Random House, one of the biggest publishing houses in the UK has gone public with a commitment towards making its book production 'ancient forest friendly'. This is a major step in helping to ensure the survival of the world's last ancient forests.
We've been working with Random House as part of the Greenpeace Book Campaign, which encourages publishers to stop sourcing paper from ancient forests, and instead commit to ancient forest friendly solutions. Random House will now be working with its suppliers to move towards Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified and recycled paper for its books.
Forests campaigner Belinda Fletcher said "Greenpeace welcomes this great commitment by Random House to introduce an ancient forest friendly procurement policy that will help lessen the pressure on the world's ancient forests. This commitment is the most comprehensive commitment developed by a UK publisher to date and sets a good example for other publishing houses to follow."
Stephen Esson, Group Production Director at Random House, said: "The selection of the right paper is of vital vital importance from an environmental as well as a commercial perspective and I look forward to working with our suppliers to increase the availability of FSC certified paper. Of course, any development of recycled grades more appropriate to the practical and commercial requirements of the book market would also be welcomed."
The announcement is also great news for Random House authors, including Anne Fine and John O'Farrell, who have been supporting the Greenpeace campaign. Children's author Anne Fine said "I am really delighted that Random House have made this commitment. I very much hope my next book will now be printed on ancient forest friendly paper, which will help preserve the world's last ancient forest for the children of the future."
John O'Farrell quipped 'I am delighted that my publishers have announced that they will use ancient forest friendly paper. I will now do my bit for the environment by recycling all my jokes.'
Random House UK is following in the footsteps of its Canadian counterpart, who along with 70 other publishing houses have made formal commitments to phase out ancient forest fibre from their books. As a result six million Canadian books have been printed on ancient forest friendly paper, including JK Rowling's 'Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix'.
