''FSC'' Page By Page: Verlagsgruppe Random House Banks On Ecologically Produced Paper

Five years ago, ecologically produced FSC paper hardly played any role at all, and it was largely unknown. Today, the demand for the Forest Stewardship Council seal is continuously rising, and the demand for FSC paper is multiplying each year. This also applies to Verlagsgruppe Random House. BTB will be the first paperback publisher to mark its entire book production with the FSC logo starting this month. One by one, the other publishers of the Munich group, which emphasizes its responsibility toward protecting the environment and conserving natural resources, will follow suit. Sammlung Luchterhand will begin carrying the FSC seal starting in July, and the paperbacks of the publishers Goldmann, Heyne, and Diana will be at that stage by September the latest. By the end of 2005, all of Verlagsgruppe Random House's hardcover books will carry the FSC seal.

The FSC seal of quality is currently the only certificate that guarantees a socially responsible and environmentally friendly utilization of forests, according to the World Wildlife Fund. In 1993 environmental organizations and the forestry association as well as other associations and the representatives of so-called indigenous people established the Forest Stewardship Council after three years of preparations. Since then, it has been incorporated with the abbreviation FSC as a private, nonprofit organization. The FSC standards have worldwide validity.

After being awarded the seal, the entire production chain, from the forest to all production facilities and the end product, is examined every year with regard to its social and environmental friendliness. Besides the question of a sustained forestry, where harvested forests are replaced with new saplings, the utilization and care of the forests has to be economically worthwhile for tree farmers. One of the main goals of the FSC is to cultivate wood only from forests that are farmed in a sustained way and, at the same time, prevent illegal logging, which is considered the primary reason for the massive destruction of huge forest areas. This not only refers to paper production but also, for example, to the furniture industry.

The worldwide use of paper is about 325 million tons per year according to the WWF, and demand for paper is trending upward. Alongside the rather fundamental issue of reducing paper use, increasing the use of recycled paper and the award of the FSC seal for fresh fiber paper play key roles for environmentalists. Verlagsgruppe Random House in Munich is now taking both paths: Riemann-Veralg, which often publishes books with socio-critical and ecological themes, is consistent with these themes in the production of its books and will continue to print all of its books on recycled paper in the future. All other publishers of the group will chose the alternative by using FSC paper.

With this decision and in compliance with its principle environmental guidelines, Verlagsgruppe Random House supports "the efforts of the WWF, Greenpeace, and other environmental and nature conservation organizations to conserve old growth and virgin forests." The guideline dates back to January of this year and also states that logging activities in such forests is rejected out of principle; according to the Greenpeace recommendation, paper is bought only from countries that guarantee "cyclical, sustainable forestry."    

The print partners' environmental commitment is one important building block in the publishing group's environmental efforts – and here, the two most important suppliers of the group, the Arvato subsidiaries Mohn Media in Gütersloh and GGP Media in Pössneck, are excellent models. Both confirm an increasing demand for FSC paper, which just a short time ago was hard to obtain due to a lack of demand.

Mohn Media is one of the few print companies that has been FSC certified for years and is considered a trendsetter. In January 2005, the sister company GGP Media in Pössneck was the second Arvato subsidiary to be awarded the seal (Be-Net reported). At the time, Wolfgang Michael Hanke, Director Production, Verlagsgruppe Random House, expressly welcomed this step as instrumental in "closing a gap in the FSC production chain." A few days ago, at the occasion of the announcement of his company's FSC policy, Hanke emphasized: "We have an ongoing dialog with our suppliers about optimizing paper production." The award of all books with the FSC seal is a visible sign for the success of these joint endeavors.

And they are endeavors that assert themselves increasingly on an international scale. In the fall of last year, for example, Random House Mondadori together with Greenpeace presented the new book by the Chilean author Isabel Allende – printed on FSC paper – at the cultural center of the Círculo de Lectores in Madrid. It was the first book to be published within the framework of the Spanish Greenpeace project "Libros Amigos de los Bosques."