Random House UK Moves Forward With FSC Paper Commitment

The British Random House Group has formalized its preference for Forest Stewardship Certified (FSC) paper, which is produced in environmentally managed ways. The publisher also plans to step up its use of recycled papers. Both goals were included in the group’s new paper procurement policy. Several weeks ago, Verlagsgruppe Random House in Munich had also announced that it would press ahead with switching its book production to FSC or recycled paper: all hardcovers published by Verlagsgruppe imprints will bear the FSC seal by the end of this year.

According to environmental organizations like Greenpeace and the WWF, the FSC seal guarantees that the wood used to produce the paper is harvested from socially and environmentally managed forests. WWF and Greenpeace welcomed the Random House Group UK’s commitment to sourcing FSC paper for its books. Belinda Fletcher of Greenpeace commended Random House for helping to ease the pressure on the world’s ancient forests. Also, by formalizing  the most comprehensive commitment developed by a UK publisher to date, Random House serves as trailblazer and pioneer,  setting a good example for other publishing houses to follow.

Though the preference is now for Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper, Random House UK acknowledges that the transition from existing papers will be slow as, at present, there are a limited number of commercially viable FSC options available to consumer book publishers. To remedy this, Random House will be working with existing paper suppliers to increase the volume of viable FSC grades and will be joining the WWF-UK Forest and Trade Network.

Stephen Esson, Random House UK Group Production Director, said: “The selection of the right paper is of vital importance from an environmental as well as a commercial perspective and we know that it is a major concern for many of our authors.”