Book Industry Environmental Council's Goal: Reduce Emissions by 20%
By Lynn Andriani -- Publishers Weekly, 4/16/2009 2:02:00 PM
The Book Industry Environmental Council announced aggressive goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at a web conference Thursday afternoon. The council’s target: to reduce the U.S. book industry’s greenhouse gas emissions 20% by 2020 (from a 2006 baseline), and to achieve an 80% reduction by 2050.
Green Press Initiative founder and director Tyson Miller called the undertaking “pretty substantial,” but Pete Datos, chair of the Council’s climate subcommittee and a v-p at Hachette Book Group, said it is “meaningful and achievable.” The Council based its goal on a 2008 industry-focused report which concluded that the U.S. book industry has a climate impact equivalent to 12.4 million metric tons of carbon. A 20% reduction would represent a savings of up to 2.5 million metric tons per year, the equivalent annual emissions of approximately 450,000 cars. “Science tells us [a 20% reduction] is necessary to avoid the worst impact,” Datos said, noting that the report’s findings are “in line with a lot of other research and work.”
The council chose 2006 as its baseline because it is the first year from which it has data available. Datos said there are “many possible paths” to take in order to lower emissions by 20%. Paper is the industry’s largest impact (nearly 65% of the sector’s carbon footprint), but returns also play a role. Datos said reducing returns from 25% to 20% would have an impact. “I have confidence we can reduce returns dramatically,” he said. “We have to work together to do that in a way that is equitable for the whole industry. We have better methods to forecast, we can get books printed and shipped faster than ever before.” BISG will measure the industry's use of recycled fiber annually and will take industrywide carbon measurements every five years to gauge how the business is progressing toward its goals.
The Council is comprised of more than 40 industry companies and is coordinated by the Green Press Initiative and the Book Industry Study Group.
