A ‘Green’ Celebration

Scholastic and Chelsea Green were honored during the SustainPrint Leadership Awards reception.

April 2008 By Noelle Skodzinski

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Scholastic also has made a commitment to help educate children about responsible environmental practices. Along with its new corporate policy, the company launched an interactive Web site for kids, called Scholastic Act Green! (Scholastic. com/actgreen).

Francine Colaneri, Scholastic’s vice president of manufacturing and corporate purchasing, and Lisa Serra, director, corporate paper procurement, accepted the award on behalf of Scholastic.

“Francine and I were very pleased and proud to accept the SustainPrint Newcomer of the Year Award for books on behalf of Scholastic,” says Serra. “As a company focused on children’s reading and learning, Scholastic not only wants to educate children about what they can do to help protect the environment, but also wants to teach by example. Although Scholastic has had an environmental policy and has been using recovered fiber in our products for decades, we thought it time to formalize that policy and set high impact goals around the use of recovered and FSC-certified fiber,” she continues. “We are very proud of the policy, as well as our historic achievement this fiscal year with a record-setting use of FSCcertified fiber for a single book. … Being recognized with the SustainPrint Award is a great honor for our company.”

Longtime Leader: Chelsea Green Publishing
Located in White River Junction, Vt., Chelsea Green is committed to sustainability not only in the topics that its books cover—it is regarded by many as the preeminent publisher of books on sustainable living—but also in its actions. It is a founding member of the GPI, and prints all of its books on recycled, PCW paper. Chelsea Green publishes approximately 30 new titles a year, with print runs ranging from 4,000 to 50,000, and a backlist of more than 300 titles.

Emily Foote, Chelsea Green’s managing editor, accepted the award on behalf of the company at the awards reception.

“It is inspiring to see so many people in the publishing industry making sustainability a priority. Bookmaking has a noble and storied history; for it to successfully transition into the 21st century, it must now do its part to protect our threatened planet,” says Foote. “Chelsea Green is very grateful for the recognition of this award, and proud to work with other members of the industry for increased environmental awareness and reduced waste.”

Margo Baldwin, Chelsea Green president and publisher, says, “I’m thrilled that we’ve won this award and feel like it validates Chelsea Green’s many years of environmental publishing, both from a content and a practice point of view. We are also very pleased that this award has been created and that the book industry is facing up to the drastic implications of climate change and a new world of limited energy resources.”

The company is an active member of Vermont Businesses for Social Responsibility and, in 2007, it was a key sponsor of a sustainability conference held at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth.

Magazine Publishers Recognized for ‘Green’ Achievements
In magazine publishing, this year, two companies stood out significantly for their recent achievements in environmental sustainability, and the SustainPrint Leadership Awards Committee voted to recognize them both with SustainPrint’s Newcomer of the Year Award in magazine publishing: Every Day With Rachael Ray and Nickelodeon Magazine.

Every Day With Rachael Ray, published by the Reader’s Digest Association, began in November 2007 to print its more than 2.5 million copies on paper with 85-percent recycled fiber from post-printed waste. These changes will save 115,000 trees in just one year. The paper also is processed chlorine-free. In addition, the Reader’s Digest Association has recently switched 13 more titles to the same paper.

The Nickelodeon Magazine Group announced last year a new policy outlining environmentally sustainable objectives for its two major titles: Nickelodeon Magazine and Nick Jr. Magazine. Nickelodeon Magazine, with a circulation of 1.2 million, is the group’s first title to fully meet these objectives. The magazine’s pages are printed on 100-percent recycled paper, 80-percent of which comes from PCW. The paper also is FSCcertified and processed chlorine-free.

The Awards Committee
A committee of judges evaluated the nominations for the 2008 SustainPrint Leadership Awards, including Tyson Miller, director of the GPI; Andrew Van Der Laan, director, senior project manager, publishing operations projects group, Random House Inc.; Frank Locantore, director, Magazine Paper Project, Co-op America; and Laura Hickey, senior director, global warming education and training, National Wildlife Federation. Nominations were evaluated for their use of recycled-content paper, and use of paper certified as forest-friendly by an environmental certification organization. Also considered were the bleaching processes used, the company’s energy conservation efforts and carbon-footprint-reduction efforts, among other criteria.

The event, sponsored by LibreDigital, ended with a round of applause for all the recipients and perhaps some insights into the possibilities for other publishing companies to make some “green” changes of their own. BB