Greystone Books Renews Their Commitment to the Environment

After almost seven years of publishing our books on 100% post-consumer recycled paper, Greystone Books (Greystone) has undergone an eco-audit. With the help of Markets Initiative, we submitted the paper poundage amount used during this period of time, supplied by our printers, to Paper Calculator, who was able to determine how many trees had been spared, CO2 emissions contained, energy conserved and water saved.

The results, according to Nicole Rycroft of Markets Initiative, are impressive. “By publishing their books on 100% recycled Ancient Forest Friendly paper,” says Rycroft, “Greystone Books is a Canadian leader in forest conservation. Their efforts are helping in the fight to save our forests, and our climate.”

Greystone has been the publisher of David Suzuki’s books—those written by him and endorsed by his foundation—for 10 years. Since the advent of eco-papers, we have made a conscious decision to publish not only Suzuki’s books on these papers, but the entire list. Doing otherwise would negate the mandate of both the publishing house and the David Suzuki Foundation (DSF). Further, the Douglas & McIntyre Publishing Group’s recent acquisition of New Society Publishers (NSP), the leading publisher of practically based solutions to environmental problems and a company at the forefront of green consciousness in the book publishing world, has only reinforced the commitment to do our part to reduce our impact.

“Our partnership with DSF and the addition of NSP to the publishing program are two of the many reasons this eco-audit was important to us,” says Rob Sanders, publisher of Greystone. “Not only are we pleasantly surprised by the results, we’re also very proud. It’s time we as an industry understand the impact we have on our natural resources.”

The results of the eco-audit are as follows:

10,329 trees not cut
7,192 million BTUs of energy conserved
908,024 pounds of CO2 emissions avoided
484,028 pounds of solid waste diverted from landfills
14,255,236.25 litres of water conserved

In order to spread the word in a way that was more relatable than data and statistics, we turned to one of our most inspiring books from this season, Flight of the Hummingbird. This illustrated parable tells the story of a hummingbird who, water drop by water drop, tries her best to put out a raging forest fire. The moral is that she is doing what she can. By animating the art work from the book and using the parable as a metaphor for our efforts, we created a video that we hope will help not only to spread the word of our eco-audit, but also inspire others to do what they can, however small the action might seem.

Already the video has received excellent feedback and is being linked to and posted on various sites and blogs. Watch the video here or on YouTube. We hope to see this continue.

For more information on the eco-audit and questions about linking to the video or uploading a condensed version of the video to your own site, please contact our Promotions Coordinator at .