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:

• GHG Emission Intensity Factors: The report includes location-based GHG emission intensity factors at country, subregional, and regional levels. Publishers can use these factors to calculate their Scope 3 emissions from paper or print when site-specific data is unavailable. Mills and suppliers can benchmark their GHG intensity against industry peers.
• Energy Use: Detailed information on energy intensity, fuel mix, renewable energy share, and energy efficiency case studies helps readers understand the regional differences in energy use and the steps being taken to reduce energy consumption and transition to renewable energy sources.
• Water Use and Wastewater Treatment: The report provides insights into water intensity, measures to reduce water consumption, and wastewater treatment improvements. It highlights the efforts of mills and suppliers to set and achieve reduction targets.
• Case Studies: Throughout the report, case studies offer practical examples and inspiration for mills and suppliers to further reduce their environmental impact.

If you have any questions about the Environment Report, please get in touch with Victoria.

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 report contains GHG intensity factors that publishers can use to calculate their Scope 3 emissions from paper or print, if site-specific emissions data doesn’t exist; and mills and suppliers can use to benchmark their own GHG intensity against those of their peers;
• Information about energy use (energy intensity, fuel mix, share of renewables and energy efficiency case studies) helps readers understand how energy use differs across countries and regions, and what steps mills and suppliers are taking to reduce energy use and switch to renewable energy;
• Information about water use and wastewater treatment (water intensity, measures to reduce water consumption, and reduction targets) helps readers understand the steps mills and suppliers are taking to reduce water consumption and improve wastewater treatment;
• The report contains case studies throughout, which can help inspire mills and suppliers about potential ways they can further reduce their impacts on the planet.

*The calculations on page 6 of this report were updated on 07/12/22 *

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.

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?