World's Largest Children's Publisher Goes Green

I've criticized Scholastic in the past for contributing to the sexualization of young girls, by marketing Bratz in schools through their book fairs and book clubs. I have also been sorely disappointed in the quality of books in the Scholastic book orders my daughter brings home from school. Now, Scholastic has released an environmental policy, created in collaboration with the Green Press Initiative, the Rainforest Alliance, and the National Wildlife Federation, that somewhat redeems the company in my opinion. The policy's goal is to increase Scholastic's use of recycled paper to 25% and increase the use of Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper to 30% by 2012.

The new Scholastic environmental policy comes on the heals of last summer's release of an eco-friendly version of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. It was the largest-ever purchase of FSC-certified paper to be used in a single book printing. Scholastic's new paper policy

..will conserve the annual equivalent of nearly 500,000 trees, nearly 160 million pounds of greenhouse gases (enough to pull 6,700 cars off the road), and enough energy to power over 4,000 homes each year when compared to paper with produced with no recycled fiber. [based on Environmental Defense's Paper Calculator]

In addition to the new environmental policy, Scholastic has developed an Act Green website for children. There are Green Tools for kids, which amount to a desktop "Greenerator", door tags, and stickies to be printed that remind children to recycle, ride their bicycles, turn off light switches, etc. The website also promotes "100 Ways to Act Green", such as using a clothesline to dry laundry. In addition, children can post a green idea in the Green Room.

I think it is very important to educate children about the environment, and I applaud Scholastic's efforts. Similar to the way anti-tobacco programs in schools cause children to pressure their parents to stop smoking, perhaps such programs can use children to pressure their parents to live a greener lifestyle. I also think the publishing company's new paper policy is a start, but I wish the goals were higher for the use of recycled paper. 25% is not a very large percentage, even if 75% of it will be post-consumer waste.

January 24, 2008

World's Largest Children's Publisher Goes Green