While Climate change has become a popular topic for publishers, and the number of books published about climate change, both the causes and effects, has increased, only a few publishers have made an effort to become climate neutral. In the US alone, the publishing industry annually uses about 32 million trees to make their books.
Book publishing has been ranked as the third-largest industrial greenhouse emitter when it comes to paper and pulp, 40% of solid waste within landfills is paper. However, in the past few years, major publishers have started to pledge to become climate neutral after assessing their environmental impact.
For example, Hachette Book Group created a comprehensive environmental policy in 2009 and sat out goals to lower their greenhouse gas emissions and find responsible paper sources. Springer Nature has also committed to becoming carbon neutral for its business operations and employee flights by the end of 2020. Likewise Bertelsmann, the parent company of Penguin Random House, also aims to be climate neutral by 2030. By Taking their share of responsibility in the battle against climate change and global warming, they are switching to 100% green electricity, installing a solar system, improving systems, improving energy efficiency, and using alternative mobility concepts.
Since printed books are not going away any time soon, there are multiple environmentally friendly choices that publishers can make. Aside from attaining responsibly sourced paper, or FSC approved paper, they could also switch to eco-friendly inks. Vegetable-based inks, for example, can help to bring down toxic emissions.
Publishing is a vast industry, and therefore any step forward is a step in the right direction when it comes to taking care of the planet.
As promised, here is the Kickstarter update about the anthology ‘Where the Veil is Thin’. As of March 2nd, it was successfully funded, and therefore it will be published. After some final checks, the physical copies should be ready for a May delivery. 552 backers have managed to raise a total of $10,345. Hopefully, the physical copy will be in my grasp in May, and therefore there will be one further update.
So far, this has been a successful Kickstarter project, and my backing paid off; however, there are still publishing projects that do not get fully funded , which for first-time publishers, can be disheartening.
