Books, someone said, are man’s [read human’s] best friend. Undoubtedly true, that’s why, according to estimates, some 1 million books are published worldwide each year. The huge number of books translate into use of huge resources being used up including lot of trees cut for manufacturing the paper. This does have a huge impact on the environment. When the world is getting more concerned about the climate change and increasing carbon emissions, books are also turning ‘green’. Recently, I got a book on Climate Change for review. The cover of the book had a logo that said ‘This book is climate neutral’. The inside cover explained the meaning of ‘climate neutral’. The publishers of the book had got the carbon emissions and environment impact due to the publication of the book–from the very conceptualisation and drafting and writing of the book by the writer to it getting printed and distributed–audited and the harm to the environment was compensated by investing money in climate saving activities. Though I do not find the concept a true way of being climate neutral, it is always better than nothing. The Green Guide Girls have published information on how to turn book green in their book ‘The Green Guide Girls: Guide to Book Publishing’. Green Book, they say, is the book that is published using ecological sound practices. That is to be done by using safe paper, ink and also the cover. They have suggested a number of ways to make various materials used to prepare the book environment friendly. The Green Guide Girls suggests that writers ask their publisher to use eco-friendly raw-materials in printing the book. Using recycled paper, corrugated sheets can be one way to do so. Using vegetable-based or soy-based ink instead of petroleum-based ink is another. Using 100% post-consumer recycled paper by chlorine-free method is another way to be eco-friendly while publishing books. Sadly, the glue used for binding, The Green Guide Girls say, can not be green. The Green Guide Girls says that using Green practices to print first 1000 copies of the book can save about 12 trees, over 4400 gallons of waste water, 1,900 kilowatt hours of power and saves about 500 kg of greenhouse gases being emitted in the atmosphere. Isn’t this a good idea? At least I think so. After all we can help save our planet. Source: Treehugger.com Image Source: Birdingintaiwan.com
