Image – Getty: John Miller
By Porter Anderson, Editor in Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Feel the heat
Ais our Publish perspectives As readers know, the International Publishers Association (IPA) in Geneva, together with the United Nations and its SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) programming, has launched a project called the “SDG Publishers Compact”.
In addition, many national publishing associations have their own programs on the climate crisis. The Publishers Association of the United Kingdom, led by CEO Dan Conway, calls this “Publishing Declares.”
And today (13 August) the association announced in London that it had reached the 200 signatures mark on its Publishing Declares agreement, with Muddy Publishing being the 200th signatory.
The timing couldn’t be better, or at least more appropriate: BBC News reports that Monday (August 12) was the hottest day of the year so far in the UK. In Cambridge, temperatures reached 34.8 degrees Celsius (94.6 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the Met Office, the UK’s national weather service.
Sam Hancock and Adam Durbin write for the BBC: “The higher temperatures are confined to central and southern England and yellow heat warnings are in place for millions of people.”
As mentioned in the announcement, the agreement was launched in 2021 “to raise awareness of climate change and highlight the publishing industry’s role in tackling the climate crisis through environmental sustainability initiatives.”
Jude Gates
Judy Gates, chair of the association’s Sustainability Task Force, said of the news of the 200th signature: “It is great news that the Publishing Declares platform recently had its 200th signatory. The more we in the book and magazine industry can use our creativity to implement our promises, the more likely we are to succeed.
“Many companies are already making significant progress in delivering on this promise, and each new Publishing Declares signatory is a step in the right direction.”
Alice Wood, sustainability manager at the Publishers Association, said: “Every new signature represents positive progress in tackling the impacts of the climate crisis.
“As the pledge states, our ideas and stories are limitless, but our planet’s resources are not. The world needs these 200 signatories and we look forward to welcoming more and continuing our important work.”
“Use our expertise, platform and voice”
As you may recall, these 200 companies commit to the following in the statement:
- “Take action on climate action: Support the global climate initiative to limit warming to 1.5°C by setting ambitious, measurable targets in our own operations and extended supply chain to achieve net zero as soon as possible and no later than 2050.
- “Protecting life on land: protecting nature and biodiversity, working with resource-efficient supply chain partners, using the most sustainable materials and processes possible in the content we produce, and constantly innovating to use new and recycled materials.
- “Strengthening partnerships: Collaborate with our colleagues, authors, illustrators, supply chain partners and business partners to translate our climate goals and commitments into concrete actions and protect our planet for future generations.
- “Education for sustainability: Empower our colleagues to acquire climate literacy and support them in applying this knowledge to their work.
- “Advocating for sustainability: Using our expertise, platform and voice to raise awareness and drive positive climate action wherever we can.”
Related article: Marie Tomičić from Sweden: A small publishing house goes green. Image: Olika
On GuardianNadeem Badshah and Matthew Weaver write that the highest temperature recorded in the UK so far this year before Monday’s peak was 32 degrees Celsius, recorded at Heathrow and Kew Gardens on July 29, making the rise to 34.8 degrees on Monday all the more worrying.
Badshah and Weaver write: “Another sign of the climate crisis is the Met Office’s preliminary report that this is the eleventh year since the 1960s in which temperatures of up to 34.8 degrees Celsius have been recorded. Six of these have occurred in the last decade.”
For more information about the Publishers Association’s Publishing Declares scheme and for UK publishers to sign up, click here.
Image: UK Publishers Association, Publishing Declares
You can find more information from Publishing Perspectives on the climate crisis here, more on sustainability here, more on the UK market here and more on the Publishers Association here.
Publishing Perspectives is the global media partner of the International Publishers Association.
About the author
