You are viewing your 1 free article this month. Login to read more articles.
Do Sustainability, the company created by former Earthscan employees, is to publish 17 e-book shorts this year as part of its launch strategy.
When environmental publisher Earthscan was acquired by Taylor & Francis in 2011, colleagues Nick Bellorini, Simon Rallison, Veruschka Selbach and Gudrun Freese clubbed together to create Do Sustainability.
The company's first releases, scheduled for the beginning of September, are short e-books designed as 90-minute reads to help business professionals pursue sustainability in their organisations. The e-books will retail for £30 and can be shared with three people, or they can be rented for 48 hours for £8.50.
The first titles include The Changing Profile of Corporate Climate Change Risk by Dr Mark Trexler and Laura Kosloff, and Supply Chain Stewardship by Alan Knight, OBE.
Freese, the publisher's communications director, said that the group brainstormed ideas about where the opportunities were for the start-up. They came up with Do, "which would be customer focused, using digital delivery, and all centered around the idea of sustainability."
The name Do comes from the Japanese version of the Chinese word "tao", which means path or way.
Freese said: "It was a term we liked since we felt like this was creating a positive path. It also has the English connotations of being an active word, and we want to inspire action. "They are designed for business professionals who want to know about applying sustainability.
"A lot of people in companies given a sustainability remit don't have a lot of experience in the area, but these books are hands-on. We are also thinking internationally, so the content is tailored for different countries' regulations. Our authors come from Europe, the UK, the US and elsewhere."
The company plans to release more than a dozen of their "DoShorts" e-books by the end of the year, with more plans to expand their range in the future. Selbach is the company's sales and technology director. She said: "We see traditional publishers struggling to adapt to a new digital world, hampered by long-established practices and entrenched models.
"Our focus on digital publishing is an opportunity to innovate and to focus on the information needs of our readers."