BIC Sustainability Updates: Practical Tools and Progress Across the UK Book Market

By Karina Urquhart

The Book Industry Communication (BIC) team has had a productive start to 2025, launching new resources and continuing important initiatives to support sustainability in the book supply chain. Here's a quick overview of our latest events and updates:

EUDR Data Flows Workshop

On April 23, 2025 BIC hosted its  Practicalities of EUDR workshop, an in-depth, hands-on session focused on understanding the data requirements of the EU Deforestation Regulation. Facilitated by Simon Crump (BIC’s Environmental Consultant) and hosted by Karina Urquhart (BIC’s Executive Director) at the HarperCollins Publishers’ London offices, the event brought together representatives from 22 organisations across the book supply chain, including publishers (of various types and sizes), booksellers, printers, distributors, data aggregators, service providers, and system vendors.

The overarching focus of the day was on data flows, tracking the journey from tree to paper to finished book. The agenda featured three intensive work sessions aimed at unpacking what compliance with EUDR will require at each stage. The day was collaborative, well-received, and served as an important step in building shared understanding and next steps across the industry. 

BIC is now collating and digesting all feedback from the sessions. Planned follow-ups include forming an EUDR email support group, hosting additional workshops when needed, and launching a formal BIC project to develop clear, collective guidance on EUDR-compliant data flows for the UK book industry.

New Sustainability 101 Guides

A new series from BIC’s Green Hub, the first two editions of our brand new Sustainability 101 Guides are now out! Free to download, BIC’s Sustainability 101 Guides are a series of short, “back-to-basics” introductory level papers on sustainability topics of interest to BIC Members and non-members alike.

The first two guides that we’ve published are: 

1. The What and Why of SustainabilityTopics covered in this guide include: What is sustainability? Why is sustainability important? What is climate change? What do we need to do to act on it? And more…

2. Scopes 1, 2 and 3: How to Start Calculating and How to ImproveTopics covered in this guide include: What do we mean by Scopes 1, 2 and 3? Hints and tips on how to start measuring each one, worked examples and more…

   
   

More guides are coming soon!

Environmental Data Reporting Project

Launched in June of 2023, the purpose of this 2-part BIC project is to facilitate and launch BIC’s provision of regular, consistent industry reporting and monitoring of the progress being made with regards to book industry sustainability against agreed targets.

• Part 1 - The final report from Part 1 of this project (Current Practices in the Industry) was published in September 2024 and is available to download for free from the BIC Green Hub. It’s packed with useful information on regulatory reports, externally audited certifications, internal and external reports, reporting platforms and much more.

• Part 2 - The overall purpose of Part 2 of this project focuses on priority reporting areas. The goal is to agree with key stakeholders what the initial priority areas for reporting and monitoring for the UK book industry are, and to then agree best practice for both the provision, collection, and sharing of this data by BIC for these areas going forwards. 

The most recent monthly summary project report and the full project brief are available on our website.

Designed for Recycling: Part 3 Now Live

Launched in April 2024, the purpose of the third and final part of this BIC project is to continue and build upon the work already completed in Part: 1 Life Cycle Assessment, and Part 2: Initial Design to Manufactured Book, and complete the journey to the end-of-life of a book. Part 3 is investigating efficiencies for reducing materials waste (e.g. packaging, cartons, shrink wrap) post-production. It is also looking at packaging materials associated with ‘returns.’ The project examines the materials used for packaging, so that books can be supplied with recyclability and waste prevention in mind from post-production to end-of-life.

The most recent monthly summary project report and the full project brief are available on our website. 

The completed reports for Part 1 and Part 2 are both free to download:

Designed for Recycling Project Part 1 – Life Cycle Assessment

Designed for Recycling: Part 2 – Initial Design to Manufactured Book

For more information on BIC’s sustainability activities and industry projects, please check the Green Hub on the BIC website and also the 2025/26 Strategy page and summary slides.

Embedding Sustainability Into Everyday Business: A Recap of GBA at ConTEXT London 2025

On March 10, 2025, the Green Book Alliance (GBA) had the opportunity to present at ConTEXT London, an essential industry gathering that brought together key stakeholders from across the book supply chain. ConTEXT continues to foster critical discussions around environmental and economic issues in publishing, from shifting consumer habits to evolving regulations and supply chain disruptions.

The GBA-facilitated session, Beyond the Baseline: Moving Ahead with Carbon Calculation, featured insights from Brian O’Leary (BISG), Karina Urquhart (BIC), and Lauren Stewart (BookNet Canada). Our discussion focused on the increasing necessity for publishers to move beyond compliance-driven sustainability efforts and toward proactive carbon accounting and reduction strategies. With regulatory pressures such as the European Union Deforestation Regulation (EUDR) consuming much of publishers’ attention, our session underscored the importance of embedding sustainability into everyday business operations, ensuring that the industry is not just reacting to legislation but actively driving long-term environmental responsibility.

Key Takeaways from ConTEXT

1. The Need for Carbon Calculation Tools – There is a growing consensus that publishers must be equipped with standardized tools to measure their carbon footprints, both for operations and individual book products. GBA is actively working on making available tools that will help publishers track their carbon emissions, supporting industry-wide transparency and accountability.

2. Shifting from Compliance to Strategy – While compliance with regulations like EUDR is essential, publishers must also recognize the broader need for integrating sustainability in publishing operations. Our discussion highlighted how sustainability fluency should become as ingrained in publishing workflows as financial and production planning.

3. Industry Appetite for Sustainability Leadership – Feedback from ConTEXT attendees reinforced that the industry values structured sustainability initiatives and looks to organizations like GBA for leadership. A particular highlight was BookNet Canada’s efforts to measure its own carbon footprint since 2020, demonstrating a model from which other organizations are eager to learn.

4. Collaboration is Key – Events like ConTEXT provide invaluable spaces for industry stakeholders to share experiences and develop collective solutions. GBA remains committed to supplementing these in-person gatherings with webinars, meetings, and workshops to ensure sustainability remains at the forefront of industry discussions.

   
   

Moving Forward with Sustainability

We are grateful for the opportunity to engage with industry leaders and appreciate HP and Ashley Gordon’s efforts in fostering meaningful dialogue through this event.

We encourage industry stakeholders to reach out to us with their sustainability innovations and challenges—collaboration and industry buy-in are vital for lasting change. Together, we can ensure that sustainability becomes an intrinsic part of publishing’s future.

For those who missed our session at ConTEXT, we invite you to join us at the upcoming GBA event at Frankfurt 2025, where we will further explore these topics and share updates on our ongoing projects. More details can be found here.

Sustainability at BISG

By Brian O'Leary

Interest in—and awareness of—the need for more sustainable practices is growing in the United States. Although other markets, including the United Kingdom and the European Union, are more advanced in their consideration of sustainability goals, the global nature of many businesses means that international trends are affecting US organizations as well.

Various companies and nonprofit organizations have started sustainability efforts. Some are well established, dating to the mid-2000s. At the same time, overall knowledge of the basic components of sustainability—the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), carbon footprints, and scopes 1, 2, and 3 emissions, as examples—is limited in the US book industry. More can be done to build awareness, educate, and foster action around sustainability in the US market.

At the moment, the North American market is challenged to make sense of what is happening globally with respect to sustainability. There is a lot of data and not enough actionable information related to reporting requirements, deadlines, and expectations for progress against multiple sustainability targets. At BISG, we’re trying to help the industry develop that information. Overall, our sustainability working group has six ongoing objectives:

• Identify and address opportunities to create more uniform (standard) approaches to collecting and reporting data related to sustainability efforts

• Coordinate with other US and international sustainability efforts, building relationships within the group and across organizations

• Share information about work done to define and establish goals around sustainability

• Link available resources, like the SDGs, to book publishing supply chain activities, advising US organizations on current and emerging requirements. Consider resources like the Publishers Compact as a way to engage companies and individuals.

• Propose industry goals around critical metrics, such as CO2 equivalents

• Collect data that informs the industry about progress and opportunities relative to SDGs and other measures of sustainability

  
  

In 2025, we are focused on three near-term goals whose results will help interested organizations in the U.S. and elsewhere strengthen their approaches to sustainability. These goals include:

• Developing and implementing a one-year plan that demonstrates how a carbon calculation model can be adopted within an organization

• Delivering a business case for carbon data collection

• Collaborating with the BISG Supply Chain Committee and the Green Book Alliance for in-person opportunities to educate the industry around sustainability issues and opportunities at industry events (London Book Fair, Frankfurt Book Fair, BISG and BMI’s annual meetings, etc.)

  
  

The work to demonstrate how a carbon calculation model can be adopted within an organization is already underway. At its 2025 kickoff meeting in early February, BISG’s sustainability working group began a year-long “live testing” project to choose a carbon model, acquire the data needed to populate it for a set of publishing decisions, and then report on both what it found and areas where it might be struggling. We’ll take the lessons learned in 2025 and share them widely, so that other companies and organizations can learn from our successes (and from our mistakes!)

The business case for carbon data collection is still on the drawing board, with the goal of answering the perennial question: “Why should I do this?” We know there’s a need to move past the argument that “it’s the right thing to do”, offering concrete benefits that justify investments in carbon data collection. The live testing project will help us find some of those benefits.

Work is already underway to contribute to the Green Book Alliance, whose principals meet every other Monday to compare notes and plan projects. GBA recently participated in HP’s ConTEXT event on March 10, just ahead of the London Book Fair, and we’re already discussing the content of our Frankfurt sustainability event. Look for announcement on those and other initiatives, and sign up for our mailing list if you’re not already on it.