Environmental impact as it relates to the production and distribution of books
We have adopted World Resources Institute Greenhouse Gas Protocol as a guide to our working practices.
We use recycled paper in producing books and reduce waste by ordering titles in smaller blocks ― we look to reasonably calculate what we can sell so as to not create waste (ie unsold books).
Likewise, when events require travel we try as much as possible to either travel by public transport or shared cars.
We monitor the electricity and other fuels we use and as we understand our footprint is low in this aspect, with work being primarily done out of one small room with minimal heating and standard lighting, upon two (recycled) laptops.
We use printers and other outsourced processes that align with our commitment to understanding the Scottish government's climate crisis awareness. We favour bookshops that work with suppliers that don't require needlessly complex shipment of books. Some shops require two distribution stops for titles, which is one too many. We also supply Amazon directly which saves a further distribution stop.
That said Amazon cause us issues at the same time. Amazon faces scrutiny for both its labor practices and environmental impact. Worker concerns include demanding productivity quotas, long working hours, and potential safety risks. Environmentally, Amazon's large-scale operations, reliance on fossil fuels and plastic, and anti-environmental lobbying have drawn criticism, along with concerns about their emissions reporting and destruction of unsold products. Pickers in Amazon fulfillment centers are expected to pick and pack a large number of items per hour, leading to reports of back and shoulder pain from repetitive movements. This happened to my pal. He also criticised Amazon for its anti-union stance and efforts to discourage unionization. We have recently had to destroy 32 unsold books that were retunred to us and donate to charity 8 because they were in such bad condition and so badly damaged as to be of no commercial use. (June 2025)
Before setting up this company we commissioned two reports on book distribution, a first in in 2017 and again in 2019. We found that over 80% of small presses in Scotland, who numbered in our 2019 survey as 29, had either no cost nor climate effective distribution. Larger presses used services which were transport and packaging intensive, focused on either BookSource (Cambuslang) and Gardners (Eastbourne).
Because these partners can at times facilitate books making unnecessary journeys and so also use unnecessary packaging, they not only increase our carbon footprint by making theirs a part of it, but reduce our profits.
We believe our choice of projects reflects our environmental positivity, as far as the underlying principles of anti-colonialism are aligned with those of pro-climate.
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Scotland’s climate change legislation sets a target date for net-zero emissions of all greenhouse gases by 2045. To play our part in achieving this, we place care of the environment at the heart of planning for the projects we produce and manage. In doing so we aim for a minimal carbon footprint across all activity.
Physical books are heavy and expensive to transport. A book sold via Amazon, a chain book shop and even a small bookshop will likely take four journeys.
Bear in mind that each arrow ―> represents a journey that we have to pay for as a business and which causes significant and measurable climate impact:
CHAIN BOOK SHOP: PRINTER ―> BOOKSOURCE ―> CHAIN STORE HUB or DEPOT ―> CHAIN SHOP ―> CUSTOMER
AMAZON: PRINTER ―> BOOKSOURCE ―> AMAZON DEPOT ―> CUSTOMER
INDEPENDENT SHOP: PRINTER ―> BOOKSOURCE ―> GARDNERS ―> SMALL BOOK SHOP ―> CUSTOMER
as opposed to
BUY FROM OUR WEBSITE OR SOCIAL MEDIA: PRINTER ―> LEAMINGTON ―> CUSTOMER
These modest flowcharts demonstrates the savings made from selling books from our website and other social media web services we use.
Because of this we have active shops on TikTok, Facebook and Instagram. While they are difficult to manage, they are worth it because of the easily demonstrable savings to carbon footprint, and also our profits.
For a book, each one of those arrows will cost up to £3 and can be more depending on the nature of the order. In terms of consumer ecology, books are not among the most ecological of items.
To send 100 books on one of these journeys we estimate might be ≈ 34 kg CO₂-e
This figure is based on and an implicit package weight of .5kg per book with use of a lightweight cardboard mailer.
We also consider failed deliveries/returns, choice of courier, recycled vs virgin packaging (not used by Booksource) and whether we can use a “green” postal service.
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Because our sales force is Inpress we are obliged to use distributor BookSource, majority owned by Publishing Scotland. We are aware of the challenges of book distribution and the potential waste in the current system used by publishers. It is our aim to use this system as little as possible for the reasons stated here, and in 2025 and 2026 up to 40 of our out of print and soon to be out of print titles will be kept in print by Ingram Spark, who make high quality Print on Demand titles, which is profitable and because of the high quality, preferred by our authors.
A customer purchasing a book from us via Ingram Spark will therefore receive as follows:
INGRAM SPARK ―> CUSTOMER
This is not only profitable but a perfect way forward for our back list as it is ecologically highly impactful.
To further embed sustainability into our organisation and its culture we have since 2020 appointed staff champions who have advocated for environmental initiatives and raised awareness among colleagues. These champions lead by example promoting eco-friendly practices and encouraging others to adopt sustainable habits.