AVAILABLE NOW!

Read all about it:

A Green Day Dawns

Download a PDF copy of the survey.

Download a two-page project information sheet.

Twelve companies have now joined as official sponsors of the Environmental Trends and Climate Impacts: Association of American University Presses, Borders Group, Inc., Cascades Fine Papers Group, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins,  Ingram Book Group/Lightning Source, Malloy, Inc., Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group, Random House, Smerillo Associates, and Thomson-Shore. Our thanks to all for their support of this project!

Presentations from GPI's BEA session on climate change, the environment and book publishing can now be downloaded here.

Introduction
Background

Scope

Timeline

Partners

Sponsors

Sub-committee members

Introduction

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 which will establish a baseline for tracking climate impacts and progress by the U.S. book industry in environmental improvements.

Background

As consumers of roughly 1.2 million tons of varying grades of paper per year, book industry organizations interested in improving the environmental impacts of their industry are setting goals and implementing policies that create positive changes throughout the supply chain from the publisher to the printer to the mill to the forest.

The result is that the book industry is reaching a "tipping point" with 130 publishers, 8 printers, and 2 paper manufacturers that either have meaningful paper policies in place or have signed the Book Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper. Two large publishers, Random House and recently Scholastic, have made public commitments along these lines.

As book industry stakeholders continue to take formal and meaningful steps towards using responsible paper, these trends will continue. In view of these developments, BISG and GPI believe it is the appropriate time to begin to track industry progress in environmental improvements by conducting the first benchmarking survey of the US industry.

Scope

The environmental benchmarking survey will seek to:

1. Track shifts in tonnage of fiber including various eco attributes such as post and pre-consumer recycled fiber, FSC- certified, other Chain of Custody (COC) certified fiber, bleaching process and alternative fiber through 2004 -2006.
    

2. Track linkages between book paper and impacts on endangered and high conservation value forests as well as impacts on indigenous and local communities.
    

3. Extrapolate industry climate footprint [from paper-making, book production, warehousing, transportation, office energy consumption, etc.] and quantify realistic opportunities for conservation efforts that will reduce climate-change impact.
    

4. Track how many constituents in the U.S. book industry have environmental policies and are actively working towards implementing their policy goals. Necessary elements should be pre-determined, for example what the policy covers, its degree of transparency, and so on.
    

5. Track recycling efforts (book lifecycle and internal corporate practices), existing energy conservation efforts, and other environmental initiatives.
    

6. Identify retail and reader support for environmental responsibility.
    

7. Identify opportunities for reducing climate impacts (through energy conservation, improved efficiencies, increased purchasing of renewable power, carbon offsetting, and other strategies.

Timeline

The project will run from May to December 2007 and will comprise five distinct phases: survey design, survey execution, data analysis, publication of findings, and presentation of findings. Survey results are expected to be publishing in March 2008.

BISG and GPI will announce in due course how the results and findings will be disseminated to the industry. In addition to the publication, BISG and GPI hope to announce an event and an education program to raise awareness and stimulate debate about the findings.

Project Partners

The mission of the Green Press Initiative (GPI) is to work with publishers, industry stakeholders and authors to create paper-use transformations that will conserve natural resources and preserve endangered forests. GPI is a non-profit program of SEE Innovation, with fiscal sponsorship provided by Social and Environmental Entrepreneurs. It is funded primarily through grant foundations. Past and present funders include: FSC Global Fund, The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, Giles and Elise Mead Foundation, Merck Family Fund, Town Creek Foundation, Wallace Global Fund, and the Weeden Foundation. In addition publishers, printers, merchants, and mills committed to improving their sector are also making contributions to GPI to support its continued work. Learn more at http://www.greenpressinitiative.org/.

The Book Industry Study Group, Inc. (BISG) is the US industry’s leading trade association for policy, standards and research whose mission is to create a more informed, empowered, and efficient book industry supply chain. Membership consists of publishers, manufacturers, suppliers, wholesalers, retailers, librarians and others engaged in the business of print and electronic media. For over 30 years, BISG has provided a forum for all industry professionals to come together and efficiently address issues and concerns to advance the book community. Learn more at http://www.bisg.org/.

Borealis Center has been commissioned by BISG and GPI to run the research and analysis for the Environmental Trends and Climate Impacts Study. They are a leading research organization for the non-profit sector focusing on environmental impacts through the chain of production. They have worked closely with the Environmental Paper Network and its members – including Greenpeace International, ForestEthics – and other organizations such as World Wildlife Fund. Their Senior Research Associates include a forest economist, a marine biologist and other specialists and are based in Europe, Canada, the US, and the Asia-Pacific region. Jim Ford – the leader of the work on the Environmental Trends and Climate Impacts Study – is one of the leading authors of the State of the Paper Industry Report (forthcoming in mid-2007). Learn more at http://www.borealiscentre.org/.

Sponsors

Organizations that sponsor the environmental study are recognized as supporters of a pioneering research effort which aims for the first time to track progress in the U.S. book industry towards more environment-friendly practices. Sponsorship money will cover research and publication costs for the benchmarking study as well as provide support for a conference on environmental issues currently scheduled to be held in New York City. Membership in BISG and/or GPI is not a requirement of sponsorship.

Position your company as a supporter of pioneering environmental research...become a sponsor!

CHAMPIONS

SUPPORTERS

CONTRIBUTORS

FRIENDS

MAPLE-VAIL BOOK MANUFACTURING GROUP (logo to come)

Sub-committee members

The U.S. Environmental Trends and Climate Impacts Study is overseen by a sub-committee of BISG's Research Committee.

Current sub-committee participants include:

Fred Stoss

Co-Chair

ALA Task Force on the Environment

Maree McCaskill

Chief Executive Officer

Australian Publishers Association

Aaron Milam

Coordinator for Sustainability Initiatives

Anderson Merchandisers

Ed McCoyd

Director of Digital Policy

Association of American Publishers

Brenna McLaughlin

Communications Manager

Association of American University Presses

Joe Gonnella

VP, Inventory Manager & Vendor Relations

Barnes and Noble

Susannah Carney

Barnes and Noble

Jackie Fry

BNC SalesData Project Manager

BookNet Canada

Jen Slajus

BGI Merch Ops Project Lead

Borders Group, Inc.

Julie Loyer

Communication Coordinator

Cascades Fine Papers Group

Nicole Poindexter

Director of Strategic Planning

Hachette Book Group

Erin Crum

Director, Corporate Communications

HarperCollins

Leslie Hulse

VP Global Marketing & Internet Strategy

HarperCollins

Valerie Lyle

Director of Purchasing

HarperCollins

Mark Nobel

VP, Operations

Independent Publishers Group

Kelley Maier

SVP Product, Marketing, Merchandising

Ingram Book Group

Lisa Horak
Marketing Manager
Lightning Source Inc.

Bill Upton

President

Malloy, Inc.

Bill Long

Vice President of Sales & Marketing

Maple-Vail Book Manufacturing Group

Charles Melcher

President

Melcher Media

Deborah Bruner

Director, Book Publishing Papers

New Leaf Paper

Allen Noren

Director of Online Marketing

O'Reilly Media

Doug Lessing

Director of Client Relations

Quality Solutions

Andrew Van Der Laan

Director of Production Planning

Random House

Terry Martin

Manager, Socially Responsible Supplier Program

Reed Elseiver, Inc. (UK)

Kelly Gallagher

General Manager, Business Intelligence

RR Bowker

Sally Dedecker

President

Sally Dedecker Enterprises

Lisa Serra

Scholastic

Gary Smerillo

Principal

Smerillo Associates

Myron Marsh

President / CEO

Thomson-Shore

BISG and GPI representatives to the sub-committee:

Angela Bole

Associate Director

Book Industry Study Group, Inc.

Email: angela@bisg.org

Michael Healy

Executive Director

Book Industry Study Group, Inc.

Email: michael@bisg.org

Tyson Miller

Program Director

Green Press Initiative

Email: tyson@seeinnovation.org