Tyson Miller Tyson Miller

Almost 150 publishers in the United States, Canada and Europe are committed to eliminating their use of papers that contain fibers from endangered forests. Nearly 15 book papers with strong environmental attributes have been developed in North America in the past few years. But what came first—the chicken or the egg? Was it market demand from publishers and printers that spurred paper development? Or was it the product development efforts of mills and suppliers that made available new options and prices that appealed to publishers? It was and will continue to be both, and the more each link in the supply chain talks to one

It is estimated that 42% of the global wood harvested for industrial uses goes to paper production. Is it possible that the book publishing industry, a sector that depends heavily on paper production, can implement policies that help preserve endangered forests and biodiversity? Over 120 North American publishers believe it is possible, and they're working with the non-profit Green Press Initiative (U.S.) and Markets Initiative (Canada) to implement innovative production practices that have tangible environmental benefits. Innova, the root of the word innovation, means 'into the new'. The 'new' in this case is a growing movement among businesses to include social and environmental considerations into their

The U.S. book publishing industry consumed approximately 1.1 million tons of book paper in the year 2000. That required cutting down an estimated 25 million trees. Figures for 2001, published in 2002 by the American Forest and Paper Association, report 914,000 tons of paper were used for U.S. book publishing. Trees required to meet demand: 19 million. Yet the average recycled content level (by fiber weight) across printing and writing grades is only 5%. The disparity between the ecological impact of publishing versus the meager levels of recovered materials in paper is driving responsible publishers to be part of the solution, instead of the problem. To date,