Thursday, November 8, 2007

Reading Green

Simon & Schuster have announced their commitment to use more environmentally friendly paper, a move which will, according to its calculations, save 483,000 trees every year.
Following in the footsteps of Random House, which became the first major publisher to establish a green publishing policy when it announced in May it would significantly up its use of recycled paper, S&S plans to increase the level of recycled fiber in its paper from 10% to 25% by 2012. S&S, which worked with the Green Press Initiative and other groups to come up with its policy, also announced a goal to buy 10% of its paper from forests certified by the Forest Stewardship Council. This, according to Green Press Initiative spokesman Tyson Miller, marks the first time a publisher is working with the FSC, an organization that ensures the fibers used in paper are not coming from endangered forests or from trees on land owned by indigenous tribes.

When asked when he thought the other big houses might follow suit, Miller said "a very large multinational publisher” will be going public with a paper policy before the end of the year and that three other houses will be making similar announcements in 2008.

Shocking that book publishers wouldn’t have been the first ones to step up. It’s a good start anyway. Don’t forget, buying second-hand or borrowing from the library (a neat little invention of Ben Franklin) is even better than buying brand new books!

POW! (you know the rest of it).

Source: Publishers Weekly

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