Best-selling authors such as JK Rowling, Margaret Atwood, Ian Rankin and Günter Grass have signed a pledge with the international environmental group Greenpeace to ensure that their future books are published on forest-friendly paper.
In the past decade, Greenpeace went all out to promote the Greenpeace Book Campaign — that works with the publishing industry do not destroy ancient forest cover and use recycled paper as much as possible.
World-over publishing houses are taking the green initiative forward in various ways. In 2006, US-based publishers Random House announced that at least 30 per cent of their titles will be printed on recycled paper, in 2008 Scholastic announced on a new green policy to also increase their use of recycled paper. Last year, the Hachette Group pledged to reduce their carbon footprints by 2 per cent or more each year. Since 2000, over 15 million books have been published on recycled paper.