The BIC Green Supply Chain Committee has now signed off on its refreshed Green Supply Chain Work plan. This Work Plan is developed and refreshed annually, in line with BIC’s Green Promise and Agenda, and uses the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals as its frame work. Here is the latest progress report.
1) BIC’s Principles of Offsetting Project
Introduction
Launched in October 2023, the purpose of this BIC project is to assess current global carbon offsetting programmes in order to help book industry organisations make informed decisions regarding which ones they would prefer to use.
Reporting into the BIC Green Supply Chain Committee, the project group is made up of BIC member volunteers from across the industry and is led by Simon Crump, an independent consultant with 28 years of industry experience.
Project Brief
The Project Brief contains more detail about this project including its scope and deliverables.
Project Monthly report
Read the latest project report here.
2) BIC’s Sustainability and Environmental Data Reporting Project
Part 1 – Current Practices in the Industry and
Part 2 – Priority Reporting Areas
Project start date, duration & commitment
Launching in June 2023, the purpose of this 2-part BIC project is to facilitate and launch BIC’s provision of regular, consistent industry reporting and monitoring of the progress being made with regards to book industry sustainability against agreed targets.
Part 1
The overall purpose of Part 1 of this project is to clarify, map and understand the current situation with regards to sustainability and environmental data being gathered and reported by stakeholders in the UK book industry supply chain.
Part 2
The overall purpose of Part 2 of this project will be to agree with key stakeholders what the initial priority areas for reporting and monitoring for the UK book industry are, and to then agree best practice for both the provision, collection, and sharing of this data by BIC for these areas going forwards.
Reporting into the BIC Green Supply Chain Committee, the project group is to be made up of BIC member volunteers from across the industry and is led by Simon Crump, an independent consultant with 28 years of industry experience.
The initial phase of the project is expected to last 6 months and it is expected that the project group will meet regularly online. The second phase of the project would then follow on from the first.
Project Brief
More information can be found in the Project Brief.
Project monthly report
Read the latest project report here.
3) BIC’s Designed for Recycling Project, Part 2: Initial Design to Manufactured Book
Project start date, duration & commitment
This project launched in early March 2023, the purpose of Part 2 is to recommend how physical books could be designed with recyclability at the forefront of the design process, and to investigate efficiencies for reducing waste in the manufacturing and production of books. It will take the data and findings from the now completed ‘Design for Recycling Project; Part 1: Life Cycle Assessment’ and incorporate them into this new project to help identify the key areas that need to be targeted.
The overarching aim of the Designed for Recycling Project is to establish what can be done differently with regards to the creation of books, and to recommend how best to progress to a situation where every book is automatically and always designed with recycling in mind.
Reporting into the BIC Green Supply Chain Committee, the project group is to be made up of BIC member volunteers from across the industry and is led by Simon Crump, an independent consultant with 26 years of industry experience.
The initial phase of the project is expected to last 5 months and it is expected that the project group will meet regularly online.
Read the full project brief here.
Volunteer credentials, how to apply and deadline
We are looking for volunteers who already have experience of the various aspects of the physical supply chain who are also familiar with recycling and waste processes that are currently being used in the book industry relating to their area of expertise.
If this sounds like you, please apply by completing this application form and emailing it to info@bic.org.uk.
Please contact us to receive a copy of the report from Part 1: Life Cycle Assessment (BIC members only).