Will consumers reward going green? Examining the case of the book industry

This is the subject of an article I wrote for the Independent, the magazine of the Independent Book Publishers Association (IBPA). The article was published last April and was added now to the public archive of the magazine.

The challenge the article is talking about is of course not unique to the book industry, but nevertheless due to the unique characteristics of books (not two books are the same), it makes this challenge even more difficult.

Here's an excerpt from the article:

Do most book consumers care about the environment? Definitely. Do they prefer buying books printed on recycled or FSC-certified paper because of that? It depends.

Eco-conscious book consumers need to deal with the same issues that green consumers in general deal with, but they also have special dilemmas. Imagine, for example, a book reader who would love to read Freedom by Jonathan Franzen and who finds out that this great book is not printed on eco-friendly paper. Will the reader decide not to buy it and wait to get a copy in the local library? I doubt it.

A book is not a vegetable, a toothpaste, or a car. Book buyers can’t just choose a “green” book over a “regular” one and still get their needs met, only with some green added value. Each and every book is a unique product with distinctive features, which makes greening book purchases more difficult than greening almost anything else.

You can read the whole article on the Independent's website. I hope you will find it interesting!

Yours,
Raz@Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Planting trees for your books

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!

Is E-Reading Really Greener?

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 paragraph from the article:

The emergence of e-book readers, starting with the release of Amazon’s Kindle in November 2007 and through the launch of Apple’s iPad in April 2010, is changing the book industry. No doubt about that. But is it also making reading more sustainable? Is it really greener to abandon the good old print-on-paper book for a cool gadget that holds hundreds of books without causing back strain?

So, is E-Reading Really Greener? You're welcome to read the rest of the article here and find out!

A press release of the IBPA on the article can be found here - http://www.booktrade.info/index.php/showarticle/28546

If you look for more resources on e-books vs. physical books, check our ebooks page at http://www.ecolibris.net/ebooks.asp

Yours,
Raz @ Eco-Libris

Eco-Libris: Promoting sustainable reading!