Discover how to make your publishing practices more sustainable with free, easy-to-use tools and an online training session, “Sustainable Publishing Tools: Calculating Your Carbon Output” on February 13, 2025, at 2:00 PM.
Publishing professionals are invited to a transformative session on sustainable practices in the industry. On February 13, 2025, at 2:00 PM, ECW Press and New Society Publishers will host “Sustainable Publishing Tools: Calculating Your Carbon Output,” an interactive training session designed to empower publishers with practical tools for measuring and reducing their environmental impact.
The session will feature Julie Raddysh, publisher of New Society, as she demonstrates the Book Carbon Calculator, a free tool designed to analyze the environmental impact of book production. Attendees will also learn to leverage this data using the Publisher’s Carbon Footprint Calculator to evaluate their organization’s overall carbon emissions.
The tool’s developers, Jen Knoch and EJ Hurst, will provide insights into the creation of the calculators and offer a Q&A session to address participants’ technical and practical questions.
This session is a must-attend for publishers, authors, and sustainability advocates seeking actionable strategies to support a greener publishing industry.
Reserve your spot today and join the movement towards sustainable publishing!
Keep reading for the press release promoting the launch of the new tools.
PRESS RELEASE: Launch of Free Tools for Publishers to Calculate Individual Book and Company Emissions
For Immediate Release
January 13, 2025
New Society Publishers and ECW Press are excited to announce the release of the Sustainable Publishing Tools: two free industry-specific tools for publishers to calculate the carbon emissions of their companies and of single products.
The Book Carbon Footprint Calculator quantifies cradle-to-warehouse carbon emissions of a printed book and can be used to compare key carbon emissions sources in book production. The Publisher’s Carbon Footprint Calculator quantifies the organizational carbon footprint of a publishing house. Each tool may be used independently, although the most accurate results come from using them together.
A 2021 survey of publishers in Canada, the U.S., and the U.K. by the Green Book Alliance indicates that publishers do have an interest in sustainability: 90% have an environmental policy or intend to make one. 25% of respondents purchase at least some carbon offsets, and another 30% have plans to do so. The area of strongest interest was documenting the carbon footprint of the supply chain and understanding the environmental impact of current industry practices.
The Sustainable Publishing Tools are designed to address that need. They emerged from collaboration between New Society Publishers and ECW Press, was designed by Ian Lipton at the Carbon Accounting Company in Toronto, and was funded by the Canada Council for the Arts through the Digital Greenhouse grant. Hosting support is courtesy BookNet Canada. French translations of the tools are in development thanks to the support of BTLF (La Société de gestion de la banque de titres de langue française).
“As a carbon-neutral publisher whose mission is sustainability, we’re thrilled to have access to more specific data that will allow us to question our assumptions and make the best possible decisions when it comes to how we make books and run our business,” says EJ Hurst, project co-lead and sales manager at New Society. “Hopefully this calculator will not only affect individual decisions but eventually increase demand for more sustainable options.”
“We’re halfway through the ’12 years’ given by the harrowing 2018 IPCC special report on global warming and nowhere near the emissions reductions targets needed to avoid catastrophic consequences,” says Jen Knoch, project co-lead and senior editor at ECW. “While publishers’ climate contributions are modest, we know they have a strong desire to make greener choices wherever possible and now they’ll be able to see how.”
These free tools may be downloaded by one person per publishing house through registering at https://www.booknetcanada.ca/sustainable-publishing-tools.
Sustainable Publishing Tools 2.0
Currently the Sustainable Publishing Tools use generic emissions factors for various paper stocks and printing operations, though we hope to collaborate with printers and paper manufacturers to include stock- and printer-specific data in an updated version. If you are a printer or paper manufacturer who would like to be included in the calculator, please contact [email protected]
For media inquiries, please contact [email protected]
