We've been working with Random House as part of the Greenpeace Book
Campaign, which encourages publishers to stop sourcing paper from
ancient forests and instead commit to ancient forest friendly
solutions. Random House will now be working with its suppliers to move
towards Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified and recycled paper
for its books.
Our Greenpeace UK Book Campaigner, Belinda Fletcher, says that this is a big commitment from Random House. "This is the
most comprehensive commitment developed by a UK publisher to date and
sets a good example for other publishing houses to follow," she said.
The announcement is also great news for Random House authors.
Some of the big names supporting our campaign include Ben Elton, Stephen Fry, Terry
Pratchett and Phillip Pullman. Children's authors
Anne Fine and John O'Farrell, who have also been supporting the
Greenpeace campaign, were delighted with the news.
Leading British children's author Anne Fine adds her support to the Book Campaign
Anne said, "I am really delighted that Random House have made this
commitment. I very much hope my next book will now be printed on
ancient forest friendly paper, which will help preserve the world's
last ancient forests for the children of the future."
John O'Farrell went that one step further, adding, "I will now do my bit for the environment by recycling all my jokes."
Random House UK is following in the footsteps of its Canadian
counterpart, who along with 70 other publishing houses have made formal
commitments to phase out ancient forest fibre from their books.
As a result six million Canadian books have been printed on ancient
forest friendly paper, including JK Rowling's "Harry Potter and the
Order of the Phoenix".