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UPDATE: On October 11, 2012, Disney announced a comprehensive paper policy that maximizes its use of environmentally superior papers like recycled and eliminates controversial sources like those connected to Indonesian rainforest destruction. For more info, visit www.ran.org/disney.
Attention Shoppers: Until your local book retailer adopts a comprehensive set of standards for the books they carry, it is up to YOU to make sure that the books you buy aren’t made of destroyed rainforests! Rainforest Action Network has made a Rainforest-Safe Reading List and is working to influence consumer choice where it really packs a punch: at the point of sale.
At the Barnes & Noble flagship store in New York’s Union Square, activists promoted consumers’ right to know (and choose) by distributing over one thousand Rainforest-Safe Kids Book Guides to holiday shoppers. Others stealthily made the guides available in the bookstore café and tucked guides into hundreds of kids books.
The pocket-sized guide allows holiday shoppers to remove rainforest destruction from their shopping lists, at least at the bookstore, by ranking book publishers according to their paper policies. It was well-received by holiday shoppers who were absolutely shocked to hear that some books at Barnes & Noble may be printed on paper linked to destroyed rainforests.
The rise of e-books has provoked a certain nostalgia for traditional books, in particular those all-time favorite kids books we all know and love. Shoppers still want printed books, but they certainly don’t want books printed on the last habitats of endangered Sumatran tigers. Today’s Roar at the Store action (one of 150 Roar at the Store actions happening nationally this week) helped to provide the information that amplifies such a logical demand.
Book publishers need to quickly adopt and follow through with respectable paper policies for their books. Many publishers have, but companies like Disney Publishing and Harper Collins are going to disappoint a lot of holiday shoppers until they do.