Harry Potter continues to green the publishing industry

Amsterdam, International — Two major book publishers are helping to save the world’s ancient forests by printing the new French and German editions of J.K. Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’ on ancient forest friendly paper. Both editions will be available in book stores from Saturday.
German publisher ‘Carlsen’ has used a mixture of 40% recycled paper and virgin fibres from well managed forests that have Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. French publisher ‘Gallimard’ used 100% recycled paper for the French Canadian edition and made good first steps by printing the French and Belgian editions on paper that on average contain 50% FSC certified virgin fibres.
“Greenpeace applauds these and all other Potter publishers around the world who’ve chosen ancient forest friendly paper. Print runs for Harry Potter books are so huge that this kind of effort really helps save ancient forests,” said Judy Rodrigues of Greenpeace International.

In 2003, Canadian publisher, ‘Raincoast Books’ started greening Harry Potter when it printed ‘Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix’ on 100% recycled paper, and repeated this initiative with ‘Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince’. This move helped save over 67,000 trees. Last summer, ‘Bloomsbury’ followed when it printed the UK edition on 30% FSC certified paper, a positive first step. Israel’s ‘Attic and Yediot Ahronot Books’ also plans to print its edition, due out in December, on ancient forest friendly paper.

However, Dutch ‘De Harmonie’ and US publisher ‘Scholastic’ are less progressive. Scholastic even ignored almost 20,000 emails from customers who wanted it to use ancient forest friendly paper.

“It is sadly ironic that Scholastic, a children’s book publisher, refused to use paper not sourced from ancient forests for this wildly popular book. They could have saved 217,475 trees and helped protect our children’s natural heritage instead of fostering its destruction,” she added.

Ancient forests are essential for life on Earth but only 20% remain because they are being destroyed to make paper and other wood products.

The Greenpeace Book Campaign encourages all publishers to use ancient forest friendly paper. It is calling on publishers which are still deciding which paper to use for the latest Harry Potter, such as the Czech Republic publisher ‘Albatros’ and Spanish publisher ‘Editorial Salamandra’, to follow the lead taken by ‘Raincoast Books’, ‘Bloomsbury’, ‘Carlsen‘ and ‘Gallimard’ and save ancient forests by using ancient forest friendly paper.

source: Greenpeace website