The information in this Green Guide was provided by The Green Guide Girls™ from our book, The Green Guide Girls: Guide to Book Publishing.

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1. Recycled paper—small change, big difference

Paper is a major component of every book and tends to be the focus of most environmental discussions in the book publishing industry. The top choice for environmentally friendly paper is 100% post consumer waste recycled paper (100% PCW), meaning that no virgin fibers were used. But the advantages don’t end there: since recycled paper creates a market for what would otherwise be thrown away, using post-consumer recycled fiber effectively pulls paper out of the landfill. It also takes less energy to convert old paper into new paper than it does to cut down trees and turn them into virgin pulp, which means we can publish fewer books about global warming.

2. FSC: One small step for publishers…

The best alternative to 100% post-consumer recycled, is paper that is FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) certified. The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an international non-profit forest certification organization with members from over 70 countries whose interests reflect a unique combination of biodiversity conservation, environmental protection, civil society, indigenous rights, and wood and paper production. The FSC program is widely accepted as setting the highest standards for protecting people and the environment while allowing for the deliberate and careful logging of forests to support the continued use of the planet’s most renewable resource—forests. For more on the FSC and sustainable lumbar, see How to Green Your Furniture.

3. Cast a wide net

The customer is always right! Whether you buy paper directly from a mill or purchase it through a printer, you are the customer. If current suppliers are unwilling to carry recycled and FSC-certified papers, or if they are unwilling to sell them at or near the same price as conventional paper, take your business elsewhere. An updated list of environmental grade papers and printers who supply them are available via the Green Press Initiative.

4. Myth busted: no need to break the bank

Papers containing recycled fiber used to cost 15-20% more than their conventional counterparts, but that is no longer the case. Many publishers are able to meet environmental goals while achieving cost parity, or paying only a few pennies more per book. So get quotes from multiple suppliers and use them along with a formal policy to negotiate the best price possible.

5. “Chlorine bleaches out life”

Using paper that is labeled “Totally Chlorine-Free” (for paper sourced from virgin fiber), or “Processed Chlorine Free” (for paper containing recycled fiber) protects our environment. It reduces the toxins released into our waterways and the amount of water required to bleach the paper. According to the Chlorine Free Products Association web site, “Chlorine bleaches out life”. The amount of water saved through this process is incredible. Consider this: "To make one single 8” by 11” sheet of paper using chlorine chemistry requires more than 13 ounces of water for every single 8” by 11” sheet. So that means more than a good sized can of Coke is needed for every sheet that you use for copying. If it was produced with chlorine free technology, it would require less than two ounces of water. So there is a tremendous difference in just the raw water usage,” says Archie J. Beaton, Executive Director, CEO, Chlorine Free Products Association and member of the Green Guide Girls’™ Collective Wisdom Team™, from The Green Guide Girls: Guide to Book Publishing.

6. Judge a book by its cover

While ensuring that the pages under the covers are sourced, processed and printed in a green way will do the most to reduce environmental impacts, it is important not to forget about the cover. For hardcover books, make sure that the binder-board (the main component of the cover) is made from 100% post-consumer waste. Cover materials can also be made using environmentally friendly processes. For example, Ecological Fibers produces environmentally sound cover solutions using 100% solvent free practices. For paperback books, make sure that the coated papers for the cover maximize the use of post-consumer waste. For example, companies like New Leaf Paper provide 100% PCW coated papers that can be used for paperback covers.

7. Read your vegetables

Using vegetable-based inks can greatly reduce toxic emissions. Discuss the possibility of printing with vegetable or soy-based inks on all or a portion of the books you publish. This will be dependent on the type of equipment your printer has and the time allotted for printing in your overall production schedule. We will all breathe easier as a result, and your lungs and your children's will be grateful. For more information about inks and resources to assist you, please refer to the Ink section The Green Guide Girls: Guide to Book Publishing.

8. Don’t be afraid of commitment

Set a goal and commit to it. Developing a formal policy ensures that environmental goals will continue to be met at each publisher, even if the people currently working in production move to another job or retire. A formal policy also stresses the importance of the environmental goals for everyone working there. Perhaps the biggest advantage of developing a formal policy is that it can be used as a tool to negotiate a better price on environmental grade papers because it allows suppliers to plan for the future and buy in bulk. Consider establishing a formal policy that commits to use at least 30% post-consumer fiber and maximizes the use of FSC certified fiber. If you feel it is difficult, commit to at least 30% post-consumer recycled fiber immediately and set graduated benchmarks to reach that goal over a 3—5 year period. A sample paper policy is available online here. You as the publisher have the opportunity to lead the way to produce books that are ecologically sound while being productive, profitable and responsible in your business.

9. Shout it!—or maybe just whisper

Whether subtly or overtly, let people know you have an environmental policy in your publishing company. Say it loud, say it clear, and say it everywhere—on your website, brochure and business card. It can be as simple as including “an environmentally friendly company” on your stationery when you have this policy in place. It is essential that suppliers and customers become aware of your eco-policy so they can assist you and support your practices. Suppliers will possibly negotiate a better price for environmental paper when they know that you will be purchasing specific papers in bulk. This allows printers and mills to better understand how the market is shifting and prepare for it so they will have the environmental grade papers you need in the future. Programs like Envirowise and organizations like Green Press Initiative on page 7 of their Toolkit for Responsible Paper Use-Publishers provide guidance for writing your environmental policy.

10. Let ‘em know what color you are

Your books are your eco-advertisements! Your customers can make an informed decision to purchase your books when they know the resulting environmental benefits of the choices you made for cover materials and paper. Books should include an Eco-Audit which reveals information about the paper and materials that were used and the number of trees, gallons of wastewater, and greenhouse gas emissions conserved as a result of these choices. Eco-statements can be calculated using Environmental Defense’s Paper Calculator or the Eco-Audit process through Green Press Initiative.

1. Extra credit

Purchase renewable energy credits for a great way to go beyond choosing environmentally responsible paper and cover materials. These "credits" are an innovative way to "make-up for" carbon pollution created as a result of book production, electricity use, transportation, and other sources. This is an eco-accepted way for your publishing company to fund reforestation, development of renewable energy projects, and other mechanisms to reduce an equivalent amount of greenhouse gas emissions that resulted from the book and give back to the planet. There are many companies that can help estimate total greenhouse gas emissions. Native Energy has already worked with several publishers to offset emissions.

2. Go digital

What’s the fastest way to go green? That’s right—go digital. Whether it’s an e-book or an mp3 audio book, digital books require no paper or cover materials. Since they can be downloaded, these books require no fuel for transportation. Even better: the cost of producing an e-book or mp3 is virtually zero! Though e-books and downloadable audio books currently make up a tiny fraction of book sales, revenues for this segment have been increasing rapidly in years. As prices of e-book readers and other portable electronics that can display e-books drop, these will continue to grow in popularity. Young adults who grew up in the digital age will also enter the marketplace through e-books and mp3 files for their iPods. Though digital books may never totally replace paper and ink, producing and publicizing them can increase profit margins and greatly reduce environmental impacts.

3. Lose some weight

The greenest paper of all is the paper you don’t use. Reducing paper weight when making paper selections for printing decreases the total amount of paper that is used. A slight reduction in paper weight can be almost unnoticeable when looking at an individual book, but the total amount of paper saved from an entire print run can add up to a significant savings! When using less paper, the reduction in paper weight will also save money. In addition, since the books weigh less, less fuel is needed to ship the paper and books along the supply chain, resulting in additional economic and environmental savings. What a way to take off the weight!

4. Cash for going green?

There are programs available to reward you and your authors for going green. For example, the Plant a Tree USA™ Authors Save World™ program can create an income to offset the expense of any additional costs incurred by becoming green. The program plants trees or reforests to replace the trees used for paper production and other products. Now you really can go green without incurring all those anticipated extra costs. The Plant a Tree USATM Authors Save WorldTM program can put dollars in your pocket while you help keep more trees on the planet.

5. Your signature counts!

Another great way to communicate company environmental goals is to support the Book Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper Use, which was developed by publisher, printers, and other stakeholders. It sets industry wide goals for reducing social and environmental impacts. You can learn more about the treatise and support it at greenpressinitiative.org.

6.Beyond books and into the office

7. Industry benchmarking

There is no baseline for tracking climate impacts and progress by the US book industry in environmental improvements—yet. But there will be! The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) and Green Press Initiative (GPI) are working together, with support from a number of industry sponsors, to produce a benchmarking survey to establish this for the industry. Look for the results of this survey in November 2007. To become a part of, sponsor, and learn more about this effort, please refer to The Book Industry Study Group.

8. Get recognized for going green

Of the big 10 publishers, Random House was recently recognized by the Sustainprint.com Leadership awards at the 2007 Book Business conference as “Newcomer of the Year” for its recently announced policy to increase its use of recycled paper to 30% by 2010, up from 3% in 2006. The “Longtime Leadership” award went to Lantern Books for its environmental policy, its use of 100% recycled paper for most books, the company’s work to develop new environmentally responsible paper grades, and it role on the leadership council of the Book Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper Use.

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4.9 million: The number of trees that would be saved by shifting the book industry’s collective average to 30% post-consumer waste.

154: The number of publishers, printers, and mills have developed strong environmental policies, and/or signed the Book Industry Treatise on Responsible paper use.

2,108: Pounds of greenhouse gas emissions prevented by replacing one ton of virgin fiber with one ton of post-consumer recycled fiber.

3rd: Rank of the pulp and paper industry in the list of largest industrial greenhouse emitters.

24: Number of new book papers with environmental attributes that have been developed in the past four years.

208 million: Acres of forestland that have been FSC certified.

42: Percent of wood harvest for industrial use (everything except fuelwood) used for paper production.

40: Percent of landfilled solid waste that is paper.

1. The global warming connection

There are concrete connections between the “global warming” and recycled paper use. As publishers, your choice in recycled paper has a direct impact on global warming. Trees store carbon. Cutting down trees reduces the places for carbon to be stored. When we cut down trees to make paper, we essentially destroy our natural carbon storage sites and eliminate this natural buffer against climate change. Also, the carbon that was once stored in trees gets released in the atmosphere. Scientific studies on the increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide conclude that about 25% of the human-caused increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide is a result of deforestation.

2. Using less energy=less global warming

It takes less energy to produce paper from existing paper than it does to cut down, transport, and process new tress. Producing recycled paper saves energy, thereby reducing the pollution and emissions associated with energy production.

3. Landfills: a hot bed for methane

Waste in landfills breaks down and in turn naturally creates methane, a greenhouse gas 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Using post-consumer recycled paper keeps paper out of the landfill, both saving trees and reducing methane gas production.

4. Before and after: pre-consumer vs. post-consumer recycled fiber

Pre-consumer recycled fiber, while much better than virgin fiber, often includes scraps and trimmings leftover from the manufacturing process. Some post-industrial recycled waste, such as cuttings from envelope converting, over-printed books and magazines, and coffee cups are also labeled as pre-consumer recycled fiber and do represent some real environmental savings. Only paper that has been purchased by and collected from an end user can be labeled as post-consumer recycled fiber. The purpose of using recycled fiber is to save trees and prevent paper from being landfilled. Because recycling pre-consumer waste is very easy and cheap, it was recycled for economic reasons long before most people talked about recycling. Using post-consumer recycled fiber has the advantage of reusing paper that would otherwise be landfilled.

5. Think ink

Vegetable inks reduce the use of toxic chemicals because they do not require harsh solvents to clean the printing equipment. “Inks have different components, including pigments, as well as petroleum or vegetable oil. When you replace petroleum with a vegetable oil, whether it’s soybean oil, tung oil, or another kind of plant-based oil, what you do in the printing process is reduce the amount or percentage of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that are released from the printing plant into the air. VOCs contribute to smog. Petroleum-based inks have much higher VOCs than vegetable-based inks. The EPA monitors what printing plants (and other industries) emit into the air, so by using low VOC inks a company reduces its air pollution,” says Deborah Bruner, Director, Book Publishing Papers from New Leaf Paper. Deborah is on the Green Guide Girls™ Collective Wisdom Team™ and has an extensive background in inks.

How to Green Your Book (for authors)

Green Publishers: Turning Over a New Leaf

Q&A about printing green at home.

What is Offsetting?

Recycle the Essential Guide

Making paper from panda, kangaroo, elephant, and sheep poop.

World's Richest Self-Made Woman: A Paper Recycling Entrepreneur

Newspaper Publishing Without the Paper

Xerox’s Reusable Paper

Energy efficient bendable electronic paper.

E-book readers on mobile phones.

Digital Textbooks from McGraw-Hill and Zinio

Ecotone: First publisher to go carbon neutral.

Sony Reader: Is the Dead Tree Edition Dead Meat?

Offsetting As A SOP To The Conscience

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(Logging in an FSC-certified forest. Image source: Flickr)

Authors Save World™

Chlorine Free Products Association

Dogwood Alliance

Environmental Paper Network

Environmental Defense Paper Calculator

Forest Stewardship Council

The Green Guide Girls™

Green-e Renewable Energy

Green Press Initiative

Markets Initiative Canada

Plant a Tree USA™

E.S.P. Press Corp.

The Green Guide Girls: Guide to Book Publishing

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Cover Materials and Endpapers

Ecological Fibers

Dirigo Paper Mills

Rainbow

Paper

Dirigo Paper Mills

Dolphin Blue

Gray’s Harbor Paper

Mohawk Fine Papers

Myllykoski North America

Neenah Paper

New Leaf Paper

Printers

Bethany Press

Integrated Book Technology

Fidlar Doubleday

Friesens Corporation

Pinnacle Press

McNaughton & Gunn

Starnet Media Group

Thomson-Shore Book Manufacturing