No-fly is a no-brainer

Let me preface what comes by saying we at And Other Stories love travel and are obviously very committed to the international exchange of ideas and people. We’re not suggesting a trip-less future! However, I would like to invite you to imagine how a no-fly approach for one decade could help transform our publishing business and our future lives. We know we have to change our modus operandi if we want to slow climate change and keep the world inhabitable for our species. We have been slow to do much because we are creatures of habit. Change is not all easy, but it’s a good challenge. In life, as in literature, constraints can make us more creative.

One area where we can act now is to create a publishing system that doesn’t rely on air travel. Currently, long-distance travel (by jet airliners) is one of the significant contributors to carbon emissions—and increasing, since the developing world naturally wants to fly as much as we do. There are pilot (haha!) projects around sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), but for now planes are part of the problem. The airline industry is currently forecasting—in its best-case scenario, according to an article in the Economist (20th August)—that 65% of flights will be powered by SAF by 2050. So, almost no green fuel now and just two-thirds by 2050 if we’re lucky? Meanwhile, the PA’s Publishing Declares signatories have pledged net-zero emissions “as soon as possible, and by 2050 at the latest”.

The more we cut current air travel, the more usable alternative options will be created, including better online/
hybrid events and better green travel options. And Other Stories is one of the publishers who now has a no-fly policy. So how does it work for us? We no longer fly staff anywhere for work. (Not even in the US, where our publicist goes by train or by car, which is an ask, and sometimes means we skip attending conferences when they are too far away.) We don’t plan, encourage or fund (or find funding for) author or translator tours involving flights. In dealing with lots of different authors, we found that a relatively straightforward no-fly policy seemed to be the most workable and fair solution. We should add that the discussion about it was started well before the no-fly decision. In 2019, before making any firm commitment, we surveyed our authors and among them only one suggested we “let authors decide how they want to travel in all cases, without any rule of thumb”. Around half chose the no-fly option.

Though, as our sustainability statement says, we do have some flexibility: “Once every few years, we may still use air travel for an author from the Global South, for reasons of equity, or for an author who is on the shortlist for a major prize.” We are definitely still feeling our way, listening to people and reflecting on our experiences so far. For example, we have foreign authors tell us they are coming to the UK (where many of our foreign authors have family or strong friends—Robin McLean has family here; Paulo Scott lived here in the past), and would like to do events, which we do organise for them.

This summer we went to Julie’s Bicycle arts organisation’s Green Tools and filled in travel data. (The whole process took just an hour.) Our travel last year had created only 10% of our carbon emissions in the last pre-pandemic year. We still made 300kg CO2e in the year ending March 2022, but that’s down from 3 tonnes of CO2e in 2018–19, when flights were five-sixths of our emissions.

Consider how your work can help the industry cut flights. Publicists: please pitch all your authors to festivals, the ones who can appear remotely as much as the ones who can appear in-person. Events organisers: please consider hybrid events so international authors and trans-
lators can appear remotely on a big screen. Move meetings online if you can’t make it by train or road. Going to Frankfurt? A lovely train ride. Whatever your business, join Climate Perks, whereby staff receive extra days’ leave
to incentivise them to have no-fly personal travel. (Though please let’s not get into flight-shaming!) Discuss issues rel-ating to your business in team meetings. And, most of all, start to measure and reduce emissions. It’s not hard, and there’s help out there: the IPG has a Zero Carbon Toolkit. Julie’s Bicycle’s Green Tools site makes calculations in areas like buildings and travel emissions. We are looking forward to the PA’s carbon calculator, which is being piloted and will help with publishing-specific choices such as the emissions of different printers and paper types.

And please, let’s #KeepFestivalsHybrid. (And bookshop events!) This year we are seeing some festivals pushing for in-person-only events, and many bookshops have pressed pause on online events (with some great exceptions). There are many people whose life circumstances (such as location, disability, health issues, caring responsibilities) mean their access depends on virtual or hybrid events. They are not always the events managers or book publicists organising the events. The technology for hybrid events is really not that complex. For example, back in 2019, our author Hanne Ørstavik spoke from her study in Milan to her interviewer and a live audience in Sheffield’s Central Library. We just needed a laptop, big screen and projector. There was true intimacy—she was at home and could pull down books that she wanted to share.

And one day, I’m sure, if we vote with our actions today, we’ll be airborne with zero-emissions flights. Though no doubt still with not enough leg room...