Wednesday 19 November 2008

Environmental book design of the year


Very proud to announce that the Green Marketing Manifesto won the Environmental award in the British Book Design and Production Awards 2008. Congratulations to Tom & Luke the designers, the team at Wiley and to TJ International the printers. It's a technical award basically - the judges said "Everything comes together with this title - the selection of a culturally green manufacturing company, vegetable based ink, acid free FSC paper, ISO 14001 compliance and ample space for important use of logos and environmental text." I am really grateful to that team of people that enabled the physical book to do what the book recommends; set good standards. :J

ps on the subject of printing did you know it's the 5th most harmful industry in the world (up there with nuclear and mining)? The standards are improving fast but even so - that's as far as I know actually included in this fifth place. I met Jim Dinnage of Seacourt recently who heads up one of the greenest printing companies in the world - and won the Queens Award for Industry for sustainability. But so many people commissioning print are ruled by the ultra-lowest price over all sustainability criteria. If anyone reading this is a designer do check into this issue & use your power to specify the right approaches - yes I know if you are reading this blog you probably know all about this backwards, but just in case - loads more on this from Caroline at Lovely as a Tree here. Jim suggested that the way forward is to create a brand mark for responsible printing, like fairtrade or organic, which i think (given its impact) makes quite a bit of sense.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Congratulations.

The printing Fairtrade-equivalent is a good idea, or maybe some sort of directory of green printers? I'd prefer to use a local print firm for stuff I get done, but it's hard to work out which ones are environmentally-friendly (or to know what to ask to find out if they are)

Anonymous said...

Hi John
Spot on. I did the carbon footprint for a major international development charity a couple of years back. We were gobsmacked when we found that paper and printing (newsletters appeals etc) had a higher carbon footprint than the hundreds of international flights undertaken by the charity. It was a great exercise to do - because of course now then know this they can take steps to reduce eg by using more recycled paper and printing less!
Mark

Anonymous said...

Big congrats.

Piers

faris said...

awesomeness - grats!

Mels said...

Check with the Museum of Printing in London:

St Bride Library
Bride Lane, Fleet Street
London EC4Y 8EE
020 7353 4660

They will be able to advise you. My business is in the U.S. and we've specialized in eco papers and printing since 1995. It is a great area where much is not done, and much can be done.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations guys! Well deserved.

Anonymous said...

Congratulations!

Any leads on similarly reputable book publishers in the US would be helpful