Our reports, documents and tools share what we have learnt about better book supply chains.
This statement sets out the Book Chain Project's commitment to evolving and strengthening its existing due diligence processes, in light of the exclusion of printed materials - including books and journals - from the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) scope.
The Forest Country Risk tool is integral to the Book Chain Project forest source grading system. It assesses the risk of deforestation (loss of forest cover) and transhipment (importing of timber from countries with deforestation risk) at a country-level.
The tool belongs to SLR but is freely available to download and use. Please do credit SLR Consulting if you reproduce the results or methodology of the tool.
Find out more about how we use the tool to assess forest risk.
These are the slides that were presented during the BCP EUDR Solution Launch webinar on the 2nd of September.
The slides also contain our responses to the questions raised during both webinars.
This is the recording of the BCP EUDR Solution Launch Webinar, which took place on the 2nd of September.
This is the recording of the BCP EUDR Solution: Introduction for Mills and Suppliers
Here are the slides that were presented during the Introduction for Mills and Suppliers Webinar.
We are excited to release the second edition of the Book Chain Project Environment Report, which provides insights into the publishing industry’s environmental performance. This report contains aggregated data from mill and supplier Environmental Questionnaires, covering a range of important environmental topics, including GHG emissions, energy intensity, water use, and waste management.
This report offers greater data coverage than the first edition as the measurement and reporting of environmental activities become more commonplace.
Key highlights from the report include:
If you have any questions about the Environment Report, please get in touch with Victoria.
The Book Chain Project provides a publishing industry Code of Conduct for labour and environmental standards. It states the publishers’ commitments to their suppliers and what they expect from their suppliers in return. The Code of Conduct is based on existing internationally-recognized Codes and Laws. Suppliers that do not already have an ethical audit can ask for a SMETA audit that is audited against this Code of Conduct.
This is an updated excel spreadsheet which contains the questions covered by the Environmental Questionnaire. This excel tool can be used to gather the EQ data before entering it into the system.
Please note, whilst we have added guidance and highlighted conditionals (e.g. further questions appear based on previous input), it is not possible to build all of the interactive features of the online EQ into excel and therefore some features are missing (e.g. breakdown match total checks).
This is an updated excel spreadsheet which contains the questions covered by the Environmental Questionnaire. This excel tool can be used to gather the EQ data before entering it into the system.
Please note, whilst we have added guidance and highlighted conditionals (e.g. further questions appear based on previous input), it is not possible to build all of the interactive features of the online EQ into excel and therefore some features are missing (e.g. breakdown match total checks).
We are looking forward to seeing you all in Central London (Lumier London LTD; Underwood Lofts - The Palm Room; 6-14 Underwood Street; London N1 7JQ) for our annual Seminar series . The theme we will be exploring this year is “Lifting the Cover: The Age of Transparency and Supply Chain Collaboration”, highlighting how regulation and other drivers are pushing for increased transparency, necessitating further and deeper collaboration across supply chains. There will also be opportunities to catch-up and network with representatives from the BCP publishers, pulp & paper mills, printers, NGOs and relevant industry groups.
This tool assesses the biodiversity risk of the location of the sources that make up paper brands, based on WWF's Biodiversity Risk Filter. This tool is an update to the original BCP Biodiversity Risk tool.
The tool belongs to Carnstone but is freely available to download and use. Please do credit Carnstone Partners Ltd if you reproduce the results or methodology of the tool.
A credible supplier due diligence process begins with assessing and segmenting your suppliers based on risk. This risk tool has been developed to help you do just this. The tool assesses both country level risk and supplier level risk for both environmental and labour rights/health and safety, and you can use it to assess risk across 15 direct supplier types in every country.
The tool belongs to SLR but is freely available to download and use. Please do credit SLR if you reproduce the results or methodology of the tool.
This document provides detailed guidance for publishers to calculate GHG emissions in their own operations and upstream and downstream value chains. It includes methodologies and examples consistent with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Standard, for calculating emissions of each Scope and Category.
We are looking forward to being back at the beautiful London Wetland Centre (Queen Elizabeth Walk, London SW13 9WT) for our annual Seminar, with the theme Transparency: an Open Book. We'll explore the increasing expectations on companies to gather, share and disclose information on their sustainability impacts across the value chain. There will also be opportunities to catch-up and network with representatives from the publishers, pulp & paper mills, printers, and NGOs involved in the BCP.
This is the first report of its kind, providing aggregated information about the publishing industry’s environmental performance. This includes location-based GHG emission intensity factors, at country, regional and continental level.
The report has been informed by data collected through mill and supplier Environmental Questionnaires and covers a range of environmental topics, from GHG emissions and energy intensity to water and waste management. The report is full of useful information, and we’d like to highlight a few key points of interest:
*The calculations on page 6 of this report were updated on 07/12/22 *
This tool assesses species risk for tree species commonly used in paper-making, based on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) Appendices.
The tool belongs to SLR but is freely available to download and use. Please do credit SLR Consulting Ltd if you reproduce the results or methodology of the tool.
In keeping with the aims of the Book Chain Project, we have created the Design Guide to help all actors involved in the design decision making process to make informed decisions about the materials and / or processes they are using. The Design Guide covers a number of different materials and processes and scores them based on their environmental and health & safety or labour impact, as well as their recyclability. In 2022, we updated the Design Guide to include emissions factor data for five key materials and processes.
January 2024 update: the The German Publishers and Booksellers Association (Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels) Sustainability Working Group (IG Nachhaltigkeit) asked the Book Chain Project for permission to translate the Design Guide into German. They have done so, and have made minor changes and edits where they feel it fits their German-speaking audience. We have made this version of the Design Guide available too.
After two years of lockdowns, isolation and online meetings, we are so excited to finally meet in person with our US-based publishers, mills, suppliers, and other stakeholders.
This year's theme is "Two Sides to the Story". We often think of the industry's impacts on sustainability challenges, but are increasingly also facing the impacts of climate change, biodiversity loss and other issues as an industry.
The Seminar will be an informal afternoon with guest speaker presentations and opportunities for networking and catching up. We will be sharing more details on the agenda in the following weeks.
Attendance is by invitation for the stakeholders involved with the Book Chain Project. Please get in touch if you'd like to attend.
Open letter signed by Production Directors of 18 Publishers participating in the Book Chain Project, requesting paper and print suppliers to support the measurement and reduction of the environmental footprint of the global publishing industry by providing information through the Book Chain Project's Environmental Questionnaire.
This model describes how mature a site is in tracking, reporting and managing their Greenhouse Gas (GHG) footprint through the BCP Environmental Questionnaire.
This document critically evaluates the robustness of the two main forest certification systems – FSC and PEFC – in ten countries. We started by building up an overview of country-specific forest risks for each country based on reputable sources such as Chatham House, Preferred by Nature and Earthsight. We then assessed the applicable FSC and PEFC standards against the country risk profile, highlighting key gaps.
The countries included are: Brazil, Czech Republic, Hungary, Indonesia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, and Ukraine.
We recommend that this document is used to understand the level of certification robustness in priority countries, as a basis for setting sourcing policies based on a company's risk appetite.
This report summarises the impact achieved by the Book Chain Project over the past 15 years. It traces the history of the Book Chain Project, from 3 separate tools to one collaborative project building better book supply chains; looks at our reach; summarises our work and impact across the 3 workstreams; describes our collaborations; and ends with a look at the future.
The high-profile clearance of the Amazon rainforest late last year and the Australian bushfires this year made headlines around the world, putting deforestation at the top of the agenda. Together with NGOs, investors are pushing for greater transparency and action on this issue from businesses through investor-led initiatives such as CDP. This document looks into the annual CDP reporting process and what is required of a company to be considered a leader in the CDP Forests questionnaire.
This document is sharing good practice from Chinese print suppliers on their experiences when restarting their operations after the Covid-19 lockdown. We know that each country will face unique challenges, but we thought it might be useful to share these insights as other factories across the world start to think about reopening or scaling up production. We've also included reference to some of the useful guidance that is emerging from organisations like the ILO.
Over the course of September 2019 to March 2020, Australia experienced bushfires that burned an unprecedented 12 million hectares of land, killed 33 people and one billion animals. The fires were the biggest in Australia’s history and will have unparalleled impacts that we are only just beginning to understand. The Australian Forest Products Association, an industry body, is urging the Australian government to salvage log in order to mitigate the severe impacts of the fire, however there is significant evidence showing the catastrophic impacts salvage logging can have. The decision on how to proceed is ongoing. Despite the size and disastrous nature of the bushfires, it is unlikely that they will have significant ramifications on the global pulp and paper industry as Australia exports only account for 3%.
This document outlines the Terms of Use for the stakeholders engaged in the BCP system; the participating Publishers, the Suppliers (printers and other suppliers) and the paper and integrated pulp & paper Mills. It also outlines access rights and the data management within the system by Carnstone.
Updates in July 2022: Added clarifications and guidance on how paper mills can talk about their participation in the Book Chain Project in the public domain.
This is the end of year report for the special project improving Health and Safety in print factories in China. The report summaries this year's activities, impact achieved and lessons learnt for the year ahead
In keeping with the aims of the Book Chain Project, we’ve produced this guide to help our publishers make informed decisions around the design, purchasing and production of their books, magazines and journals. It shares an overview of the situation today, looks at some of the common misconceptions, charts the new developments in this area, and presents good practice from other sectors.
Download the scoring tool we use to assess mill performance on responsible sourcing, environmental management, and human resources management. This information is fed back to the mills, alongside useful resources to drive improvement.
In 2018, The Book Chain Project began the first step towards deeper engagement with paper mills. We wanted to better understand how our mills manage responsible paper sourcing, to increase our efforts to halt illegal logging. To do this we developed our mill assessment process which allows us to set out our long-term expectations and start a dialogue. By identifying mills with the desire and intent to improve, the output from this initiative will help us better support their development. Download the document to find out more about why we started this initiative and the criteria we use to understand mill performance
These guides summarise the paper mills and latest forest news in each country. They also show the results of the Forest Risk Assessment which is the basis of our paper analysis in the Grading System.
In the face of rapidly changing reading habits what does the future hold for printed books? Will they still be around in ten years? And if so, how might they be made?
Since March 2013 businesses across Europe have been responding to the EU Timber Regulation; a law prohibiting illegal timber from appearing on the European market. We wanted to gauge the feeling across the retail and manufacturing sectors so, eight months on from the law’s introduction, we conducted a short survey to understand how companies were facing the new requirements. We presented the findings to the Chatham House Illegal Logging Update in February 2014. The results are summarised in our report Still Feeling Stumped?