Cyclists at Gladstone Link in Radcliffe Square, Oxford, March 20. Image – Getty: Ogulcan Aksoy
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Shine: ‘New Environmental Obligations’
The CEO of the United Kingdom’s Independent Publishers Guild (IPG), Bridget Shine, tells Publishing Perspectives that the UK’s Sustainability Industry Forum‘s collaborative initiation is building at a good pace, even as the United Nations’ COP29 gets underway this week in Baku.
Already, the Azerbaijani iteration of the climate change conference is drawing controversy—a familiar pattern—with the Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg, in Tbilisi, declining to attend and calling the venue of this year’s COP “beyond absurd” because, she says, Azerbaijan is what she describes as “an authoritarian petro-state,” as is being reported today in the Washington Post‘s ongoing “Live Briefing.”
In a coincidental echo of this week’s news of a seven-organization meeting in Italy with the Meloni government’s minister of culture, IPG’s Shine in London reports that the sustainability forum’s effort for two years now has “seven leading trade associations” assessing what has developed in the effort’s first two years “and prioritizing the next areas of progress.”
The Sustainability Industry Forum brings together:
- The Association of Authors’ Agents
- The Booksellers Association
- The Book Industry Communication (BIC)
- The Independent Publishers Guild
- The Publishers Association
- Publishing Scotland
- The Society of Authors
Representatives of these organizations “meet quarterly at a senior level,” Shine says, “to provide an overview of projects, share research and best practice, and reduce the duplication of efforts.”
In terms of working together, Shine points to “the licensing of the Publishers Association’s Carbon Calculator to members of the Independent Publishers Guild and Publishing Scotland, as well as the sharing of information about the European Union Deforestation Regulation—which is placing new environmental obligations on the book supply chain.”
Reported ‘Incremental Improvements’
In her media messaging today, Shine lists “incremental improvements” being made by each of the seven associations.
Bridget Shine
- New research by the Independent Publishers Guild that has found an average of 7 percent of members’ books are returned—of which around a fifth were pulped. The IPA also has opened a sustainable printing report
- Guidelines for best office sustainability practice and a member event on reducing industry emissions from the Association of Authors’ Agents
- Work on a carbon measurement tool [and] project-sharing at a Sustainable Bookselling Group and help via the Sustainable Grant Fund from the Booksellers Association
- A sustainability and environmental data reporting project, a designed-for-recycling project, a series of “sustainability 101” guides and a report reviewing offsetting options from Book Industry Communication
- Passing a milestone of 200 signatories on the Publishers Association’s “Publishing Declares” pledge, updating its sustainability tools and new research into digital publishing emissions
- A three-year environmental sustainability plan from Publishing Scotland and environmental management accreditation for its BookSource distribution subsidiary
- At the Society of Authors, a series of member resources, the launch of a members’ “sustainability network,” and “Tree to Me,” an awareness-raising campaign intended to help authors engage with their publishers on sustainability
Areas of focus for the seven-association forum in coming months will include returns and practical advice to reduce waste.
Sustainability Industry Forum members are now exploring cooperative strategies to reduce returns, including through BIC’s guidelines for best practices in ordering.
Dan Conway
Speaking for the organization most closely aligned with Publishing Perspectives‘ coverage, the Publishers Association CEO Dan Conway says, “At the Publishers Association, we’re proud of the efforts the industry and our members continue to make in the critical area of sustainability.
“Every day, we’re reminded of the devastating effects of climate change but see our members working hard to measure their impact, reduce emissions, collaborate with their extended supply chains and relevant stakeholders, and be more sustainable.
“The publishing industry,” Conway says, “must harness the abundant enthusiasm and knowledge that exists in our sector to keep up momentum to achieve net zero as soon as possible or by 2050 at the latest.
“Publishers, booksellers, authors, and agents have the full support of the Sustainability Industry Forum as this remains a top priority for the industry, and the world.”
Meryl Halls
Another UK industry player we hear from at times is Meryl Halls, managing director of the Booksellers Association. Halls says the collaborative effort on sustainability not only gives her organization “a great overview and helps avoid duplication, but it’s in equal measure inspiring and reassuring to know about the work going on across the associations.
“We’re also really pleased to have reconvened our own Sustainable Bookselling Group, which is working on a sustainability survey, an online conference for next year, and discussing sustainability issues for booksellers, with our members.”
And in a final note on the Independent Publishers Guild, Shine reminds us of our report in July 2023, when the IPG announced artificial intelligence training for independent publishers, an approach involving “key AI tools to explore their strengths and weaknesses and develop best practices for their day-to-day use in publishing.”
Shine now reports that the organization’s AI program won the “Learning and Professional Development” award at last week’s Association Excellence Awards, which of course is something to be quite proud of, especially in the UK’s market, which leads the world for its sheer volume of book and publishing awards programs.
In this case, the Association Excellence Award took IPG outside the usual realm of competition inside the publishing community: IPG’s closest competition in the category were the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Medicine (silver runner-up) and the Electrical Distributors’ Association (bronze runner-up), a moment that handily raises the visibility of book publishing in a business setting beyond the other creative industries.
More from Publishing Perspectives on the work of the Independent Publishers Guild is here, more on artificial intelligence and its debate relative to publishing is here, more on the UK publishing market is here, and more on its always growing array of awards programs is here.