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Turning the Page supports the UN campaign of 1 Million Actions for Our Common Future.
In Autumn 2019, 4000 high schools across metropolitan France participated in a mass recycling operation. As part of the French Baccalaureate reform, shcools had to renew textbooks for two school leves. As a result of this eco-friendly initiative, textbooks that had been removed from the curriculum were sorted and transformed into raw materials by Veolia (a global firm specializing in resource management and circular economy) and ultimately transformed into recycled paper.
Relevant SDG’s
In 2020, due to the travel restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic, the world’s largest book fair took place in a hybrid format. Though the book fair’s traditional on-site exhibition was cancelled, an extensive digital programme for publishing professionals was available, as well as exciting online events for international readers. Thus people could still experience the international exchange the book fair normally provides, even with the challenges posed by the pandemic.
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The Incredible Book Machine is a book bus which travels around different Brazilian provinces, allowing readers to interchange books they’ve already read for new ones at the press of a button. The goal of The Incredible Book machine is to stimulate reading and the reuse of books in both adults and children, and is a collaboration between Infinito Cultural and the Brazilian Book Chamber. The project is linked to several SDGs, including education, poverty and literary.
Relevant SDG’s
In 2018, as evidence of their commitment to the SDGs, the French Publishers Association presented a Survey on the Environment and Manufacturing (covering the time between 2015-2018). The report concluded that French publishers have gradually adopted more eco-responsible policies throughout their supply chain – such as an increase in the purchase or use of certified or recycled paper for textbooks, for instance.
Relevant SDG’s
Different organizations and publishers have adopted the GHG protocol standard as a way of allowing them to understand, calculate, and track their carbon footprint. This standard has three phases in which organisations can commit to tracking and reporting on carbon emissions. Hachette Livre, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Otava Publishing Company and Bertelsmann have set targets for reducing their carbon emissions and switching their operations to rely on green energy.
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Due to the travel restrictions imposed by COVID-19 pandemic, the 57th Bologna Children’s Book Fair became a special online virtual event attended by 60,000 visitors (75 percent of non-Italians) with over 400,000 pageviews. The online platform also enabled business to continue with 500 publishers registered on the Global Rights Exchange platform. The success of this virtual event means that the implemented platforms will now become one of the fair’s permanent assets.
Relevant SDG’s
Klima og Litteratur (Climate and Literature), a literary climate festival, held in Copenhagen, Denmark in 2019 ensured all visiting authors came by bus or train and no programs or posters were printed for the event with promotion done through social media. Th
Relevant SDG’s
In 2015, Lee and Low Books released a survey on diversity conduced in 2015. The survey aimed to establish concrete statistics regarding diversity in the publishing workforce, and ask the question: if the people who work in publishing are not a diverse group, how can diverse voices be represented in books? It concluded that the workforce in North America was overwhelmingly white and straight. When the survey was repeated in 2019, the numbers reflected essentially the same demographic statistics.
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Book Bunk, an independent organization based in Nairobi, is working on restoring the McMillian Memorial Library and two of its branches, the Kaloleni and Makadara libraries. The founders were inspired to restore the library because they believe that public libraries are a cornerstone of so much, including fostering civic space and participation. The project injects a considered and inclusive programme of events into public centres of culture and knowledge.
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In 2017, academic publisher Springer Nature launched their Grand Challenges programme (GCP) aiming to help develop solutions to some of the most pressing challenges of our time with sustainable cities as one of their target challenges.
An example of this research includes a study that looked at 185 Chinese cities of different sizes over a period of seven years. It concluded that a reduction of air and water pollution had the effect of increasing direct foreign investment inflows.
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In 2017, the UK PA launched an industry-wide 10-point action plan to ensure that publishing reflects the UK population. As part of this plan, the PA committed to do an annual survey of the workforce demographics of UK publishing houses, the first of which took place in 2019. The survey gathered information on diversity, inclusion, and workforce demographics – such as gender balance, women in leadership roles, disabilities/impairments, mental health, education level, sexual orientation, and more.
Relevant SDG’s
In June 2014, the Accessible Books Consortium was launched in order to boost the number of books in accessible formats for people around the globe who are blind, visually impaired, or otherwise print disabled. The ABC also encourages publishers to commit to accessible publishing, adopt accessibility features within their publishing processes, and include descriptions of the accessibility features of their products in the information they provide to others in the book supply chain.
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