while 95 percent of all unsold newsstand magazines are recycled by newsstands and publishers, only about 17 percent of sold magazines are recycled. Just for comparison - Verso CEO, Mike Jackson mentioned on the ENN report that today, 53.4 percent - of all paper consumed in the United States is recovered for reuse.

ENN points out correctly that the there's no problem nowadays to recycle glossy paper used from magazines and catalogs. Currently, all community recycling programs accept magazines and catalogs for recycling.

This is great initiative and I hope it will motivate people to take action and significantly increase the magazines and catalogs they recycle. It's relatively easy and it's doing good twice, by keeping this paper out of landfills and by letting companies resuse it instead of virgin paper to make new paper products.

Here's the 2008 ReMix TV spot (from YouTube):



This is also a good opportunity to remind you on a (relatively) new initiative to eliminate in advance the unwanted catalogs you receive on your mail - Catalog Choice, which I wrote about here in the past (and it's a free service!)

Enjoy recycling!
Raz @ Eco-Libris

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