Earth Day at Inpress Books
When it comes to fighting the environmental crisis, we can’t afford to gatekeep. Great ideas, big and small, are worth sharing. We asked our publishers for bite-sized stories about their approaches to sustainability, and received some lovely and interesting replies.
We are especially proud to work with Birmingham-based printmaking and design studio The Holodeck, who have a strong community and activist focus. Our poetry pamphlets and stationery are all printed by the Holodeck, as are our comp slips (pictured) - printed on paper offcuts to reduce waste, and hand delivered, by the incredibly talented Joseph @holodeckbirmingham
Our latest novel, Hannah Lutz's WILD BOAR, translated by Andy Turner and published this week contends directly with humanity's impact on natural ecosystems. 'Lutz writes with a minimalism that nevertheless reaches fantastic depths of insight into humanity’s uneasy relationship with the natural world and the non-human. This is a book that continues to resonate far beyond its final lines.’ ~ Rowe Irvin, author of Life Cycle of a Moth
As well as our topics, with a strong backlist of Ecopoetry and a frontlist of eco novels (The Wager and the Bear by John Ironmonger; The Water That May Come by Amy Lilwall), and our higher education outreach programme ‘Finding a Vocabulary for Climate Anxiety’ (with 240 young people reached), we pioneer sustainable practices, including eco-friendly packaging and plant-based materials. We do not coat our proof covers with varnish, and only use public transport for events.
Our sustainable practices, including switching to paper tape for shipping and eliminating varnish on proof copies, save over 8.6 kg of CO2 emissions annually. These seemingly small changes across our 480 proof copies and 2,500 books shipped each year demonstrate how independent publishers can make meaningful environmental impact through mindful choices in production and distribution.
As a small publisher, one of the most daunting tasks we always try to avoid is dealing with excess stock—particularly pulping it. Excess inventory is expensive to store and manage, and while pulping is one way to dispose of it, it's a deeply wasteful process. It consumes resources, energy, and is harmful to the environment. More than that, it often feels ethically wrong.
At the recent London Book Fair, we had the pleasure of meeting Julia Barder from the Children’s Book Project—a registered charity doing incredible work across the UK. They collaborate with schools and other organizations to redistribute thousands of new and gently used books to children and their families.
For many of these children, the books they receive through the Children’s Book Project are the first they have ever owned. These books are not just stories—they're treasures, with the power to make a lasting impact.
What truly sets this charity apart is their commitment to choice and consistency. Each child gets to choose books that interest them and receives a new book every term. In contrast, many other initiatives offer only one book per year, often with no choice involved.
Inspired by their work, we took a fresh look at our own stock and began donating brand-new books that might otherwise have been pulped. Instead of being discarded, these books will now find new life in the hands of children who need them most.
The books are collected directly from BookSource—our distribution partner—alongside donations from other publishers who also store their inventory there, helping to reduce transport emissions.
At V&Q Books’ parent publisher Voland & Quist, the team take it in turns to make lunch at the office every day. Anything goes, from traditional German dishes to Vietnamese-style summer rolls fixed up at the table. The only rule: everything has to be vegan. Plant-based food causes significantly fewer emissions than animal products; over the course of a year, eating only vegan food can shrink an individual’s carbon footprint by over a ton compared to a meat-lover’s diet. Even just cutting down on meat, eggs and dairy is a change worth making for the sake of the planet.
But the advantages go further than that. Eating together gives us time to gossip and plan, and a welcome opportunity to invite writers and other publishing people to join us. And cooking for a group not only saves packaging, with no sandwich wrappers, plastic salad containers or takeaway boxes – using seasonal ingredients also saves on transport emissions and gets our creative juices flowing. Potato soup with sauerkraut in autumn, warming lentils and caraway seeds in winter, bright green baked asparagus and peas in spring, massive fruit salads in summer… as you can imagine, lunch at the office does us good as well as the environment.
