Simon & Schuster Gets a Little Greener
Efforts to green the world of book publishing made headlines earlier this year when “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows” publisher Scholastic teamed up with the Rainforest Alliance. Now, New York publisher Simon & Schuster is getting on the green bandwagon with help from the Green Press Initiative. The initiative will increase recycled content and the amount of sustainably harvested materials, or responsible fiber sourcing, in books.
Part of Simon & Schuster’s plan is to eliminate paper made from old-growth forest areas. This will be done by purchasing paper that is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). The publisher announced recently that by 2012 at least 10 percent of its paper would be FSC certified.
FSC in an international organization that acts as an independent third party to track “chain-of-custody” on wood products. The FSC label guarantees that the wood is from a certified well-managed forest that brings social and economic benefits to local communities.
According to the FSC, the U.S. is the:
largest market for paper products in the world, producing 90 million tons of paper annually and consuming about 100 million tons. Despite improved technologies for refining post consumer pulp, virgin fiber is still a significant requirement, as only 35% of current consumption is met by using recycled fiber; in addition, approximately 25% of recovered fiber is exported out of US markets. Roughly 25% by volume of timber cut annually in the US is used for paper production.
I think that any green moves by Simon & Schuster will make a positive impact given the sheer volume of the publisher’s market. Still, 10% FSC certified content and 35% recycled content (the current standard) leaves quite a bit of room for further action to reduce environmental impact. In a simple calculation it actually leaves more than 50% questionable fiber sourcing, which is significant. And it will apparently take Simon & Schuster 5 years to get to that point. But the new initiative is definitely a step in the right direction.
Here’s a couple of links if you’re interested in responsible fiber sourcing: