This Christmas, three years after the launch of the Greenpeace Book Campaign, consumers are able to buy a good range of high profile books printed on ancient forest friendly paper.
Such books include Bill Bryson's 'Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid' (Random House), Mark Haddon's 'A Spot of Bother' (Random House) and Bernard Cornwall's 'Sharpe's Fury' (Harper Collins) all printed on Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper [1]. In addition, Margaret Atwood's 'The Tent' (Bloomsbury) and Tristram Stewart's 'The Bloodless Revolution' (Harper Collins) are printed on recycled paper. Children's books are also available - from Michael Morpurgo's 'Kensuke's Kingdom' and Alice Hoffman's 'The Foretelling to Giles Thaxton's Spud goes Green' (all Egmont) printed on recycled and FSC certified papers.
Forest campaigner Belinda Fletcher said, "Whilst we may not have a white Christmas this year, the book publishing industry are making great strides to help us have a green one. There are an increasing number of books on sale that are printed on ancient forest friendly paper, which is great news for the environment and for consumers. Make sure you look out for the recycled and Forest Stewardship Council logo when buying your Xmas books this year."
Over the past eighteen months over 40 per cent of the UK's book publishing houses, including Random House, Harper Collins, Penguin, Bloomsbury and Egmont, have introduced 'green' policies. These publishers are now printing some of their books on recycled and FSC certified papers.
However, the UK's largest publisher, Hachette [2], which owns Hodder Headline, Orion, Little Brown and Octopus, is lagging behind the rest of the industry. It is one of the few publishing houses which have yet to respond to the issues raised by Greenpeace Book Campaign.
Despite repeatedly highlighting these concerns to Hachette, requests by Greenpeace to meet with the company have been refused [3].
Fletcher continued, "Hachette UK is the Grinch when it comes to using ancient forest friendly paper this Christmas. We will continue to encourage the UK's largest publishing house to follow the lead taken by other progressive players in the industry."
In 2003 Greenpeace released a report which detailed how the UK publishing industry was inadvertently fuelling the destruction of ancient forest regions in Finland and Canada, as well as sourcing paper from Russia (via Finland), where at least 50 per cent of logging is estimated to be illegal. Many publishers also print children's titles in South East Asia, on paper that could be linked to South East Asian rainforest destruction [4]).
Editor's notes:
Pictures available from the Greenpeace Press Office on 0207 865 8225.
For the latest information on the book campaign, please see our new author's newsletter at www.greenpeace.org.uk/spread-the-word-1206.
[1] FSC certification is the only way that a company can ensure that its virgin fibre is coming from socially and environmentally responsible sources.
[2] Hachette controls 17 per cent of the UK market place.
[3] Hachette stated in recent correspondence to Greenpeace that its paper is 'sourced from wood grown in managed and sustainable and reputable forests' and that its 'procurement policy is extremely similar to that of the more enlightened of our competitors'. However, Hachette failed to provide a copy of its paper procurement policy with the letter and has also refused to make it available to interested journalist and have not put it on their website. In addition, Hachette UK made only passing reference to FSC certified fibre in the letter and made no reference at all to recycled fibre. These are the main ways that the company can ensure its books are printed on environmentally and socially responsible sources.
[4] Report available at http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/MultimediaFiles/Live/FullReport/6583.pdf.
