Sustainability in the book industry

How can the books industry be more green?

Did you know that the pulp and paper industry is the world’s fourth-largest energy-consuming industry, accounting for about 5% of the world’s total industrial energy consumption? And did you also know that various Australian publishers have committed to improving waste practices, finding ways to repurpose, reuse and recycle what would once have been sent to landfill? Facts such as these are studded within The BookPeople Sustainability Paper – ‘Towards a Sustainable Bookselling Future’.

BookPeople is a not-for-profit association that has been an advocate for books, bookshops and readers for nearly a century.

Unlock Padlock Icon

Unlock this content?

Access this content and more

Thuy On is Reviews Editor of ArtsHub and an arts journalist, critic and poet who’s written for a range of publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, Sydney Review of Books, The Australian, The Age/SMH and Australian Book Review. She was the books editor of The Big issue for 8 years. Her debut, a collection of poetry called Turbulence, came out in 2020 and was released by University of Western Australia Publishing (UWAP). Her second collection, Decadence, was published in July 2022, also by UWAP. Her third book, Essence, will be published in 2025. Twitter: @thuy_on Instagram: poemsbythuy