The impact that the book industry has on the environment comes as no surprise, but how can we take action on climate change?
In this 5 questions with series, we’ll be interviewing publishers who are going green and taking serious steps to reduce their impact on the environment.
To start us off, we had the pleasure of interviewing Jen Knoch (Senior Editor) and David Caron (Co-Publisher, President) at ECW Press. Located in Toronto, ECW Press is committed to environmental sustainability across their publishing house — from promoting environmental titles, to printing books on sustainable paper, to working electronically.
Here are Jen and David’s answers to our questionnaire.
1. Why green your publishing? What are some of the business reasons that led your company to incorporate environmental sustainability as a goal?
Greening our publishing is less a business decision than a moral one, although it’s fair to say there’s no publishing on a dead planet. That said, some sustainable choices are also good for the bottom line: things like conservative print runs paired with careful inventory monitoring (although that’s becoming less viable in the current printer-availability crunch) or digital advance reading copies can save money. For black-and-white books, printing on 100% post-consumer waste (PCW) paper also isn’t significantly more expensive, so that’s been an impactful decision we’ve been making for many years. Sometimes a little bit more spending can have a greater impact on a more sustainable environment.
2. Of the green initiatives you have implemented, which one made the biggest impact?
We know that 91% of our publishing footprint comes from paper choices, so ensuring we’re using the most post-consumer content possible on every book is the best way to reduce our footprint.
3. What resources or tools have you used to benchmark and keep track of your company's environmental impact? And how do you know when you’ve been successful with your initiatives?
For many years we stored the percentage of PCW in our books in our database so we could track that progress. We also calculate and track the carbon effect of the other 9% of our footprint and seek ways to reduce. For example, flights are the second-largest factor, and even in non-pandemic times, how can we take fewer flights? Recently we’ve submitted our application to become a certified B Corp, which was a way to assess our environmental goals (along with our social and governance goals). The B Corp process requires regular renewal and new targets, so that mechanism will help keep us on track and striving to do better.
4. How do you investigate the sustainability of your supply chain partners (distributors, retailers, printers, shippers, etc.)? Is having supply chain partners that also support environmental sustainability important to you?
Working with supply chain partners that are undertaking such efforts is very important to us. We work with distributors to consolidate shipments so that we are being as efficient as possible with shipping books to stores. We work only with domestic printers that offer PCW paper choices, and try to keep printing as local as possible so that the distance from our printers to warehouse is as short as possible. We do use our leverage where we can, though, asking for more PCW options from the digital presses we use regularly for short runs and ARCs. We’ve also lately been focusing on the banks we use, since banks fund so much of the fossil fuel business (RBC is the fifth-biggest fossil fuel funder in the world) and are looking into credit union alternatives.
5. What roadblocks do you face within the industry when trying to implement sustainable practices? What broader industry commitments need to be made to make the book industry more environmentally sustainable?
The lack of availability of coated stocks (for four-colour books) with PCW content of more than 10% is a serious obstacle to reducing footprints — those are also the books (children’s books, cookbooks, art books) least easily replaced by ebooks. Beyond that, the entire returns paradigm is, of course, difficult, meaning books can be shipped somewhere, be shipped back, and then possibly be destroyed. Above all, it’s challenging to make green decisions that incur any sort of extra expense in an industry with such low margins. Specific funding for publishers to enable them to make greener choices and help Canada meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals would enable publishers to better balance purpose and profit.
BONUS: We all know that achieving these goals is an ongoing process, but what do you think are some quick wins for organizations or even individual employees?
The most impactful individual action is likely avoiding a flight (and avoiding someone else taking it in your place). Can you do the meeting or conference virtually? Can you take a train or drive (especially if you can carpool)? This is something we’re thinking about in terms of author touring as well, at least so long as it isn’t a major inconvenience for the author. A train from Toronto to Ottawa doesn’t take much longer, door-to-door, than a plane, and releases less than 1/3 of the carbon. We’ve used carefully researched carbon offsets in the past, but we’re currently reassessing if that’s the best practice, since carbon offsets are a band-aid at best.
Beyond that, we think there are all kinds of small opportunities for staff to green an office, whether it’s choosing to rent glassware instead of relying on disposable plastics for events; creating less promotional junk like buttons, postcards, or tote bags; choosing vegetarian catering; cycling or taking transit to work; or implementing a compost system. (Before we had green bin collection, one of our staff used to bring home the organics in an ice cream container with a face drawn on it. His name was Compie, and once he accidentally got left in a movie theatre.)
Thank you, Jen and David, for taking the time to answer our questionnaire! Stay tuned for more interviews with publishers going green and for more ways that you can prioritize making your work sustainable.
Are you a Canadian independent bookseller or small publisher interested in being featured in our 5 questions with blog series? Send us an email!
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