Can shipping go green?

We may not notice it, but shipping is responsible for a boat load of the world's emissions, and that's set to increase just as we need to be fighting climate change. Once again tackling a complex subject in a very accessible way, here's what ClimateAdam suggests we can do to turn this ship around: from high tech green boats to the latest shipping policy. Photo by Ian Taylor on Unsplash

Dr Levy is a doctor in atmospheric physics (University of Oxford) now focused on communicating complex scientific ideas with engaging multimedia stories. He discusses climate change through his accessible, award-winning YouTube channel, ClimateAdam, and produces scientific podcasts and videos for a number of platforms.

To find out more about Dr Levy check out his website About Me.

Photo by Raimond Klavins on Unsplash

Changes in the packaging industry

The following article from McKinsey talks about the changes in packing from 2000 to now, and what might and needs to happen in the future. Although it is more relevant to food packaging and the e-commerce of home shopping, it does give an insight into this, to the detriment of paper products that we use in the book industry. There is a comment about the restructuring and the divesting of upstream and the printing-paper business that we are all aware of. It is an interesting article to read nether the less to understand the trends going forwards.

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash

The link to the McKinsey article

The environmental charter for book publishing

The French Publishers Association (SNE) and its Environment and Manufacturing committee especially, emphasize the importance of a more sustainable and ecologically friendly industry of book publishing.

SNE issued its environmental charter for book publishing, which aims to be a "good practices" guide enabling all the actors of book publishing to grasp the various environmental challenges. These "good practices" guide addresses all the chain leading to the publication of a book, from its production to its end of life and aims at identifying levers of improvement and at finding concrete solutions in order to lower the environmental footprint. This guide is bound to evolve along regulatory and societal changes but as of now it allows each book chain actor to evaluate their actions. SNE supports this positive approach towards transformation aimed at improving environmental practices.

This is a very informative article, which also links the UN SDGs to the various stages of the production process. Although written for the French market, there is a lot of information in the article that is relevant to all in the book industry.

Environmental charter for book publishing