Essays and Interviews

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 we applaud everyone for their initiatives 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 over ships 30-40% of its product, a product that, at least for now, is made of paper (paper manufacturing 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), the transporting of which requires incredible amounts of energy.

We encourage you to explore the essays and interviews on this page that will provide you with an insight into how we see the role of book publishers evolving, and how publishers can take the lead on curbing our impact on the planet, and educating our readers.