The ‘Green’ TEAM

“Just the fact that publishers are asking these questions shows the growth in the market,” she says. “We maintain recycled content is better, but it’s complicated, and as we move closer and closer to climate-change legislation federally, we are going to have thousands of issues to sort out.”

Looking Ahead
Since its formation in 2001, the GPI has labored tirelessly to create workable strategies for book publishers. The fact that almost 160 publishers have issued significant environmental policies or have signed on to the industry’s “Treatise on Responsible Paper Use” (nine printers and four paper mills have signed the treatise as well) is largely a testament to GPI’s tenacity in increasing awareness of the importance of the issue.

“Before we started our work, there wasn’t really a lot of information out there” for publishers, Miller says. “For smaller ones, it was just a matter of outreach … and there weren’t as many options” in “green” products on the market.

As more large publishers continue to adopt some or all of the principles advocated by the GPI, the industry will change for good—and, most would agree, for the better.