IPG members gain free access to the PA’s Carbon Calculator

Members of the Independent Publishers Guild (IPG) are to get more support for their sustainability work via the Publishers Association’s Carbon Calculator, a tool that helps publishers measure and reduce their environmental impacts.

The calculator has been developed by the PA with sustainability and software experts, and it is now licensed for free use by all IPG members. According to the IPG, it is the only tool of its kind that is specific to the UK’s publishing sector. It enables organisations to assess their direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions in various areas of their work and highlight areas for improvement.

The aim is for the calculator to allow publishers to benchmark their efforts and analyse the progress of the industry as a whole.

The IPG’s licensing of the Carbon Calculator from the PA extends cross-publishing cooperation on the "urgent issue of sustainability" and coincides with December’s COP28 summit.

The sector’s collaboration has led to the launch of the Sustainability Industry Forum, bringing together six industry bodies to join forces on projects, share best practice, reduce duplication of efforts and improve transparency and accountability.

Providing access to the calculator also marks the next step in the IPG’s work in this area via its Sustainability Action Group, which has delivered resources including a Zero Carbon Toolkit and set targets for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions that were generated by the Book Journeys Project.

The Sustainability Action Group is now steering research into ways to reduce emissions during the end-of-life treatment of books and scoping the potential to print books closer to markets.

Amanda Ridout, founder and c.e.o. of Boldwood Books and chair of the IPG’s Sustainability Action Group, said: “Sustainability is a critical concern for everyone in publishing. We are pleased to be helping IPG members step up to its challenges, and happy to have worked with the PA to facilitate access to the Carbon Calculator.

"Measuring environmental impacts is the first step to reducing them, and this is an important catalyst for the changes that everyone in publishing needs to make.”

Dan Conway, chief executive of the Publishers Association, added: “Licensing the Carbon Calculator to IPG members is a great example of publishing’s collaboration on sustainability issues and our shared commitment to improvements. By working together to map carbon footprints and share resources and ideas, the PA, IPG and our fellow trade associations can accelerate progress and help all our members lead the way on responses to the climate crisis.”