The Forest Stewardship Council is a non-profit organization established in 1993 to promote responsible management of the world’s forests. FSC sets several standards that must be covered in order to achieve the eco-friendly label and certification.

An industry that uses a lot of forest resources is the publishing industry. Paper pastry is extracted from wood in order to make books. Therefore, several publishing houses have noticed the importance to develop their products being conscious about the environment.

In this post I will focus on the biggest publishing house in the world, Penguin Random House. PRH operates in worldwide markets divided in three: US and Canada, UK and Spain and LATAM.

Penguin has set the goal that by 2020, 100% of their books will be produced with sustainable paper. Currently, 98% of books in the UK market are labeled by FSC and the percentage is similar in the Spanish market.

PRH Grupo Editorial (Spain and Latin America) will promote the FSC label by including it in all the books that use sustainable paper. This will give brand awareness on sustainability and notoriety. PRH follows the FSC standards all along their value chain: acquiring paper pastry from sustainable forests, using nontoxic inks and recycling books if they have to be destroyed because they haven’t been sold.

PRH Grupo Editorial has an imprint called DEBOLSILLO, which literally means in pocket. These books are intended to be practical to be carried since they are light, and they have a lower price than hard-covers. These books are the paperbacks or softcovers. Currently, PRH is looking into developing the first imprint that uses 100% recycled paper. They are intending to sell the books at the same price so that price doesn’t affect the customers.

However, everything is not good news. In some markets PRH is struggling to keep the standards of FSC. For instance, in LATAM finding responsible forest providers that could cope with the groups demand is hard. It is about time that some FSC provider who can cover PRH demand appears and all the books that Penguin Random House produces will be ecofriendly!

Currently, businesses are changing. To the digitalization pattern we add the more sustainable aware attitude companies are taking. It is constantly in debate whether the companies should be forced by governments to change their business models or the company itself should change the way they use and consume resources.

Personally, I think that companies should not be forced to change the way they operate. However, the ones that do change their business model to meet sustainability should be rewarded or at least receive notoriety by doing so.

Extrapolating the situation to a day to day situation we find some initiatives governments are starting up, not for companies, but for individuals.

In Europe, due to the high level of polluted air in the cities, some new regulations are starting to appear. For instance, in Barcelona, any diesel-powered vehicle that is over 10 years old won’t be able to drive in the city from 1st January 2020. This initiative will reduce air pollution and will force drivers to renew their car for less polluting vehicles. However, the main intention to use public transport for city commutes.

Ada Colau, mayor of Barcelona is starting a new initiative in order to encourage the use of public transport. After lowering the price of the most popular public transport card (T-10, which are ten rides) which had been rising every year since 2012, she offered a solution for the owners of the more than 10 years old cars.

If they were to sell the car obliged by the new law, they would receive a free public transport pass for 3 years. However, the small print says that they would not be allowed to buy a car in those 3 years.

This as an example of an environmental regulation that will affect many citizens of Barcelona and a way to reward the “environmentally clean” citizens. This is an example of what governments could do with companies, rewarding them in a way that reaches the public image so that sustainability is more valued. An option could be creating an EcoFriendly label issued by governments themselves.

Welcome to my Bolg! My first post will be about how is the fashion industry gaining concern on creating sustinable patterns in their value change. I took this information from an article published in www.lavanguardia.com

In Spain, fashion industry is one of the leading sectors in economy because of Inditex, or Zara at it is more well known.

There are several new brands that are introducing sustainability in their core values. This are not big conglomerates if companies and that shows disagreement with our course. We are always saying that are big companies who set the “rules of the game”. However, with small players shifting into sustainable businesses change can be achieved as well.

Ethical Time is Spain’s first sustainable clothes App. What this App does is to rate how sustainable brands are, not just environmentally, but aswell socially, financially… It covers all aspects we talked about in class. With an App like Ethical time a public opinion is created, and this will make other companies be part of the “sustainable community”.

H&M is a Swedish multinational clothing-retail company known for its fast-fashion clothing for men, women, teenagers and children. H&M has created a new business unit under the name of Concious H&M which uses sustainable materials and has sustainability in their core values. 50% of the materials used in Concious H&M are recycled.

Another way to enter the market of sustainable products is with alliances with NGO’s. An example is the brand EcoAlf that partnered with Upcycling the Ocean. The NGO provides EcoAlf with plastic found in the sea which is recycled and turned into jackets, t-shirts…

Animo Valiente! is great example of reutilising. The company manufactures jeans, not only trousers but also jackets. The input materials are old jeans, so they reutilise old products and they turn them into new pices of clothing. (https://www.instagram.com/p/BdpVOc1nHqr/?utm_source=ig_embed)

This are some of the examples I wanted to share with you. What is my point in this article?

Including sustainability into the core of a business is not a local trend, it is happening everywhere: Canada, US, Europe, Asia… It is true that big companies have a greater impact but it is also much harder for them because they are influenced by many factors being the stock price the first one.

It’s with small actions, or small companies, that we achieve great things!

Bernat

Welcome to UBC Blogs. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!