Book
Publishing Industry
Some facts about the book publishing
industry:
Number of new titles published
annually in the U.S.: 172,000
(2005 figures)
Number of books produced annually
in the U.S.: 4.15 billion (2006 figures)
Number of books sold annually
in the U.S.: 3.09 billion (2006 figures)
55 percent of fiction is bought
by women, 45 percent by men
Annual revenues of U.S. book publishers:
$26.8 billion (2004 figures)
Annual revenues of European book
publishers: Euro 22.3 billion (2004 figures)
Number of book publishers in
the U.S.: more than 80,000
Number of U.S. book publishers
who signed the Book
Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper Use initiated by
the Green Press Initiative to improve their ecological footprint:
about 150
This means that only 0.19% (!) of all U.S. publishers ARE
committed at the moment to the goals defined in the treatise:
increasing the use of recycled paper to a 30 percent average
by 2012, stopping the usage of fiber originating from endangered
forests, using more fiber coming from certified forests (20%
in average by 2012), etc.
At the same time, we see in the last couple of years a growing
awareness to environmental issues within the industry, including
some of the biggest publishers. Here are some examples from
the last two years:
Random
House, a leading U.S. publisher, announced in May 2006
that it will raise the proportion of recycled paper it uses
to at least 30% by 2010 from under 3% at the time of the announcement.
On November 2007, Simon
& Schuster announced on a new environmental initiative
and paper policy that will increase the amount of recycled
fiber in the paper used to manufacture its books - an incremental
increase of the use of recycled fiber from its current 10%
baseline level to a 25% or greater aggregate level by 2012
for books printed and bound in the U.S.
On January 2008, Scholastic,
the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's
books, announced on a new green policy that is meant to "further
strengthening its sustainable paper procurement practices".
Scholastic's policy is based on a five-year goal to increase
its publication paper purchase of FSC-certified paper to 30%
and its use of recycled paper to 25%, of which 75% will be
post-consumer waste.
The number of trees that are
cut down annually to produce the books sold in the U.S.:
more than 20 million (according to data from the past 3 years)
Percentage of recycled
paper currently used by U.S. book publishers in the production
of books: 5%-10%
The environmental impacts of the book publishing industry
are analyzed and reviewed in an extensive report published
on March 2008. 'Environmental
Trends and Climate Impacts: Findings from the U.S. Book Industry',
a 86-page report, was prepared by the Green
Press Initiative (GPI) and the Book
Industry Study Group (BISG), with support from a number
of industry sponsors.
76 publishers, representing more than 45% of market share
by revenue, participated in the study, along with 13 printers
(about 25 percent) and 6 paper mills (about 17 percent). This
is an up to date analysis of the industry's ecological footprint
and the most detailed survey someone has done for years to
receive a clear picture of the book publishing industry's
environmental impacts. Eco-Libris covered the report in a
3-part series, which is available on this page: www.ecolibris.net/book_industry_footprint.asp
Some of the important findings in the report regarding
the industry's footprint are:
The carbon footprint of a book
(2006 figures): 8.85 lbs, in carbon dioxide terms
The total carbon footprint
of the book publishing industry (2006 figures):
12.4 million metric tons
The biggest contributor to
the industry's footprint: using virgin paper
- forest and forest harvest are responsible to 62.7% of the
industry's total carbon emissions.
Usage of recycled paper
We want to see every publisher
using recycled paper and want to encourage publishers to aim
higher and adopt even bolder goals than those in the above-mentioned
treatise. Today, recycled paper has become more affordable
– according to the Green Press Initiative, 24 new types
of book paper with strong environmental attributes have come
to market in the last couple of years. According to industry
experts, the price of recycled paper is only slightly higher
than that of regular paper. In some cases there’s even
no difference at all – in a 2005 survey conducted by
Book Business Magazine, 17% of publishers using at least 30%
post-consumer recycled fiber were able to achieve cost parity.
It also seems that there is more willingness by consumers
to pay more to support a move to recycled paper. A 2005 study
of American book and magazine readers found that almost 80%
of consumers are willing to pay more for books printed on
recycled paper (42% are willing to pay $1 more per book according
to the survey).
Greater use of recycled paper will also decrease other environmental
impacts of the book industry. Making paper from recycled paper
is generally a cleaner and more efficient process than making
paper from virgin fiber, as much of the work of extracting
and bleaching the fibers has already been done. The results
are less air and water pollution and lower water and energy
consumption (20%-30% less energy).
More information on the advantages of using recycled paper
can be found in this paper
prepared by the Environmental Defense and the Alliance for
Environmental Innovation.
Further development of sustainable
non-tree materials for the production of books
We believe in the importance
of conducting more research to develop economically viable
paper content made from cellulose-rich agricultural residue
(such as cereal straw, sugarcane bagasse, corn stover, etc.),
or from crops that are ideally suited for paper production,
like hemp or kenaf.
Use of paper that comes from
certified forests
We think that recycled paper
should be used as much as possible in the production of books.
If trees are used to make raw materials for paper, they should
only be from forests certified by forest management systems,
such as the Forest
Stewardship Council (FSC) certification.
FSC is an independent non-profit organization that sets standards
worldwide for responsible forest management. These standards
are aimed to promote environmentally appropriate, socially
beneficial, and economically viable management of the world's
forests. For example, the standards include requirements to
manage forests in a way that conserves biological diversity
and its associated values, water resources, soils, and unique
and fragile ecosystems and landscapes, in order to maintain
the ecological functions and the integrity of the forest.
Using FSC certified paper ensures that the paper does not
originate from trees in endangered forests, that the forests
it is derived from were not converted to single-species tree
farms after harvest, and that the biodiversity and the resilience
of ecosystems is maintained.
Green reports about and from
BookExpo America (BEA) 2008:
Back
from the Trenches: Eco-Libris in Book Expo America. Part 1
- ABA's Day of Education, Eco-Libris blog, Eylon Israely,
June 3, 2008 - Report on the American Booksellers Association's
(ABA) green events at their day of education on the BEA.
Electronic
Device Stirs Unease at Book Fair, New York Times,
Edward Wyatt, June 2, 2008 - Report from BookExpo America
on how publishers and bookstores address the growing sales
of e-books, with regards to the increasing popularity of Amazon's
Kindle.
Turning
Over a New Leaf at BookExpo, BusinessWeek, Hardy Green,
June 1, 2008 - At its annual trade show, the book publishing
industry seemed intent on finding ways to use less paper and
shrink its carbon footprint.
Publishing
convention not quite green, Yahoo! News, Hillel Italie,
AP, May 26, 2008 -BookExpo America, the publishing industry's
annual showcase and trend-spotter, is admittedly a little
behind in the race to go green.
Sources:
1. Environmental
Trends and Climate Impacts: Findings from the U.S. Book Industry
2. Green
Press Initiative
3. Random
House
4. Dan's Poynter's ParaPublishing.com
5. Federation
of European Publishers
6. U.S.
Census Bureau
7. Publishers
Weekly
8. Bowker
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