It has been recently reported that Bertelsmann, the international media company, the parent company to Penguin Random House, announced its intention to drastically reduce its greenhouse emissions in its aim to become climate neutral by 2030. This has resurfaced the debate and general concern within the publishing industry of its practices that are damaging to the environment and its carbon footprint. Furthermore, with the current ecological and nature book publishing trends, it is becoming increasingly obvious and important that the industry incorporates these ideas into its business models.
As Benedicte Page has commented on her opinion piece on The Bookseller, ‘Just as the book trade helps to shape public understanding through its thought-leading climate titles, it must also contribute by example.’ Printing books is an environmentally expensive activity that requires the expense of significant amounts of natural resources. Both the production and recycling processes of paper, and book, production involve large quantities of energy and toxic chemicals. Therefore, with the book publishing industry being the third largest industrial greenhouse emitter when it comes to the production of pulp and paper, it is fundamental – especially in this critical stage for environmental action we seem to be in – that significant changes are made in order for the industry to reduce its environmental impact as much as possible.
Concern for the sustainability of the publishing business has been prevalent within the industry for a long time now, especially during the last decade. Significant changes have already been accomplished, with the signing of the Book Industry Treatise on Environmentally Responsible Publishing, and the institutionalisation within the industry of the use of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper. Moreover, the adoption of environmentally conscious measures by the bigger publishing companies, like Bertelsmann and Penguin Random House, is positive as they are setting some industry standards for environmental responsibility and sustainable business practice.
However, the current book market is still in a state of congestion and oversaturation as an unnecessary amount of books are being published, consequently increasing the number of unsold books that are being pulped. Thus, further steps need to be adopted by mainstream publishers in order to increase the amount of responsibly sourced paper, such as, the use vegetable based inks that can help bring down toxic emissions, the use of eco-friendly materials for the cover and endpapers, the replacement of virgin fiber with post consumer recycled fiber, and the improvement of sales estimation calculations in order to reduce the amount of unsold books that are being pulped.
It will be interesting to keep an eye on the progress of the initiatives already put in place by the different publishing houses that are paving the way to a sustainable industry model (or, as close to a sustainable industry model as can be managed). It remains to be seen how effective these intended measures will be and if publishers will achieve their aim to become climate neutral.
Sources:
Bertelsmann aims to be climate neutral by 2030 (The Bookseller)
A climate for change (The Bookseller)
Book Publishers Go Green to Reduce Their Carbon Footprint (Green Matters)