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What am I reading now? The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
 
Last year, on Sunday, May 23, 2010, the Rainforest Action Network examined the paper policies of American-based children’s publishers with the report Turning the Page on Rainforest Destruction. The RAN found that:

Five out of the top ten American children’s book publishers have public environmental and paper procurement policies that pledge to reduce the companies’ impact on the climate, protect endangered forests, increase the use of recycled and FSC certified fiber and maximize resource efficiency. However, despite these important policy commitments, wood fiber from Indonesia is ending up in children’s books.

This got me thinking: How do Canadian-based children’s publishers measure up? So, using a completely unscientific approach, off I went. I had a singular goal: How many publishing companies have an environmental/paper policy on their respective sites. Three out of the top nine Canadian children’s publishers that I researched have such policies. HarperCollins Publishers Canada created HarperGreen, Raincoast Books has a clear environmental record and Scholastic Canada established their green initiatives.

Like RAN and the companies identified above, Eco-Libris believes that “[c]hoosing recycled and FSC certified paper helps protect the world’s forests, species and climate.” For the second year in a row, Eco-Libris illustrated their stance on this issue by launching the Green Books Campaign. Sponsored by Indigo Books & Music, on Wednesday, November 10, 2010, at precisely 1:00 PM Eastern Time, 200 bloggers took a united stand to support books printed on environmental paper by simultaneously publishing reviews.

Reading green is not only about reading those books that discuss green issues but also reading those books that are published using green methods. The movement calling for sustainable practices is underway. Changes need to be made and there’s no reason why we cannot start with children’s publishing.