18 Tips for Environmentally Conscious Publishing

In addition, the company printed 100,000 copies of the book’s deluxe edition on paper that was FSC-certified and contained 100-percent PCW fiber. All jackets were FSC-certified and contained 30-percent PCW fiber, and 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 fiber and that is FSC-certified, when available.

“The vast amount of paper needed to print 12 million copies of the 784-page ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ made the decision by Scholastic to invest in environmentally preferable paper a significant step in the company’s ongoing commitment to responsible environmental stewardship,” says Kyle Good, vice president, corporate communications, Scholastic Inc.

3. Maximize post-consumer recycled content. Post-consumer recycled fibers come from recovered paper and are not to be directly sourced from ancient or endangered forests. “Publishers committed to eliminating the use of fiber from old-growth and endangered forests in their printed books will set goals and objectives to maximize their use of post-consumer recycled fiber,” Miller suggests.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Environmental Paper Network, publishers are encouraged to meet or, ideally, surpass these minimum standards when using recycled papers: uncoated minimum: 30-percent post-consumer recycled; coated minimum: 10-percent post-consumer recycled.

4. Maximize the use of certified virgin-free fiber. “… Publishers committed to eliminating the use of paper with fiber from endangered forests, preventing forest conversion and valuing indigenous rights, will set goals and objectives that incorporate recommended strategies for sourcing environmentally preferred virgin fiber,” says Miller.

Strategies include:
• Where available, use paper certified by the FSC, which is generally accepted in the conservation community as the best practice standard for forest management, suggests Miller.

• If FSC-certified paper is not available, publishers should encourage suppliers to use chain-of-custody forms to track the source and origin of any virgin fiber, work in partnership to eliminate papers with fiber from endangered forests, and set goals for incorporating FSC-fiber into paper.