Harry Potter and the half-good prints

Feature story - 13 July, 2005
Another Harry Potter is about to hit the bookstores, another magical year at Hogwarts is about to begin. But who is really the bad guy this time? Some of Harry Potter's publishers are working their magic and printing their editions on ancient forest friendly paper. But others are behaving like the evil wizard Voldemort and destroying muggle forests forever.

Harry Potter Book 6 - can Harry save ancient forests?

The English language edition of 'Harry Potter and the Half-BloodPrince' hits the bookstores on 16 July. The good guys are the Canadianand German publishers for printing the book on ancient forest friendly papers.Bloomsbury, the UK publisher of Harry Potter, has also made some goodprogress, and the Italian and Israeli editions are also expected tojoin the forces of good when the translations are published in theautumn.

Canadian Publisher Raincoast Books has once again set a positive trendfor Harry Potter publishers worldwide in helping to save ancientforests.  Raincoast are living up to their commitment to print alltheir titles on ancient forest friendly paper and have printed theCanadian edition of Harry Potter on 100 percent post-consumer recycledpaper. 

Muggles for ancient forests!

Print runs for Harry Potter are so huge that this kind of effort reallydoes make a difference.  The good news is, other publishers aroundthe world have met the standard set by Raincoast in 2003, and are also publishing on Ancient Forest Friendly paper.

The German edition published by Carlsen will be printed on 40 percent post-consumer recycled paper and 60 percent Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)certified virgin fibre.  The UK edition, published by Bloomsbury,is expected to be printed on a 30 percent FSC certified paper - apositive first step by the publishing house. Publishers in Spain andthe Netherlands are still deciding which paper to use.

The publisher that should not be named

However, not all publishers are following this trend.  Lessprogressive Harry Potter publishers like Scholastic in the USA have notresponded to the challenge, and in fact ignored the 12,400 emails fromcustomers who asked it to print 'Harry Potter and the Half BloodPrince' on ancient forest friendly paper. It seems they haven't beenusing Professor Trelawney's crystal ball enough. 

"The US publisher Scholastic is one of the largest Harry Potterpublishers globally," said our resident book wizard Judy Rodrigues. "Ifthey had printed the book on 100 percent recycled paper, likeRaincoast, its 10.8 million print run could have saved 217,475 maturetrees."

Not only has Scholastic missed out on helping to save ancient forests ,it looks like they might have missed out on financial savings too, withthe BBC and New York Times reporting that some US Potter fans arethinking of buying their editions from Canada.


Harry at a glance

So, how does your Harry Potter publisher stack up?

We've made it easy to tell with the Hogwarts Publishers Honour Roll. 

5 lightning bolts

- Thepublisher is truly at Harry level and working for good.  They areprinting 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' on 100 percentancient forest friendly paper, and have even committed to printingother books on this paper too.

4 lightning bolts

- Thepublisher has made good progress but isn't quite at Hermione levelyet.  They have made some good progress though and are printing'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' on at least partiallyancient-forest friendly paper.

3 lightning bolts

- Thepublisher has made commitments to printing on ancient forest friendlypaper.  They are a bit like Ron Weasly - good intentions, butstill some way to go.

If the publisher has no lightning bolts

,they have made no effort and are a bit like Malfoy - they might saythey are using ancient forest friendly paper, but have shown us noevidence.

What can you do?

Join the muggles for Ancient Forests!

Have you pre-ordered Harry Potter?

If so, check what publisher your copy is from.  If it's not from a forest-friendly publisher, you could:

1. Change your order and order a Canadian edition - especially if you are in the US!

2. Submit feedback to where you ordered it from, for example Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com, that next time you'd prefer the book to be printed on 100 percent ancient forest friendly paper. 

Haven't bought Harry Potter yet?

Consider buying a Canadian edition of the book, printed by Raincoastbooks, which is on 100 percent Ancient Forest Friendly paper.

Ifyou're going to buy 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince', make sure yourcopy is Ancient Forest friendly!

Buy a forest-friendly edition of Harry Potter!

If you're going to buy 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince', make sure your copy is Ancient Forest friendly!

Work some magic!

Help us work some magic to save ancient forests.