The Vermont-based Inner Traditions, Bear & Company, which has published bestselling books in the mind/body/spirit categories for 35 years, is highlighting its latest green initiatives at BEA. Founder and owner Ehud Sperling invites everyone to come on down to Costa Rica to see how the publisher is helping to reforest by planting trees there—or just drop by booth 4328 to hear about it.
Sperling says that several people helped him become "seduced" by Costa Rica, including Robin Williams, who starred in Patch Adams, the film adaptation of an IT book. The publisher runs two tree farms adjacent to the rain forest. The planting is all done "low tech," i.e., with oxen moving things. Through reforestation the watershed is being preserved there, explains Sperling. The Costa Rican team works closely with the electric company because on its way to be used in agriculture, the water helps produce hydropower.
"This is our way of doing something to return some of the bounty that we've been given," says Sperling. Let's face it—publishers who print books use trees, and Sperling thinks all businesses should explore how they can be more green and give back.
Inner Traditions uses recycled paper wherever it can, installed solar panels on its building (an old Victorian home) in 2009, encourages employees to walk or bike to work, and recently started a food co-op so employees have access to organic food. "That's my covert way of getting people to eat better," admits Sperling. The departments take turns unloading the food truck. By buying healthy food at work, Sperling reasons, employees might be able to cut back on trips to the store.
While the publisher is not looking to outdo Chelsea Green and others who do a good job of publishing books on the environment and living green, some recent Inner Traditions titles that support such a lifestyle are Thomas Berry, Dreamer of the Earth: The Spiritual Ecology of the Father of Environmentalism and a new edition of The Hunter's Trance, titled Ecomysticism: The Profound Experience of Nature as Spiritual Guide.
At Inner Traditions, Sperling explains, green really begins at home. He proudly says that grown children of longtime employees are now joining the staff. "Nepotism is us," he says, adding that once they find a great gene pool they work it.
"You cannot have a professional life if your private life is not working as well," says Sperling. "That's all part of green for us."
At Inner Traditions, from its publishing program to its people, they talk the talk and walk the walk, now down a greener path.
