Norwegian forest certification system submitted for assessment

In response to the global climate and energy crisis, Hachette Livre—the parent company of Hachette Book Group—has announced an ambitious carbon reduction strategy that aims to cut 30% of the company’s carbon emissions by 2030. Dubbed its “30/30 Strategy,” Hachette aims to reduce emissions annually by 2.5% by reconfiguring its operations to be greener and more energy efficient. According to a December 21 press release, the company is targeting Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, including a “30% reduction in the proportion of books that are shredded, a 26% reduction in carbon intensity of paper manufacturing, an 18% reduction in carbon intensity of book printing and binding, and 1% and 1.5% annual reductions in upstream and downstream freight respectively.”

The report outlines the company’s wide-ranging sustainability efforts, the use of recycled content key among them. In 2019, the company increased its use overall of post-consumer recycled (PCR) fiber and resin in its products. For its fiber-based products, the percentage of recycled fiber in the company’s supply chain was nearly half the total procured. When using post-consumer recycled (PCR) material was not possible, Novolex focused on procuring Chain of Custody (COC) certified prime fiber content traceable to the original source. When combined, 69% of fiber volume was either PCR or COC-certified content, an increase of 4% over 2018. Plastic resin used by Novolex consisted of 4% post-consumer recycled (PCR) content and 20% post-industrial resin in 2019, the same percentages as the prior year. While the reported 4% PCR is the same in 2018 and 2019, Novolex purchases of PCR material increased in total pounds. That was driven in part by the company’s two world-class polyethylene recycling centers, which specialize in recycling plastic consumer retail bags as well as films such as dry-cleaning bags, newspaper bags and other items labeled for “store drop off” recycling programs.

Plastic credits are poised to generate the momentum necessary to launch a circular plastic economy and give brands the opportunity to act. In order for brands to take action, they will need to follow these four priorities … The world’s plastic crisis is only growing worse: Plastic production continues to expand and single-use plastic has skyrocketed, thanks to COVID — and frankly, waste management cannot keep up. To make matters more challenging, there is no silver bullet to the plastic crisis. Our society requires plastic to function, but its consumption and disposal need to change drastically. As trillions of microplastics circulate our oceans and plastics choke our environment, accelerating system change is essential and imminently required. Aggravating the issue is the complexity of tackling the severe environmental and human costs. Currently, the ethical disposal and management of waste are starkly underfunded. In the next 20 years, we need $600 billion to bridge the evident funding gap in our system and turn this crisis around.