Why publishers could become tree huggers

While the previous item spoke of an American "greenbuilding" initiative, there is an even more laudable program working quietly and persistently closer to home. That's a 3-year-old lobbying venture that is attempting to wean Canadian magazine (and book) publishers off paper that contains fibre from ancient, old growth and endangered forests.

Markets Initiative is a joint project of Greenpeace, the Friends of Clayquot Sound and the B.C. Chapter of the Sierra Club. If publishers were considering what New Year's resolutions they were going to make (as I'm sure all of them are), they could do much worse than at least considering the battery of arguments that Markets Initiative makes. It's not just warm and fuzzy tree-hugging but a cogent case for the economics and the business ethics of choosing an ecologically friendlier alternative. In many cases, publishers will find that alternative papers are relatively widely available and comparable in cost and Markets Inititative can be persuasive in overcoming publishers objections, such as that going green will drive up paper costs or lose readers because of reduced quality of reproduction.

The project's website offers a useful dowloadable kit of information.

If you want to know more, you can also go here or here (all these sites link up). Or you could call Markets Initiative in Vancouver at (604) 253-7701 ext. 24 or (250) 725-8050. Ask for Neva Murtha.