BISG Names Green Book Alliance Recipient of 2026 Industry Innovator Award
The Book Industry Study Group (BISG) has named the Green Book Alliance (GBA) the recipient of its 2026 Industry Innovator Award, recognizing the development and launch of the GBA Book Carbon Calculator, a free tool designed to help publishers and their supply chain partners better understand—and act on—the carbon impact of book production.
The award will be presented during BISG@50: Book Publishing Next Forum & Anniversary Celebration, taking place Wednesday, September 16, 2026, at The New York Historical in New York City.
BISG’s Industry Innovator Award recognizes an organization or individual that boldly reimagines what publishing is and what it can be. The GBA Book Carbon Calculator does exactly that: transforming complex environmental impact data into a practical tool that can be used as part of real-world printing and sourcing decisions.
Available free of charge, the calculator allows publishers, printers, and other industry partners to estimate the carbon footprint of an individual book and explore how production choices can affect emissions. It can also help organizations establish baselines, track progress over time, and incorporate sustainability considerations into planning and reporting.
“The Green Book Alliance imagined that carbon data could become something more than a retrospective measurement—it could become part of the decision-making process itself,” said Allison Belan, Executive Director of BISG. “The Book Carbon Calculator puts a practical, accessible tool directly into the hands of the people making production and sourcing decisions. That combination of collaboration, accessibility, and real-world application represents exactly the kind of industry innovation this award was created to recognize.”
Launched in 2020, the Green Book Alliance is an international collaboration jointly led by Book Industry Communication (BIC), Book Industry Study Group (BISG), and BookNet Canada (BNC) to advance environmental sustainability across the global book publishing supply chain.
The GBA Book Carbon Calculator grew out of industry conversations about the need for more accessible and actionable sustainability data, including a workshop on sustainability data collection at the 2025 Frankfurt Book Fair.
Building on tools originally developed by New Society Publishers and ECW Press, and with generous support from Gibbs Smith, Friesens, and Publishing Scotland, the Green Book Alliance worked collaboratively to create a web-based resource that could be used across international markets.
The result is a tool designed not only to measure emissions, but to encourage better conversations among publishers, printers, paper suppliers, and other supply chain partners about the environmental consequences of production choices.
“The Green Book Alliance shows what can be achieved when the book industry works collaboratively and openly across borders. Since its launch in June 2026, the GBA’s Book Carbon Calculator has already been used in 19 countries, demonstrating the demand for a practical, accessible carbon data tool that can be used “live” to inform workflow decision making,” said Karina Urquhart, BIC’s Executive Director. “We’re delighted to see this collaborative effort recognised by BISG and hope the current and future versions of our calculator will help turn better information into better decisions for a more sustainable book industry.”
BISG introduced its Industry Innovator Award in 2014. Recent recipients include Spotify, Scribd, Hederis, Wattpad Studios, Bookshop.org, and Macmillan Learning. Additional honorees include LitBar, Little Free Library, Project Cicero, SheWrites Press, and Sourcebooks.
The award will be presented during the Book Publishing Next Forum, the afternoon program of BISG@50. The Forum will bring together leaders from publishing, manufacturing, distribution, retail, libraries, and technology for forward-looking conversations about the future of the book industry. The day will conclude with BISG’s 50th Anniversary Celebration, honoring the people, partnerships, and milestones that have shaped the organization and the publishing supply chain over the past five decades.
For more information about BISG@50 or to purchase tickets, visit bisg.org.
About the Green Book Alliance
The Green Book Alliance is an international initiative dedicated to advancing environmental sustainability within the book publishing industry. Jointly led by Book Industry Communication, the Book Industry Study Group, and BookNet Canada, the GBA brings together organizations and stakeholders across international markets to identify practical approaches to reducing the environmental impact of the book publishing supply chain.