Introducing the GBA
Book Carbon Calculator
Across the publishing industry, organizations are eager to reduce their environmental impact, but lack simple, accessible, and affordable ways to measure carbon emissions. Current tools are either proprietary, limited in scope, or backward-looking, which is to say that most carbon reports are annual snapshots that do not meaningfully influence day-to-day production decisions.
At Frankfurt 2025, we held a workshop on sustainability data collection, and what came out of that discussion and consultation with industry stakeholders was, “start with carbon footprints.”
Organizations were asking for consistent, transparent reporting methods aligned with established frameworks like the GHG Protocol, and accessible for organizations of all sizes.
History of the Carbon Calculator Project
The Green Book Alliance Carbon Calculator Project builds on more than two decades of sustainability work within the publishing industry.
The project's roots trace back to 2005, when New Society Publishers developed one of the earliest carbon footprint calculators designed for Canadian book publishing. Recognising the need for updated tools and broader industry access, New Society Publishers and ECW Press collaborated to modernise and expand this work into a new generation of carbon accounting tools for publishers.
The project resulted in two complementary calculators:
Book Carbon Footprint Calculator: a lifecycle assessment tool that estimates the cradle-to-warehouse greenhouse gas emissions associated with a printed book and helps compare the impact of different production choices.
Publisher's Carbon Footprint Calculator: an organizational carbon accounting tool that helps publishing companies measure and understand their overall greenhouse gas emissions.
The project was supported through funding from the Canada Council for the Arts' Digital Greenhouse program. French-language translation and adaptation were provided by BTLF (La Société de gestion de la banque de titres de langue française), helping make the tools accessible to a broader publishing community.
These calculators were first launched through BookNet Canada's Sustainable Publishing Tools initiative in 2025 and continue to evolve through collaboration across the publishing industry. The Green Book Alliance is proud to support and promote these tools as part of its mission to help the book industry measure, understand, and reduce its environmental impact.
What We've Done
We adapted the existing Canadian Excel-based carbon calculator, created by New Society Publishers and ECW Press, into a free, user-friendly web tool accessible across international markets. This tool allows publishers, printers, and supply-chain partners to calculate the carbon footprint of a book before production decisions are made, enabling more climate-conscious choices in real time, or after a print run is finished to record carbon impacts for reporting purposes, carbon offsets, etc.
Thank you to our Sponsors
Support This Initiative
Become a Sponsor - we are continuing to look for financial support for V2
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Industry visibility through launch communications, webinars, events, and case studies
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Logo placement within the tool
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First access to training and early demo opportunities
Champion the GBA Book Carbon Calculator
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Share the project on your social channels or newsletters
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Attend or promote upcoming webinars/demo sessions
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Encourage your team or clients to explore the tool