Publishing does a lot of good: promoting global understanding, sharing knowledge, providing low-impact entertainment, supporting education and lifelong learning. But it also requires a lot of paper, much of which is sourced from unsustainably managed forest. Greenpeace has launched a campaign to promote sustainable publishing practices, and as a result The Armchair Environmentalist is one of the first books in the UK to be printed on 100% recycled paper, and I’m delighted of course.

“Greenpeace is urging UK publishers to follow the example of Canadian publishers, 35 of whom, including Random House Canada and Penguin Canada, have made formal commitments to phase out ancient forest fibre from their books. As a result five new ‘ancient forest friendly’ book papers have been created and three million Canadian books have been printed on ‘ancient forest friendly’ paper.

“This includes the Canadian edition of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which is the only edition in the world printed on 100% post consumer recycled paper.

“By printing the Canadian edition of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on 100% post-consumer, processed chlorine-free paper, significant ecological savings were made, including:

* 39,320 trees.
* 63,435,801 litres of water (water to fill 42 Olympic sized swimming pools).
* 854,988 kgs of solid waste.
* electricity to power the average home for 262 years.
* greenhouse gases equivalent to driving a car 5.3 million kilometres.”

Please do look at the Greenpeace Save or Delete campaign. In the United States, Green Press Initiative.