How Christian publishers are embracing environmental concerns in their operations

Dwight Baker, president of the Grand Rapids, Mich.-based Christian publisher that bears his family name, is happy to talk about things like “post-consumer waste” and “ground wood stock.” He’s wanted to for years, and has. It’s just that, until more recently, people haven’t always wanted to listen.

But Baker, who says conservation interests have always been part of his “DNA” —his Baker Publishing Group (BPG) now publishes all of its nonfiction books on 30% post-consumer waste paper—is thrilled to be getting support from an unlikely source: Wal-Mart.

For years, Baker was a mostly solitary voice in the evangelical wilderness, calling on other Christian publishers to not only publish books on environmental issues, as his company has done for many years, but to also think about their own environmental choices—like the paper used to produce their books and the source of that paper.

But it took the buyers at Wal-Mart and their recent insistence that publishers use paper made from trees harvested in “sustainable forests”—younger-growth forests where trees are responsibly harvested and replaced—to really get publishers’ attention, Baker said.

“Wal-Mart is now saying: ‘This matters, we’re not joking, you have to work your way all the way back to the forest and make sure you have sustainable materials.’ Wal-Mart did in a few meetings what I couldn’t do with all the time in the universe,” Baker said.

While sustainable forestry and recycled paper are two different things, they “get at the same problem,” which is responsible stewardship of resources, Baker said.

ECO-FRIENDLY PAPER

The paper business—and by extension, book publishing—would seem to be a frustrating place for an environmentally conscious person like Baker. First of all, there are all of those trees cut down for books alone: 30 million per year just to make the books sold in the U.S. Some of those trees are harvested from old-growth forests—an example of “unsustainable forestry,” irreplaceable havens of ecological diversity that trap carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that most believe contributes to global warming.

Add to that the fact that even in these eco-conscious times, with marketers clamoring to make environmentally friendly claims about everything from cars to cleaning products, that many publishers don’t even print books on recycled paper and publishers might be Captain Planet’s arch-nemesis. Recycled paper requires 30-40% less energy and conserves 2,000-3,200 pounds of carbon dioxide for each ton of virgin fiber it replaces.

But publishers—including Christian ones—have started to adopt more eco-friendly practices in recent times, some out of a sense of moral obligation, others due to more basic impulses such as cost savings or consumer demand. For most, it’s a mixture of reasons, including prodding from retailers like Wal-Mart.

That means eco-friendly publishing is not just a topic for lifelong conservationists like Baker, but is rather one being discussed by broader audiences such as the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA).

In November 2008 its three-day “Pub U” event in Chicago included several sessions that touched on environmental issues, including one by Jeff Mendelsohn, president of New Leaf Paper in San Francisco.

Mendelsohn has been at the vanguard of the eco-friendly paper movement, selling recycled paper and promoting sustainable forestry practices since graduating from Cornell in the early ‘90s and starting New York Recycled Paper, which eventually was renamed New Leaf Paper.

“Starting a green company was a great way to make a difference in the world; engaging the world through socially responsible business,” Mendelsohn said. “And I chose paper because it’s one of the most polluting industries in the world, and one of the slowest to change.”

When he started his business in 1991, Mendelsohn said the paper industry “was cutting down endangered forests all over North America” and “using an incredibly low percentage of recycled content.”

At the time, most paper companies were also using environmentally hazardous bleaching chemicals made from chlorine compounds—the third practice in Mendelsohn’s unholy trinity of bad eco-behavior.

Today, Mendelsohn said New Leaf Paper makes eight types of post-consumer recycled-paper stock, uses less chlorine than almost any other company in the paper industry and backs its eco-friendly claims with certification from the Forest Stewardship Council, an international organization that certifies and supports sustainable forestry practices.

While New Leaf Paper has carved a niche for itself in the paper market—and Baker laments that recycled paper is still a niche, which is why it usually costs 4% to 6% more to purchase than non-recycled paper due to economies of scale—the company got a big break in 2003.

That was when Raincoast Books, a Canadian publisher with rights to the “Harry Potter” series in Canada, published Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on EcoBook 100—a 100% post-consumer recycled-paper stock, completely chlorine free, that New Leaf introduced in 2001.

EcoBook 100 was the first book-caliber grade paper made from 100% post-consumer waste, and the fact that it was being used to publish a “Harry Potter” book—and has been used in all subsequent “Harry Potter” books in Canada—was nothing short of a coup for New Leaf Paper.

EcoBook 100 paper generated more than 150 stories in the media, all of which helped raise awareness of the New Leaf brand in particular and of recycled paper in general.

Since that moment in 2003, New Leaf’s business has almost doubled, from $17 million five years ago to now more than $30 million in revenues.

RECYCLED CONTENT

While some publishing companies have opted to use recycled paper for years, one large advocacy group believes the recycled content being used is still too low.

According to Green Press Initiative (GPI)—a group with strong support from BPG and New Leaf Paper, both of whom helped GPI develop a treatise on environmentally responsible book publishing—the book industry’s collective average use of recycled fiber is 5%. That is a far cry from the 30% average that GPI’s treatise calls for by 2012, with a majority of that recycled content gathered from post-consumer waste.

The treatise also calls for a reduction in the use of chlorine dyes while encouraging the protection of endangered forests, supporting the use of non-wood fibers for paper production, reducing production impacts and a host of other goals and best practices.

But for GPI things are moving in the right direction. According to the group, more than 160 publishers representing 40% of the U.S. book market either have “strong environmental policies” or have agreed to the long-term goals set forth in GPI’s treatise.

Eleven religious publishers are among those who have signed the treatise and committed to a paper policy, GPI Executive Director Erin Johnson said.

Yet, there’s more than a little room for improvement. Johnson, citing 2006 numbers, noted that the U.S. book market uses about 1.6 million tons of paper per year, less than 15% of which is recycled paper.

Bethany Press International (BPI)—an independent printing firm spun off from Bethany House Publishers in 1997—prints about 25% of the books that show up on the ECPA best-seller list in any given month, and works with every major Christian publisher except Zondervan, according to Pete Larson, the company’s chief operating officer.

For Baker, Larson’s company— eco-conscious in its selection of materials—has made “angels” out of many Christian publishers by using 30% post-consumer waste recycled stock for all heavier nonfiction books, paper that Larson said he has been able to get a very good price on in order to keep costs down.

Larson also said that even his lower-grade paper is made of “ground wood,” which utilizes “40 to 45% less tree” than other wood pulp papers and “is lighter-weight, so it reduces shipping costs as well.” Larson said Bethany Press goes through 8 to 9 million pounds per year of ground wood and 4 million pounds of recycled paper.

Aside from using recycled materials, another way Christian publishers have reduced waste—and often saved money—has been to cut down on paper usage.

At Thomas Nelson, trade books are using 11% less paper than in past years due to lighter paper stock.

Other industry changes have been technological. In 2008, Barbour Publishing subscribed to www.netgalley.com, allowing the company to distribute advance copies of its books electronically, which eliminates mailing, printing and paper costs. The move will save the company, even after service fees, about 40% next year.

ECPA has also confirmed that it is in discussions with www.netgalley.com to provide discounted subscriptions to all members of the publishers’ association.

Other publishers—among them, Thomas Nelson and Tyndale House—are cutting costs by going digital with their sales catalogs, posting them online with the help of Edelweiss, a new service from Above the Treeline. Moody Publishers recently switched to only electronic delivery for its publicity releases to media.

Nick Ciske, a BPI “idea capitalist,” has been keeping his eye on two other intriguing developments in book publishing that could reduce the industry’s environmental impact.

The first involves shorter, more inexpensive book runs thanks to digital printing—or “print-on-demand” technology—which works similar to a computer laser-printer, with toner applied directly to the page, rather than using a more expensive traditional press the size of a school bus that uses metal plates to apply ink to the page.

While digital printing isn’t a particularly new development in the industry, its costs are steadily coming down, allowing publishers to print smaller quantities of books for less—thus eliminating unnecessary energy as well as waste from unsold books that are usually remaindered or destroyed.

“Every year we’re seeing higher and higher digital print runs becoming cost-effective,” Ciske said. “So it’s slowly creeping up. There will be a day when you can digitally print 5,000 books cheaper than you can (with a traditional plate).”

Ciske has been in the process of digitizing author content, which BPI can then turn into a book via print-on-demand technology or by way of a laser-etching process that creates a printing plate without the environmentally harmful chemicals of old—a process that’s now the norm for many presses, including Bethany.

“Those chemicals used to be used every day. … We’ve reduced the environmental impact,” Ciske said. But it’s another use for digitized content that piques Ciske’s interest: e-books.

E-BOOK HOPES

E-books would seem to be one of the more promising ways for the publishing industry to reduce its paper usage and unwitting promotion of deforestation, creating a robust segment of the industry free from wood pulp.

But is the e-book an idea whose time has come? It depends on who you talk to in the industry, but there are reasons to be optimistic.

In 2008, Oprah called the Amazon Kindle—the $359 e-book reader that allows customers to wirelessly read and download books and other publications—her “favorite new gadget.”

“I know it’s expensive in these times, but it’s not frivolous because it will pay for itself,” she said. “The books are much cheaper and you’re saving paper.”

Most e-books on Amazon.com sell for $9.99, and the Kindle was on back-order during the 2008 Christmas season.

“People are hoping this is the time it’s going to catch on and work,” Ciske said. “And Oprah hopping on Kindle certainly hasn’t hurt.”

Ciske added that previous attempts to popularize e-books failed for a number of reasons, not the least of which was that there was “never an iTunes for books.” But now that Amazon has the content and the device to make e-books work—the Kindle is now in its third generation with the advent of the Kindle DX and is receiving rave reviews—it could finally, after a decade, be the next big thing.

“If I was a (traditional) retailer, I’d definitely be searching for how I’m going to be relevant in a 24-7 content future,” Ciske said. “If retailers don’t evolve, someone’s going to innovate around them.”

Ciske said he and his colleagues had to face similarly daunting realities at Bethany Press International.

“Are we a book printer? We decided that no, we help create and distribute content,” Ciske said.

But ECPA’s information and education director, Michael Covington, while optimistic about the prospects of e-books, pointed out that it’s a small segment of publishing and that even some tech-savvy teenagers are unfamiliar with the Kindle.

“We had a panel of teenagers at Pub U … and none of them knew what a Kindle was,” Covington said. “I think digital content is going to have to be very device-neutral. I don’t think the publishing industry is willing to have a coronation for any one device.”

PAPER POLICY

Baker, the conservationist and BPG president, is skeptical about e-books in the near-term—“we’re serving a conservative constituency, not politically, but slow-to-budge”—and stressed that the growing popularity of e-books isn’t a reason for publishers to avoid taking a hard look at their paper usage and environmental policies.

He noted that “99.94% of books sold last month were not e-books,” adding, “E-books won’t save us. You still need to have a responsible paper policy.”

For Baker, that means not only printing all of his company’s nonfiction books on 30% post-consumer waste recycled paper, but also using recycled paper in the office.

Covington said many Christian publishers at Pub U were talking about other steps to lessen their environmental impact, but always with a mind to lowering costs.

“When going green creates the need for additional investment, that’s the big rub,” Covington said.

“Many publishers are doing things like setting copy machines to automatically print on both sides of the paper, cutting back on energy consumption by turning off half the lights, and offering employees flex-days, where they can work from home,” he added.

Yet bigger initiatives were also discussed at Pub U, which might indicate that Christian publishers, while wary of spending money in these economically challenging times, are interested on lessoning their environmental impact in this day of thinking green.

“One of the comments that came out was that publishers need to have a multi-year plan in terms of what their goals are to be a better environmental steward,” Covington said. “They approached it as much from a theological sense as they did a business sense.”

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