US Edition of Harry Potter Goes Forest Friendly

Millions in the US are anticipating curling up in bed with Harry Potter for his 7th, and final adventure this summer. They can now do so knowing that Harry is, as the forest protection organization Markets Initiative would say, "good between the covers".

You might remember the controversy in 2005, when conservation groups such as Greenpeace were encouraging environmentally minded fans of Harry Potter to buy the Canadian edition published by Raincoast Books. It was printed on Ancient Forest Friendly paper, at the request of author J.K. Rowling. United States publishers stubbornly refused.

However, today, history was made, and Scholastic Inc., the US publisher, did the right thing.

Scholastic announced today that all 12 million copies of the U.S. edition of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows will be printed on paper that contains a minimum of 30% post-consumer waste (pcw) fiber. Moreover, 65% of the 16,700 tons of paper used in the U.S. first printing will be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the global standard-setter for responsible forest management. This historic commitment is the largest purchase of FSC certified paper to be used in the printing of a single book title.

Lisa Holton, president of Scholastic Trade Publishing and Book Fairs, said, "As a company with an ongoing commitment to protecting the environment for this generation and generations to come, we believe producing this book and our future reprints of Harry Potter books with a minimum of 30% pcw recycled paper is an important publishing decision."

The seventh and final book in J.K. Rowling's series will be released at 12:01 a.m. on July 21, 2007.