Image – Getty: John Miller
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
Feeling the Heat
As our Publishing Perspectives readers know, the International Publishers Association (IPA) in Geneva has spearheaded with the United Nations and its SDG (Sustainable Development Goals) programming a project called the SDG Publishers Compact.
In addition, many national publishers’ associations have their own programs in place relative to the climate crisis, and at the United Kingdom’s Publishers Association, operating under the direction of CEO Dan Conway, this is called Publishing Declares.
And today (August 13), the association in London has announced that it has reached 200 signatures on its Publishing Declares agreement, the 200th signatory being Muddy Publishing.
The timing could hardly be better, or at least more pertinent: BBC News is reporting that Monday (August 12) was the hottest day of the year in the United Kingdom to date, reaching 34.8 degrees Celsius (94.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in Cambridge, according to the “Met Office,” the national meteorological service for the UK.
As Sam Hancock and Adam Durbin write for the BBC, “The higher temperatures have been confined to central and southern England and yellow heat health alerts are in place for millions of people.”
As the announcements reminds us, the agreement was created in 2021, “to raise awareness of climate change and to emphasize the publishing industry’s role in helping combat the climate crisis through environmental sustainability initiatives.”
Jude Gates
Judy Gates is the chair of the association’s Sustainability Task Force, and on the news of the 200th signature, she says, “It’s great news that the Publishing Declares platform has recently had its 200th signatory. The more we in the book and journal industries can throw the might of our creativity at embracing our pledges, the more likely we are to succeed.
“Many companies are already starting to make significant progress toward upholding this pledge and each new Publishing Declares signatory is a step in the right direction.”
Alice Wood, the Publishers Association’s sustainability manager, says, “Every new signature is positive progress to fight against the effects of the climate crisis.
“As the pledge says, our ideas and stories are limitless, but the 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’
You may recall that the declaration records these 200 companies as pledging to:
- “Take action on climate: Join the global climate effort to limit warming to 1.5°C by setting ambitious, measurable targets across our own operations and extended supply chain to achieve net zero as soon as possible and by 2050 at the latest.
- “Protect life on land: Protect nature and biodiversity, working with supply-chain partners that are resource efficient, use sustainable materials and processes wherever possible in the content we produce, and constantly innovating to make use of new and recycled materials.
- “Strengthen partnerships: Collaborate with our peers, authors, illustrators, supply-chain partners, and business partners to translate our climate aspirations and commitments into tangible actions to safeguard our planet for future generations.
- “Educate for sustainability: Empower our colleagues to become climate literate and support them to bring that knowledge into the work that they do.
- “Advocate for sustainability: Use our expertise, platform, and voice to raise awareness and drive positive climate action wherever we can.”
Related article: Sweden’s Marie Tomičić: A Small Publisher Goes Green. Image: Olika
At the Guardian, Nadeem Badshah and Matthew Weaver write that the previous top temperature in the UK this year before Monday’s high was 32C, recorded at Heathrow and Kew Gardens on July 29. This makes Monday’s jump to 34.8 all the more worrisome.
Badshah and Weaver write, “In a further sign of the climate crisis, the Met Office said provisionally this was the 11th year since the 1960s to have seen temperatures as high as 34.8C, but six of them have been in the past decade.”
More on the Publishers Association’s Publishing Declares program and a chance for UK presses to sign up is here.
Image: UK Publishers Association, Publishing Declares
More from Publishing Perspectives on the climate crisis is here, more on sustainability is here, more on the United Kingdom’s market is here, and more on the Publishers Association is here.
Publishing Perspectives is the International Publishers Association’s world media partner.
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