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Book manufacturers and paper suppliers, still recovering from a difficult 2009, are sticking with sustainability, accelerating the use of proven conservation measures while devising newer practices. But the newer efforts are different; they're less about saving than gaining, more about developing distinctive messages for different constituents than a blanket statement, and, most clearly, they're about documenting and unifying—often branding—the various parts of sustainability into a formal companywide program. Gone is the usual checklist approach to compliance, and, interestingly, more companies are funding public-service campaigns and advocacy messages about their green initiatives.
Companies are also changing the game, adopting digital presses or expanding sustainability to include employee wellness. In virtually all company literature today, there are precise comparability measurements, publicized in reports to employees, shareholders, the news media, and the local and industry community. Firms commonly announce achievements in standardizing green procurement, minimizing waste and environmental impact, and pursuing resource efficiency in raw materials, energy, and water.
Most companies also are continuing the early emphasis on corporate social responsibility and environmental stewardship, which now extends to developing best practices and sharing them with clients and others. Following are examples of current sustainability efforts by manufacturers and paper suppliers.
Courier Corporation, North Chelmsford, Mass., is one book producer exemplifying progress across multiple fronts. "Sustainability is as hot a topic now as before the economy softened in late 2008," says v-p Peter Tobin. "Environmental issues have not faded in this difficult economy, but really have become an integral part of all our business and manufacturing discussions." Courier has achieved triple certification from FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative), and PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forestry Certification) programs, which allows them to label publishers' books to reflect responsible environmental management, from the forests through manufacturing, Tobin notes.
Tobin says Courier also created its now popular Green Edition program, which requires that books be made from recycled paper and be manufactured in the U.S., where, he notes, environmental, health, and safety regulations are among the strictest in the world. "The Green Edition mark," he explains, "enables our customers to showcase their commitment to higher environmental standards in which emissions are reduced, energy is conserved, and comprehensive recycling programs are in place."
Courier has also adopted digital book production. "Six months ago, we started up a T300 color inkjet web press from Hewlett-Packard that's a great environmental asset," Tobin says. "It's smaller, requires much less energy than an offset press, uses low-emission water-based inks, and is efficient at much smaller runs." Courier installed the HP line to produce short-run books, then found it ideal for out-of-print titles. Courier is now adding a second press.
"Most agree that 2009 was the worst year in book publishing in maybe 50 years," says John J. Edwards, the fourth-generation of Edwardses to be president of Edwards Brothers, Ann Arbor, Mich., "but things are improving." While the importance of sustainability continues unabated, Edwards says, last year's slump clearly had an effect on the value of recycled material while pushing up expenses for common recycling practices or disposal.
"Some recycled products have little or no value in a down market so waste can go from a quality recycle material to a landfill liability since no one wants the materials," explains Edwards. "That's a business cost since we have to pay to remove the materials, as much as $500 per Dumpster load." Still, Edwards adds, the company is committed to recycling, "because we have a zero-landfill goal and recycling is built into all of our manufacturing. We work on efficiency in all aspects—materials, energy, supply chain, waste—and are now trying to print closer to the user to minimize our carbon footprint."
Publishing news from across the Web
In an open letter to the DoJ published on Digital Book World, agent Simon Lipskar says the government has "a fatally flawed understanding of the economics and history of the emerging e-book industry."
The publisher has reduced the retail prices of e-books to the level of the paperback equivalents of about 2,000 literary titles published in hardback.
Inside University of Nebraska's Bison Books, which publishes four to eight hardcore baseball books per year.
The publisher is trying to handle its debt load.
| Guilty Wives | Audio Fiction |
| Killing Lincoln (unabr.) | Audio Nonfiction |
| Serpent's Shadow | Children's Fiction |
| Duckling Gets a Cookie!? | Children's Picture Book |
| Hunger Games | Children's Series & Tie-ins |
| Blue Exorcist, Volume 3 | Graphic Novels |
| Deadlocked: A Sookie Stackhouse Novel | Hardcover Fiction |
| Passage of Power: The Years of Lyndon Johnson | Hardcover Nonfiction |
| The Lucky One | Mass Market Paper |
| Fifty Shades of Grey: Book One of the Fifty Shades Trilogy | Trade Paper |
