The Tree to Me Initiative

Serena BaroneNews, Sustainability, TreeToMe, UK

The UK Society of Authors is encouraging all sister organisations to adopt and share the Tree to Me initiative. Launched in April 2023, Tree to Me is an awareness raising and action campaign designed by the Society of Authors and agreed by the UK publishing industry’s sustainability Industry Forum to encourage more sustainable practices.

The campaign aims to empower authors to begin a conversation with their publishers about the environmental impact of their books using ten informed questions. Topics range from the materials used in book production and packaging to the sources of energy consumed, and from organisational investments and corporate governance to emissions targets and more.

Ultimately, the campaign will give authors and publishers the opportunity to celebrate where sustainable practices are happening and to showcase that they are having these discussions in the interest of improving sustainability. As an awareness raising campaign.

The ten questions can be downloaded from this page. Read the press release here.

The SoA asks us all to share and adopt this campaign in our home countries.

IAF supports the Tree to Me initiative to promote more sustainable practices across the publishing sector. Due to the tangible impacts of global warming on our daily existence, it is vital that every sector works towards mitigating these effects. Facilitating a conversation between authors and publishers represents a crucial first step in the publishing industry’s endeavours to achieve net-zero emissions.

Climate change affects us all. Together, we can achieve the sustainable production of an indispensable weapon against it – literature.