Like other industries, publishing faces its environmental responsibilities. If the sector’s employers’ union, the SNE, has been providing industry statistics for several years in terms of manufacturing, shelling, or forestry certifications, it has recently strengthened its actions in this area.
In 2021, the National Publishing Union presented an environmental charter for book publishing, to encourage its members to implement some good practices. Let us also note the opening of a “Environment Club», with online conferences for the organization’s members.
At the start of the year, the union inaugurated “Responsible chapters», a program intended to provide publishers with tools to better measure the carbon footprint of their books. And so, ideally, work to reduce it as much as possible.
If the origin and traceability of the paper constitute important factors for the ecology of the book, note that many others come into account: the place of manufacture of the work, of course, which determines the number of kilometers traveled before the placing on the market, but also the materials and techniques used for covering the work, or even its transport…
Alongside the overproduction of books – which the Filéas tool (Fils d’information booksellers, publishers, authors), co-designed by the SNE, should make it possible to reduce -, these conditions of manufacture, transport and promotion of books constitute one of the levers to be activated to improve the carbon footprint of the examples produced…
Measure, analyze and act
Deployed over two years, 2025 and 2026, the “Responsible Chapters” program is divided into three distinct axes:
– Calculate: implementation of a carbon footprint calculator, in the form of a digital platform usable by publishers allowing them to measure the Co2 emissions of each work produced.
– Analyze: carrying out life cycle analyzes and monitoring their individual trajectory of two printed works (and their digital equivalent), with the objectives of decision support and the search for levers for improving environmental performance .
-– Train: creation of a training tool on the environmental issues of our sector for employees of publishing houses, with an e-learning module and a face-to-face module.
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A priori, all of these tools could be used by SNE members, but also by other companies in the publishing sector. When contacted, the SNE was not able to provide us with details immediately.
Supported by the SNE, the program was co-financed by the union, whose initiative is supported by the State both within the framework of the “Supporting green alternatives 2” system of France 2030, operated by the Bank
territories, and by the National Book Center.
Photography: illustration, ActuaLitté, CC BY SA 2.0
By Antoine Oury
Contact : [email protected]
