GREEN SCENE: A Partner in Green

Regular readers of this irregular environmental publishing column know that in January we told you about the Green Press Inititative's (GPI) new Environmentally Responsible Publisher Certification (ERPC).

The program, which awards gold, silver and bronze certification to publishers based on their achieving benchmarks in areas such as paper use, energy consumption, landfill initiatives and the like, gives publishers a way to gauge (and tout) their environmental responsibility.

But what if you don't know where to start? Publishers for whom this environmental stewardship seems like a fuzzy, unreachable goal just beyond the horizon can take a deep breath. GPI has launched consulting services to help publishing companies acquire the tools they need to become environmentally responsible. Providing assistance on multiple levels, the nonprofit can give a company fiber risk assessment, environmental impact analysis, as well as policy development, implementation and strategic planning.

What's the need for this new service? As Todd Pollack, program manager at GPI, explains, there's a lot of confusion around what is takes to become green. But the consulting services will go deeper than simply explaining the process of becoming environmentally responsible; GPI will work with companies to provide personal assistance, strategic planning and investigative research that is generally too time-consuming for publishers' employees.

According to Pollack, GPI will "play a larger role in the implementation, helping not just set the goals, but achieve those objectives." The ultimate goal will be to "look at each company's situation and see what specific goals might be attainable and help them meet those goals and still meet their needs for publishing quality books."

Though the launch of GPI's consulting services corresponds nicely with the certification program—the services can indeed help companies achieve certification—Pollack says they were developed independently.

Because of its fledgling status, Pollack's main goal for the service program is simply its continued, steady growth to continue to help publishers understand and attain their environmental goals.