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Initiative Pushes Environmentally-Friendly Paper PracticesThe Green Press Initiative (GPI) and National Wildlife Federation (NWF) are reaching out to educational publishers and trumpeting the need for textbooks and other educational materials to be produced on environmentally responsible paper. According to GPI Program Director Tyson Miller, the organization's focus on the education sector comes as the next logical step in a bigger process - one that began in the trade book sector over four years ago. "Because we're a fairly small program, we've had to focus on one thing at a time. We started with trade books because they make up a majority of the publishing sector. Now that we've seen some success, we feel like we're ready to move into other segments of the publishing industry and the National Wildlife Federation’s participation is a great addition.” The campaign seeks to curb and eventually eliminate the use of paper made from endangered forest fiber throughout the publishing industry. To this end, both organizations encourage companies to adopt policies that maximize the use of postconsumer recycled fiber and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)* certified virgin fiber content. Miller also feels the initiative will be particularly relevant to an industry whose materials are educating the next generation. "What more meaningful place to illustrate the connection between our material choices and their impact on the environment?" asked Miller. The GPI estimates the U.S. book publishing industry consumes over a ton of paper - or about 20 million trees - every year. Many of these trees come from endangered forest regions such as the Southeastern U.S., where many native forests are being converted to plantations that support 90% fewer species, or the Canadian Boreal, which serves as a nesting ground for nearly 40% of North American bird species. The goal of the program is to raise awareness about these endangered forests, to encourage publishers to seek out and use more environment-friendly alternatives, and to develop the infrastructure for environmentally preferred paper. "Many folks are hesitant to commit because they think nothing's available or the alternatives will cost them more," said Miller. "But the reality is, over the past few three to four years, over 20 new book papers with strong environmental attributes have been developed." According to Miller, 15 U.S. printers now stock book papers with recycled and/or Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified pulp, and several offer these papers at cost parity to virgin fiber papers. The GPI website offers paper policy templates for both small-to-mid-sized publishers and large or multi-national companies. They also encourage publishers to promote change within the supply chain by requesting recycled/FSC paper. It can be found at http://www.greenpressinitiative.org. * FSC certification is widely accepted as the best practice standard for forest management.
Questions, ideas, or in need of more information? Please contact Stacey Pusey at 302-295-8349. |
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© 2011 The Association of Educational
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