Printing in Asia? Think Twice

The publishing industry is in the midst of numerous positive environmental transformations, with nearly 200 publishers setting meaningful policies and recycled fiber use increasing sixfold in the past several years. I'm thrilled about this progress. But I'm still the bearer of some bad news: in spite of everything, the industry is endangering some of the world's most critical forests—particularly ones in Indonesia. If we look closely, it's clear that publishers manufacturing books in Asia are contributing to some of the largest regional greenhouse gas emissions in the world, and the loss of the world's most biodiverse rainforests.

I get it: manufacturing books in Asia makes good economic sense. Many publishers recognize this; in 2007, the U.S. imported more than 430 million books from China, equivalent to about 10.4% of U.S. books published. But this short-term economic benefit is far outweighed by the long-term social and environmental costs of this choice. The impact of the American book industry on Indonesia's forests and people is largely connected to the fact that China and other Asian countries import large quantities of Indonesian pulp and paper. In fact, most (71%) of Indonesia's pulp exports go to either China or South Korea. Over 20% of China's paper imports come directly from Indonesia or countries supplied mainly by Indonesian pulp.

What does this mean for Indonesia? To start, the country's tropical forests are being cleared at the rate of about five million acres per year, for palm oil production and to make a variety of wood and paper products, including paper that is used to produce books bound for the U.S. market. In addition, experts estimate that about 65% of the logging in Indonesia occurs illegally.

This rapid rate of deforestation is seriously affecting Indonesia's indigenous people. Communities have been forcibly displaced from their lands so the forests they depend on could be logged and often converted into monoculture tree plantations. Negotiations between community leaders and logging companies are often “mediated” by armed military or police officials who have close ties to Indonesia's pulp and paper industry. In some cases, protests have been repressed violently and community leaders jailed. Many people in these communities have little choice but to work at the resulting tree plantations at exploitative wages. Indonesia's wildlife has suffered, too, especially tigers and elephants.

The effects of altering Indonesia's forests aren't confined by the country's borders. Indonesia's peat bogs (wetlands whose soft, spongy ground is composed largely of moss that can be harvested for fuel or as a soil additive) store massive amounts of carbon, which is released to the atmosphere when the bogs are drained or burned. One of Indonesia's huge paper producing regions, the Riau province, which is losing forests at rates as high as 11% per year, stores an estimated 14.6 billion metric tons of carbon. That's equivalent to one year's worth of global greenhouse gas emissions.

All of a sudden, printing books in Asia carries a much higher price tag than it initially seemed.

Some publishers are taking positive steps. Many of them convened to discuss pulp, paper and Indonesia at Random House's New York offices earlier this year. Chronicle Books, Scholastic, Pearson and others are mapping their fiber footprint, have established international policies or are taking steps to use alternative papers and work only with legitimate paper suppliers who are environmental leaders overseas.

Here's what else publishers can do:

Communicate your environmental goals with suppliers. Let them know you expect them to help you meet those goals.Work with suppliers that are or are willing to be environmental leaders.Know and understand the forest of origin for paper used overseas.Eliminate fiber from Indonesian forests that have been designated “endangered” or “high conservation value.”Don't use fiber that may come from peat forests of Indonesia.Support reforestation of degraded forests or peat lands.Maximize the use of recycled paper.Verify points three through six above through the increased use of FSC-certified paper and papers from other credible third parties.

Manufacturing in Asia may be cheaper than printing domestically, but publishers must ask themselves if the impact on Indonesia's forests, people and wildlife is worth the savings—and the potential risks.