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Become a Member of Green Press Initiative
Join nearly 40 industry stakeholders (publishers, printers,
designers, and others) in becoming a member of Green Press
Initiative. Support the viability of a pioneering organization
in our efforts to continue supporting the greening of the book
industry and gain access to a host of benefits including:
discounts of recycled office products, renewable energy credits,
carbon offsets, and more. To learn more, go to:
http://www.greenpressinitiative.org/membership.htm
SustainPrint Awards: Call
for Nominations
SustainPrint.com—a
website for environmental sustainability in printing and
publishing, co-produced by Book Business Magazine—has announced
a call for nominations for its third annual SustainPrint
Awards. The awards recognize two book publishers each year: the
"Newcomer of the Year" award for a publishing company which
recently implemented a significant environmental sustainability
policy, and the "Longtime Leadership" award for a publisher with
a history of environmentally conscious publishing practices. To
nominate your publishing company or another company for either
award, you can complete an online nomination form
here or e-mail a
brief description of the company's efforts in environmental
sustainability to:
nskodzinski@napco.co
Roundtable Discusses Southern Forests, Climate, and the Business
Risks and Opportunities
On October 28th Random
House hosted a roundtable, coordinated by GPI and other members
of the Environmental Paper Network. The roundtable looked at the
climate and biodiversity impacts of the pulp and paper industry
on forests in the southern United States, the resulting risks
for businesses that rely on pulp and paper, and the
opportunities for companies to help reduce the impacts by
becoming part of the solution.
Presenters at the event included
individuals from FSC-US, Random House, Staples, Domtar, Johnson
& Johnson, and AbitibiBowater, amongst others. Presenters’
PowerPoint presentations and video clips of some presentations
are available at:
http://www.environmentalpaper.org/southernforestroundtablesummary.htm
Powell’s Expands
Commitment to the Environment by Adding Solar Panels
For many years, Powell's books has
helped promote environmentally responsible books by working with
GPI to highlight environmentally responsible books on their
website. Now the Portland-based retailer will be powered in part
by the sun. The company’s flagship store in Portland will make
use of one of the largest solar-electric installations in the
state of Oregon. It is expected that the solar panels will
provide nearly 111,000 kWh of electricity per year, or about a
quarter to the stores total electricity consumption. For more
information see:
http://www.king5.com/business/stories/NW_112308ORB_powells_
bookstore_SW.1e038d847.html
paper news that
affects you
Update on use of Forest
Stewardship Council Logo
Publishers who buy paper directly
no longer require FSC chain of custody certification to use the
FSC logo as long as they are using FSC certified paper, printing
at an FSC chain of custody certified printer.
Furthermore, printers that have demonstrated their ability to
properly use FSC logos may obtain permissions to use the logo
and a blanket statement explaining the benefits of using FSC
certified paper without requiring approval for each project. GPI
is continuing to work with FSC to make the use of FSC
certification logos easier in the publishing industry, while at
the same time ensuring that the high quality standards FSC is
known for are maintained.
Global Economic Downturn
Creates Paper Glut
The current economic situation has
significantly reduced demand for recovered paper, especially in
China, which imports the vast majority of North America's
recovered paper. This rapid decrease in demand has caused
recovered paper prices to plummet. Prices for recovered paper
are now so low that in many cases materials recovery facilities
are either stockpiling recovered paper in the hopes that prices
will soon increase, or diverting the paper to landfills. With
appropriate shifts in the marketplace, the drop in recovered
paper prices could result in a decrease in the price of paper
containing post consumer content and stimulate interest in
expanding the capacity domestic paper recycling mills in the US,
reducing prices further. The need for this shifts underscores
the need for publishers to express the demand for papers
containing high levels of post consumer content to their
suppliers through formal policies and conversations with their
printers and mills. For more information see:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/08/business/08recycle.html?ref=earth
Global forest and climate news
Indonesia to Audit Timber Operations in Attempt to Scale Back
Illegal Logging
The Indonesia Forestry Minister has announced a new
initiative known as the Wood Legality Verification System. The
system will require physical audits of wood stocks throughout
the supply chain rather than just auditing documents as has been
the practice in the past. Indonesia has the second highest rate
of deforestation in the world (after Brazil) and much of the
logging that takes place in the county occurs illegally. The
move follows recent amendments to the Lacey Act in the United
States, which makes importing, purchasing or selling wood that
was illegally harvested in the country of origin a crime. For
more information see:
http://news.mongabay.com/2008/1017-indonesia.html?email
Report Compares
Carbon Offsets From Tree Planting to Fossil Fuel Reduction
Offsets.
A new report by the David Suzuki
Foundation compares the climate benefits of projects aimed at
reducing fossil fuel emissions to those focused on planting
trees.
The report concludes that “A tonne of carbon sequestered and
stored in living plant biomass cannot be considered equivalent
to a tonne of carbon left in the ground in the form of fossil
deposits.” While the report does state that tree planting
projects can have a range of ecological, economic and climatic
benefits, it also states that “Carbon sequestration projects
that transfer carbon from the atmosphere to biomass are
vulnerable to the risk in perpetuity of that carbon returning to
the atmosphere, and this risk will likely be increased in a
warming world.” The full report is available at:
http://www.davidsuzuki.org/files/reports/Credit_Check_080701.pdf
Leading Scientists Join Pew
Panel to Protect Boreal Forest
The Pew Center on Global Climate
Change has assembled leading scientists from around the world to
form an advisory to council which will provide reports and other
resources to governments, industry and other key stakeholder who
will make decisions that affect the Canadian Boreal Forest.
Eight years ago, the Pew Center launched a substantial
initiative aimed at preserving the Canadian Boreal Forest when
scientist identified it as a key conservation priority. Part of
the initiative includes promoting the Boreal Conservation
Framework, which seeks to protect at least half of the Canadian
Boreal Forest from development. The vision of the framework has
been supported by a wide range of companies, and more than 1,500
scientists.
For more please see:
http://www.pewtrusts.org/news_room_detail.aspx?id=46336
For more information about the
Boreal Conservation Framework go to:
http://www.borealcanada.ca/framework-e.php
Industry News from Mills, Merchants & Printers
Domtar Joins Chicago Climate Exchange
Paper manufacturer Domtar
has joined the Chicago Climate Exchange, North America's only
legally binding, rules-based greenhouse gas emissions allowance
trading system. The company has made a voluntary, legally
binding commitment to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions
to 6% below 2000 levels by 2010. For more information see:
http://news.paperindex.com/Recycling_Environment/Domtar_Joins_Chicago_Climate_
ExchangeR_Demonstrating_Commitment_to_Sustainability/
Tools & rESOURCES
Updated Paper and Supplier Listings
Updated lists of environmentally responsible papers and printers
that stock environmental grade papers are available at
http://www.greenpressinitiative.org/action/suppliers.htm
Toolkit for publishers is
available at:
http://www.greenpressinitiative.org/documents/BookPublisherToolkit.pdf
Toolkit for
Printers is available at:
https://www.greenpressinitiative.org/documents/PrinterToolkit.pdf
Tools In Development
GPI will soon be releasing several new tools. One set of
tool will help those in the book industry gain a better
understanding of where fiber in the book paper they are using is
sourced from, and provide suggestions on how to ensure
compliance with the recent amendments to the Lacey Act. The
other tool will allow publishers to calculate the total
potential reductions in greenhouse gas emissions associated with
using more recycled paper, reducing energy use, reducing
overproduction of books, and preventing discarded books from
being landfilled.
Contact us for more information about these tools, or check
our website in the weeks ahead.
This newsletter and the Green Press Initiative is made possible
through the support of the Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, Lisa
and Douglas Goldman Fund, Merck
Family Fund, The Overbrook Foundation, Town Creek Foundation, Wallace
Global Foundation, and the Weeden Foundation.
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