Sustainable Forest Management
Eco-Libris
Eco-Libris uses the motto “moving towards sustainable reading” and defines itself as a green company “working to green up the book industry”. Founded in 2007 and based in Brooklyn, Eco-Libris works with publishers, bookshops, non-profit organisations, authors and, particularly noteworthy, readers.
Eco-Libris is promoting green practices through a simple system of balancing out books by planting trees. This programme is open to anyone and its logic is very straightforward: for every book, one tree is planted. Those who want to get involved just have to donate according to the number of books they want to balance out. For instance, balancing out 5 books in 5 trees costs $5.00 USD.
Subsequently, for every tree planted, participants receive a sticker made from recycled paper, to put on the cover of the book that was balanced out in trees. A symbol of someone’s commitment to sustainability, the sticker is at the same time a mean to inspire others to do the same.
This green company has already balanced over 159,000 books in 169,000 trees, which were planted in developing countries of Central America and Africa with the support of three planting partners: the non-profit organisations Ripple Africa, based in the UK, and Sustainable Harvest International (SHI), and the Alliance for International Reforestation (AIR), headquartered in the USA.
Eco-Libris broad range of partners in the book industry include the self-publishing company Lulu, Little Green Books (Simon & Schuster Children’s Publishing), European publishers (Eli Publishing, in Italy, and Flux, in Norway) and bookshops in the US, UK and Ireland.
Personally, I consider that Eco-Libris stands out for its efforts to involve not only professionals but readers in sustainable initiatives, showing that they can actually play a role in the greener future of book production.
Image credit: Max Gladwell
Alastair Sawday Publishing
Alastair Sawday is the man behind Alastair Sawday Publishing. Alastair Sawday is a widely known environmentalist, who proudly had a “green” career even before starting his publishing company in 1994. He was involved with Oxfam, the Green Party, and was the vice-president of the Soil Association, a British charity campaigning for sustainable food, farming and land use. In the 70s, he also founded the Avon Friends of the Earth, that played an important role in the development of recycling in the UK.
Alastair Sawday Publishing is a very interesting example of environmentally sound publishing. Sawday’s imprint is specialised in ecological and organic tourism, publishing accommodation and travel guides (B&B, hotels, pubs and restaurants) of eco-friendly places around the world. Its guides offer suggestions on where to eat local and organic food or where to spend a night closer to the nature: perhaps in a treehouse.
Notwithstanding, the green ethics goes well beyond its list of titles. Sawday’s claims to have reduced its carbon emissions to 7 tonnes per year and to have installed a wood-pellet boiler, solar panels, a rainwater tank, as well as low-energy lighting. The publisher even uses an ethical Bank for its deposit accounts.
But specifically regarding book production, I considered that Sawday’s was a remarkable example for both small and large publisher on what can be done to reduce publishers’ environmental impact. Sawday’s works with a British, certified printer, and decides, together with the printer, the most adequate paper to use. Furthermore, the publisher is also engaged in overseas projects to balanced out its books by planting new trees.
Image credit: B&B Association
FSC – Forest Stewardship Council
The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is a worldwide, non-governmental, non-profit organisation established in 1993 to promote responsible management of world’s forests. Its mission is to ensure a lawful, profitable and reasonable management, “environmentally sound, socially beneficial and economically prosperous”.
FSC assesses whether those in charge for forest management are complying with law, international protocols, and if they are enhancing, while still respecting, the life of surrounding communities. As such, FSC works in conjunction with professionals from a wide range of industries who use wood as a raw material, mainly forest owners, members of timber and printing industries and publishers.
In order to ensure a better and more responsible management of our forests, the organisation implemented a system of certifications:
1. Forest Management
2. Controlled Wood
3. Chain of Custody
1. The Forest Management certification “is awarded to forest managers or owners whose management practices meet the requirements of the FSC Principles and Criteria”;
2. The Controlled Wood certification allows manufacturers to mix FSC certified material with uncertified materials (for example, illegally harvested wood or wood harvested in violation of traditional and civil rights), always under controlled and previously accepted conditions;
3. Finally, the Chain of Custody Certification (FCS CoC) is applied to manufacturers, processors and traders of FSC certified forest products. This certificate is used to certify any product made according to the FSC standards.
The FSC CoC allows companies to label and track the timber or other wood products derived from FSC certified forests, and monitor them through the whole process of production, from forests to consumers. In the market, FSC certified products are identified with a seal, which we may find today in a variety of wood-made products, including books. In books, the seal is usually printed on back covers or copyright pages, and it is widely taken as a trustworthy symbol.
Publishers are increasingly committed to FSC standards. Most publishing houses are now using FSC or other type of certified paper. For example, Penguin has printed all its b&w books on FSC certified paper since 2008, and HarperCollins, in 2013, set a goal that 70% of the books printed by Harper UK would be FSC certified.
As consumers, with an FSC certified book, we get the chance to support an ecological cause and to trace back the origins of our books. At least, to find out from which type of wood they were made of. Pick a book, type an FSC code and check, here.
Image credit: Capella
PEFC – Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification
The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), like FSC, is an international non-profit, non-governmental organisation dedicated to promoting sustainable forest management through third party certification.
Founded in 1999, PEFC is the world’s largest forest certification organisation, with a forest certificated area of 258 million ha (two-thirds of the globally certified forest area) and 15,804 companies certified with its Chain of Custody.
Particularly aimed at small forest owners and producers, PEFC provides a guarantee that wood, timber and paper products come from forests sustainably managed. As FSC, PEFC also has a tracking system to control the integrity of certified products throughout the production chain.
In 2014, it is hard to find a publisher that does not use a certified type of paper, like PEFC endorsed paper. Even small publishers, like the Cambridge based Open Book Publishers, are committed to green policies. Open Book Publishers is an open access, non-profit academic book publisher, with no institutional backing. It was founded in 2008 and, nonetheless, is already using acid free paper, PEFC and SFI certified paper. In addition, all its paper used for jackets is manufactured using electricity generated by renewable wind power. In brief, not only a good example of the wide extent of the PEFC certification programme, but also of the environmental awareness across the publishing industry.
Image credit: Eniro Group
SFI – Sustainable Forestry Initiative
The Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI) is an independent, non-profit organisation that certifies forests and lands in the USA and Canada. Launched in 1994 by the American Forest and Paper Association, it is internationally recognised and endorsed by PEFC.
Like FSC and PEFC, SFI promotes responsible forest management, issuing CoC certifications. Similarly to others councils, their certified products are properly labelled.
Even if specialised in American forestry, SFI got my attention for the impact of its program SFI Forest Partners, which has the cooperation of two renowned and influential groups in the publishing industry: Macmillan Publishers and Pearson. Please read more here.
Image credit: Lydony
Green Press Initiative
Founded in 2001, the non-profit organisation Green Press Initiative was created to boost the implementation of sustainable patterns of production and consumption in the US book and newspaper publishing. Green Press Initiative’s concerns are more than exclusively forestry and paper related, working GPI closely with publishing stakeholders in order to, for example, preserve endangered species and minimise the book production impacts on native indigenous communities.
I decided to include GPI on my collection of green organisations for another main reason. Green Press Initiative provides a set of Tools and Resources for book and newspaper publishers, printers and paper mills who want to reduce their ecological footprint and environmental impact, being this information freely available on their website. Specifically for professionals in the book industry, GPI offers guidance on how to apply ecological measures and the following resources:
- A toolkit for publishers, printers, paper manufacturers and authors, with guidelines on the implementation of environmental policies and FSC certifications
- A suppliers lists, with contacts of suppliers using recycled and certified paper
- A set of articles, reports and case studies about the ecological impact of print and digital manufacturing in book production (as this one about the environmental impacts of ebooks)
GPI was also responsible for the Book Industry Treatise on Environmentally Responsible Publishing, which has already been signed by more than 250 publishers. A particularly interesting organisation, GPI is a fund grant program, but highly committed to both big and small houses. An example of that is the green publishing toolkit that the organisation developed for small publishers, in specific.
Interview with the Founder and Director of Green Press Initiative
Image credit: Georgetown University Press
Publishing gets green 