Today, the earth lost 7 million 300 thousand hectares of forest
each year; Vividly speaking, there is a football field size of the forest
disappeared from the earth in every 2 seconds. Figures show that 40% of the forest
cut down on the earth were processed into paper pulp, which eventually became
books, magazines, and paper.
With the enhancement of environmental awareness and the popularity of the
concept of low carbon life, as early as 10 years ago, countries abroad began to
promote green publishing. In 2000, Greenpeace launched a Book Project in
Canada, calling for writers and publishers to use forest-friendly paper to print
books. The so-called forest-friendly paper refers to recycled paper, which pass
through the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification, and meet the
emission standard of straw pulp paper.
Today, the green publication in Europe and the United States has formed a
certain scale. The United States Green publishing initiative
(GreenPressInitiative) is the most famous, and is a non-profit organization. Its
main task is to promote environmental protection work of the publishing
industry. The overall goal of the association is to increase the average amount
of renewable paper used from 5% to 30% by 2011, thereby reducing the book
industry’s environment impact. The green press initiative called on publishers,
printers and other publishing institutions to participate in the initiative,
use of renewable paper and protect ancient endangered forests. Canada already
has more than 100 publishing houses which promise to use only recycled paper or
FSC certified paper. 60% of the UK's publishers have made the same commitment.
In Spain, there are 700 thousand books that have been printed using recycled
paper or FSC certification paper. It is said that Harry Porter series of books had
witnessed a section of history of the green publish. In 2003, Harry Porter
fifth set published in Canada was the first time to use forest-friendly paper to
print. By the time of the sixth edition in 2005, 9 countries had used forest-friendly
paper. By the last edition of the 2007, 23 countries around the world have used
forest-friendly paper.
Foreign low carbon green publication’s beginning to take shape, first of all,
is supported by the concept of green publishing. TysonMiller, a spokesman for
the United States Green publishing initiative, said that only the press
generally accepted the idea of green publishing, in particular, be recognized
by the publishing house CEO, green publishing would really be able to be promoted.
By June this year, although the United States Green publishing initiative has
not been supported by the majority of mainstream publishers, there were more
than 100 companies signed a green publishing initiative to participate in the
initiative. Chelsea green press (ChelseaGreen) was the first publisher to take
part in the green publishing initiative and began to print "it's worth
it" on all the books that were published. This green publishing logo is
designed to make every reader understand that the cost of producing books with
recycled paper is high, so the book's price is high, but it is worth the effort
to protect the environment. Schuster & Simon press is a large publishing
house in the green publishing program. The company has announced that "by
the determination of protecting the environment and the specific policy of
paper used to make sure the future use of large number of recycled paper to print
books". Powell publishing company (Powell) also participated in the
initiative, and felt proud of it. It will join other publishers in the
initiative to protect endangered forests and use FSC to identify the paper.
Foreign low carbon green publication’s beginning to take shape, is also guaranteed
by the green publishing printing technology. In the United States, Thompson
Shuo printing company (Thompson-Shore) is the first manufacturer to join the
green publishing initiative association, and promised to protect the
environment and be responsible for the rational use of natural resources. The
company responsible person said, as a printer, the use of paper is the core of
the work. They will join other companies in the agreement to protect the
ancient forests and their irreplaceable natural resources. Thompson Shuo
printing company plans to maximize the use of renewable paper within 3-5 years,
and gradually eliminate the production of endangered forest wood paper. Their
goal is to get the publisher to accept renewable paper. As a large printing
industry, the German industrial association in early 2010, has the energy
consumption measurement guidelines as German publishing machinery manufacturing
industry association standards. Before printing factory to buy a new machine,
in the application of subsidies, they must ensure that the investment can
improve the enterprise's energy balance. British Printing Industry Association
(BPIF) has launched a special calculator for the printing and packaging
industry to calculate the amount of carbon dioxide emissions. This calculator
can estimate carbon emissions of factories and products based on PAS2050 and
GHG (greenhouse gas) standards. During the British International Printing
Exhibition, which was just closed not long ago, the "green printing" seemed
to be a even more high-profile figure. Both the traditional printing enterprise,
like Heidelberg and Roland, and digital printing enterprises, like Oki and Fuji
Xerox, have played the environmental protection card, and began to advocate
green printing. With the "green printing" gradually being put on the
agenda, the printing industry began to look for new business opportunities from
this concept. It is not difficult to see that the printing equipment suppliers
will give the concept of green printing the increasingly important position in
the development of its strategic position. It seems that many foreign
publishers have tasted the sweetness from the green printing, which is not only
able to help printing companies get rid of the competition of the Red Sea, but
also able to allow printing companies to enter Blue Ocean which is the field of
open vision.
Low carbon green publication not only takes shape in Europe and
America, but also gradually be recognized in India. On India Mumbai street, a
street press became very famuous because of its green publishing. All the
papers they used to publish the book were recovered from the waste paper, including
expired newspapers and magazines, paper boxes, postcards, and even a lot of
shopping tickets from supermarket. According to the owner of the publishing
house, all the recycled paper is sent to a recycling plant, where it is
reprocessed and processed to remove the tacks, impurities and original colors
from the waste paper, then re-extract the pulp and make use of it again.
Publisher also advocates that people publish books with waste paper, which will
lower the price of books. Because this green publishing has a great advantage
in price, the publisher has attracted a lot of authors who are in poor economic
conditions, but are very interested in publishing books, especially those who
are very obsessed with literature and are keen to become writers. This
publishing house in Mumbai is no doubt conforming to and complying with the
trend of low-carbon green times. It can not only achieve low-carbon
environmental protection, but also help people realize the desire of publishing
books.
