Publishers Association hosts inaugural Publishing Declares summit

The Publishers Association (PA) hosted the first Publishing Declares summit to celebrate the progress made on sustainability within the industry at Faber’s office in Hatton Garden. 

The Publishing Declares pledge was launched in 2021 by the PA to raise awareness of climate change and to emphasise the industry’s role in combating the climate crisis through environmental sustainability initiatives. 

The summit’s keynote speech focused on protecting life on land and was delivered by Megan McCubbin, zoologist, conservationist, author of An Atlas of Endangered Species and co-presenter of BBC Two’s "Springwatch".  

There were two panels, the first was chaired by PA c.e.o Dan Conway, during which Sarah Burton, deputy c.e.o of Society of Authors; Charles Light, production director at HarperCollins; and Debbie James, owner of Kibworth Books and vice-president of the Booksellers Association discussed cross-industry collaboration, learning from peers and starting informed conversations about changing to more sustainable practices.   

The second panel was chaired by Jude Gates, operations director at Faber and chair of the PA’s Sustainability Taskforce. Vicky Ellis-Duveen, sales director at Clays; Lisa Faratro, director of environment and sustainability at CPI Group;and Sam Warren, sustainability manager at Woodland Group talked about advocating for increasing sustainability to their partners and the increased demand for sustainable solutions from publishers—particularly over the past two years.  

Gates said: “It’s important that we are reminded that we have signed up to the Publishing Declares pledge with each of its commitments. We hope that today’s event will offer signatories the opportunity to share their experiences and support each other.”   

Alice Wood, the PA’s sustainability manager, said: “We are so excited to bring signatories together and celebrate progress. Despite the huge efforts already made, there’s still more work to be done but the engagement we had at today’s Publishing Declares summit shows that there is real dedication and commitment in the industry to keep going. We are looking forward to continuing to work together on actioning each of the five pledge points.”