An Open Letter to the Book Publishing Community
For more than 20 years, Chelsea Green has been the publishing leader for books on the politics and practice of sustainable living. We are a founding member of the Green Press Initiative and have been printing books on recycled paper since 1985, when we published our first list. One of the books on that list was The Man Who Planted Trees, an ecological fable by the great French writer Jean Giono, which has become one of the most inspirational books about environmental restoration ever published. Since that time we have continued to lead the industry both in terms of content – foundational books on renewable energy, green building, organic agriculture, eco-cuisine, and ethical business – and in terms of environmental practice, printing 95% of our books on recycled paper, containing a minimum 30% post-consumer waste and 100% whenever possible.
This past year we launched a Green Partnership Program, the first step in creating a “zero-waste” publishing model. A key part of this initiative is eliminating the incredibly wasteful and inefficient practice of book returns. In exchange for buying on a nonreturnable basis, our retail partners (now over 30 key independent bookstores around the country) receive higher discounts, freight-free, carbon-offset shipping, and a host of other “preferred customer” benefits. The results to date are impressive: an overall 87% increase in net sales over the same period the prior year, reductions in costly returns processing and unnecessary shipping by both parties (our overall returns rate for last year was 18%), and a demonstration that doing the environmentally responsible thing also benefits the bottom line, both for publisher and retailer. This is a perfect example of what is called a “triple bottom line” approach, one that benefits people, planet, and profits – the emerging model for sustainable business in the 21st century.
The book industry is poised to go green. The Green Press Initiative has made major progress in getting the largest houses to sign on, and I applaud everyone for their efforts to increase recycled content, reduce energy use, and minimize waste. But we can’t stop there. We need to take on the issue of returns and we need to do it now. Drastic climate change is upon us, and we can no longer tolerate a system that overproduces, oversells, and overships 30-40% of its product, a product – at least for now – that is made of paper and which requires enormous amounts of non-renewable energy to transport. And paper manufacturing is hardly benign: It is the fifth most energy-intensive industry – ahead of aluminum and mining – and the fifth highest emitter of toxic emissions, beating out hazardous waste recovery, electrical equipment, and plastics.
There is no longer any reason to continue a practice that got its start in the Depression as a way to sell crossword puzzle books! We need to come together and solve this problem with a triple-bottom-line approach. Clearly there is a win-win solution, as we have demonstrated with our Green Partnership Program. We welcome other publishers and booksellers to join us in our efforts.
Sincerely,
Margo Baldwin, President and Publisher
Chelsea Green Publishing Company
