Thad McIlroy - The Future of Publishing

1. One group working aggressively in this area is the Green Press Initiative. According the organization's Web site "The mission of the Green Press Initiative is to work with publishers, industry stakeholders and authors to create paper-use transformations that will conserve natural resources and preserve endangered forests."

Perhaps most significant: "The Green Press Initiative is funded primarily through grant foundations. Past and present funders include: FSC Global Fund, The Richard and Rhoda Goldman Fund, Giles and Elise Mead Foundation, Merck Family Fund, Town Creek Foundation, Wallace Global Fund, and the Weeden Foundation." There's one paper company, one printer and a few publishers on the list.

2. The document, "Book Industry Treatise on Responsible Paper Use," is available here: (http://greenpressinitiative.org/documents/Industry Treatise on Paper.doc).

3. A Q&A on the treatise is available here: http://www.greenpressinitiative.org/documents/Q&A-Industry Treatise.pdf

4. Greg Kozac's 2003 paper "Printed Scholarly Books and E-book Reading Devices: A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Two Book Options," is often referenced by researchers.

5. "PoisonPCs and ToxicTVs," is an interesting in-depth analysis of just the toxic aspects of some of the electronics used for media consumption.

6. "The Environmental Impact of Google Searches," despite some factual errors, is a key document in understanding the issues in this debate.

7. See also my article on the move to new FSC-certified paper for the publishing industry.