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How to Go Green: Books (for Publishers)
[by The Green Guide Girls™, Cindy Katz & Jennifer S. Wilkov, and Green Press Initiative]
The last time you walked into a bookstore it probably didn’t feel much like a forest—but for all the trees used in those pages, it could be. According to bizstats.com, there are more than 6,000 companies in the US that publish books, and when you include “self-publishers,” there are literally tens of thousands. The global impact of this is rather mind-boggling. For instance, if a publisher sells a million copies of an average 250-page book, it takes 12,000 trees to produce books for this one title. Alternatively, if the publisher chooses to print the books on 100% post-consumer waste recycled paper, no trees are cut. Reflect on the zillions of books you saw in the bookstore.
Publishers can lead the way to help reduce the impact on endangered forests, fight the climate crisis, conserve resources, and protect public health. Each time publishers of all sizes choose to use environmentally friendly methods and technologies, they decrease the impact of the publishing business on the planet and help transform the industry as a whole. In the long run, better publishing practices might even mean we need fewer books about deforestation, chemical toxicity, and climate change, and wouldn’t that be nice?
The information in this Green Guide was provided by The Green Guide Girls™ from our book, The Green Guide Girls: Guide to Book Publishing.
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