Next thing you know, even Voldemort will be hugging trees

Harry Potter is way greener than your average book 5

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

I wrote last week about Harry Potter going green in the seventh and final installation of the series. Turns out, it\'s even greener than we thought. It might just be the greenest book of all time [PDF] (except for all those books that have never been published, I guess).

Production of the book spurred the development of 32 new ecological papers, six for Potter exclusively, and prompted 300 publishers to adopt new environmental policies, according to Markets Initiative, a Vancouver-based environmental group.

Publishers in 16 countries -- including the U.S., U.K., and Canada -- are printing the book on "Ancient Forest Friendly or eco-friendly papers," whereas only one did so back in 2003.

Publishing the English-language editions of the latest book alone on eco-friendlier paper have resulted in a savings of 197,685 trees -- an area about 2.5 times the size of Central Park -- and reduced greenhouse-gas emissions by 7.9 million kilograms, Markets Initiative reports.

Here\'s a handy graphic they put together on the eco-savings stemming from the eco-publishing of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:

 

Not bad for Muggles, eh?Impact reduction graphic

Kate Sheppard is Grist’s political reporter.

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  1. zacaroni Posted 8:34 am
    18 Jul 2007

    HA!Isn't it funny that "Harry Potter's Lasting Legacy" is the amount of waste/pollution/clearcutting avoided?!  How silly.  So HP is efficient: who cares?  Reducing is not inherently good.  If you're driving 100 mph toward Canada, but suddenly realize that you should be going to Mexico, it's not going to help you to slow down to 20 mph.  Efficiency means nothing when HP is still responsible for the loss of a great number of trees (which should be sequestering carbon right now instead of sitting on bookshelves...).  
    And, how long will the books she IS printing last, and what landfills will they go to when they are at their end?  How many millions of books are out there, waiting to be someday thrown away?
    (By the way, I'm a Harry Potter fanatic.  I'm buying the book instead of waiting for a library copy to free up, even though I don't approve of it.  There.  Now you can't call me a hypocrite because I just did!  Expelliarmus!)

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  2. zacaroni Posted 11:40 pm
    18 Jul 2007

    By the way...It turns out the greenest book of all time was written by myself.  It has not been published, nor will it ever be - in fact, it only exists in electronic form.  By keeping it from being published, I've essentially  saved an infinite amount of resources that could've been used to print and distribute it.  So there.  I win.  Greenest book of all time.

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  3. KiraMarch Posted 12:17 am
    19 Jul 2007

    Is this the U.S. edition, too?The last couple Canadian editions were published on recycled paper, but the US ones weren't. So do we still have to invade Canada to get this eco-friendlier paper?

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  4. KiraMarch Posted 12:18 am
    19 Jul 2007

    Ooops, never mindRead again more carefully, and it does say it's the U.S. too. Okay, I'm back in line, not walking to Canada.

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  5. GulfAaron Posted 8:13 am
    19 Jul 2007

    of course you could argue...That sitting on shelves has effectively sequestered the carbon - free from the nasty threat of forest fires even.

    Gulf Restoration Network United for a Healthy Gulf

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