A ‘Green’ Celebration

Green was the fashionable color on Monday evening, March 10, as more than 200 publishing industry executives gathered for a unique celebration in the Marquis Ballroom of the Marriott Marquis in New York’s Times Square, during the Publishing Business Conference & Expo. It wasn’t an early St. Patty’s Day celebration either, but a celebration honoring the recipients of the 2nd Annual SustainPrint Leadership Awards, recognizing achievements and leadership in “green” publishing.

The awards—established in 2007 by SustainPrint.com (the Web site produced by book business and publishing executive magazines to cover environmental sustainability in printing and publishing)—recognize book- and magazine-publishing companies each year for outstanding “green” achievements. Awards are given in two categories: Newcomers of the Year, acknowledging companies that have recently implemented substantial corporate sustainability policies or practices; and Longtime Leaders, recognizing companies who have had such policies or practices in place for several years.

This year, taking home the Sustain- Print Leadership Award for Newcomer of the Year in book publishing was Scholastic Inc., and receiving the Longtime Leader Award in book publishing was Chelsea Green Publishing.

Newcomer of the Year: Scholastic
In March 2007, global children’s publishing, education and media company Scholastic made the largest-ever commitment to Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)- certified paper in a single book, for “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.” Sixtyfive percent of the 16,700 tons of paper used in the book’s first U.S. printing was FSC-certified—an amount of paper equal to the weight of about 2,000 elephants. In addition, all 12 million copies of the U.S. edition’s initial print run were printed on paper that contained a minimum of 30- percent post-consumer-waste (PCW) fiber. The company saved 8,000 tons (around 1,500 elephants) of greenhousegas emissions through this effort.

The book’s deluxe edition (100,000 copies) was printed on paper that is FSCcertified and contains 100-percent PCW fiber. All jackets printed not only were FSC-certified and contained 30-percent PCW, but also were manufactured using energy generated from wind power. For future printings of all books in the “Harry Potter” series, Scholastic plans to use paper with a minimum content of 30- percent PCW and that is FSC-certified, when available.

This effort, while significant on its own, was a precursor to a much larger effort by Scholastic to improve its environmental impact. In early January, Scholastic announced a corporate sustainability policy that includes a five-year goal, established in consultation with the Rainforest Alliance, the Green Press Initiative (GPI) and other stakeholders, to increase the company’s purchase of FSC-certified paper to 30 percent and its use of recycled paper to 25 percent. The increase in the use of PCW fiber alone will result in a reduction of nearly 12,000 tons of greenhouse-gas emissions this year, compared to fiscal year 2006.