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The Booksellers Association/Publishers Association’s Environmental Action Group (EAG) has launched Book-carbon, a tool for publishers and printers to measure the carbon footprint of a book’s production.
The online web application allows publishers to input data such as format, print run and printer, and the tool will calculate the carbon footprint of bringing that book to market.
Mark Gough, chair of the EAG, said: “The number of regulations for measuring and labelling products and the number of voluntary codes are increasing as politicians come to grips with the huge challenges we face in our move towards a low-carbon economy. Bookcarbon has been developed to help publishers and printers address these growing and sometime onerous requirements.
“It is fantastically easy to use and I am certain the information it provides will soon become an essential part of print decisions and production processes.”
Bookcarbon was initially conceived and funded by Hachette, HarperCollins, Penguin, Random House and the Independent Alliance, together with printer Clays. The tool was designed and developed by Innventia Edge.
Other publishers and printers including Reed Elsevier and CPI have joined the founding members on the project.
Currently, Bookcarbon calculates the carbon footprint of black and white printed hard covers and paperbacks. The second phase of the project will expand this to colour print and a third phase will focus on e-books and print on demand.
Publishers and printers may join the scheme for a small fee through Claire Anker at the PA (Canker@publishers.org.uk).