Sustainable Publishing

Sustainable Publishing

A book's environmental cost begins when paper leaves the forest and does not end on the reader's shelf. We try to reduce the measurable part of that cost and to state the unmeasured part openly.

Paper and printing

• Interiors use certified, unbleached or chlorine-free bleached paper.
• Print runs are renewed against realised demand rather than sales forecasts; first runs are deliberately small.
• Covers use a matt varnish that does not impede recycling, rather than lamination.

Stock and returns

Overprinting is publishing's largest invisible waste. We work with distributors to bring return rates down and meet demand for out-of-stock titles with the digital edition before reprinting. Unsold copies are donated to libraries and reading groups rather than pulped.

The cost of digital

A digital edition is not automatically "clean": storage and transfer carry an energy cost too. We therefore keep file sizes lean and hold archival copies with a single certified provider.

Statement

These practices are reviewed annually. We hold no verified carbon measurement and therefore make no numerical reduction claim. When we commission one, we will publish the result here — including an unfavourable one.