Boycott Harry Potter U.S. Edition, Eco-Groups Say

Brian Handwerk
for National Geographic News

July 18, 2005

Despite calls for a boycott of the U.S. edition, the latest Harry Potter
book sold 6.9 million copies in its first 24 hours, breaking the series
record set by the last Potter novel.

A coalition of conservation groups had urged U.S. buyers to take their business north of the border, because the U.S. publisher of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince did not print it on recycled paper.

Raincoast Books, Potter's Canadian publisher, is printing the J.K. Rowling novel on 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper. Consequently, the Vancouver-based publisher may save nearly 30,000 trees, according a study by Markets Initiative, a coalition of environmental groups, including Greenpeace Canada and the Sierra Club.

Raincoast isn't the only publisher seeking to put a green tint on the wildly popular Potter books. Publishers from Germany, Italy, Britain, and Israel also comitted to printing Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on large percentages of recycled paper and/or "ancient forest friendly" paper.

"It is great to see some publishers following the lead set by Raincoast Books in Canada. It is now up to publishers like Scholastic in the U.S. to respond to the challenge that has been laid down," said Pamela Wellner, a Greenpeace senior campaigner in San Francisco, California.

But the book's largest publisher—U.S.-based Scholastic, whose initial Half-Blood Prince printing numbers some 11 million books—has passed on a recycled Potter.

Some environmental organizations are asking U.S. Potter fans to order their copies from Raincoast though Canadian online booksellers like www.amazon.ca or www.chapters.indigo.ca.

"If [Scholastic] had printed the book on 100 percent recycled paper, its 10.8-million print run could have saved 217,475 trees," Greenpeace's Wellner said.

Though numbers are not available for the current book, Raincoast published some 930,000 copies of the last Harry Potter installment, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Raincoast's use of recycled paper may conserve more than trees. According to eco-minded Markets Initiative, printing the Canadian edition on recycled paper will also produce the following savings:

• 16,757,965 gallons (63,435,801 liters) of water, enough to fill 42 Olympic-size swimming pools

• 1,884,926 pounds (854,988 kilograms) of solid waste, equivalent to 262 female elephants

• 27,329 BTUs of electricity, enough to power the average North American home for 262 years

• 18,708 pounds (8486.4 kilograms) of air emissions

Rowling on Recycling

Raincoast's green initiatives have drawn past support from Harry's creator, J.K. Rowling. The author included a special message in the publisher's 2003 Canadian release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, in which she linked Earth's old-growth forests to the magical wood of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, a familiar setting to Potter fans.

"The forest at Hogwarts is home to magical creatures like unicorns and centaurs," Rowling wrote. "Because the Canadian editions are printed on Ancient Forest Friendly paper, the Harry Potter books are helping to save magnificent forests in the Muggle world, the home of magical animals such as orangutans, wolves and bears. It is a good idea to respect ancient trees, especially if they have a temper like the Whomping Willow."

Scholastic maintains that its policy already mandates environmentally responsible paper use.

"Scholastic does not use any paper that would endanger ancient forests," said Kyle Good, vice president of corporate communications at the company's New York City headquarters. "That's our long-standing policy, and we continue to follow it with the Harry Potter titles.

Good also reports that Scholastic does use some recycled paper in many publications, but the company declines to report just how much recycled paper is in use or to reveal specific information about the sources of their paper supplies.

While most Canadian publishers now reveal the sources of their pulp and paper, their U.S. counterparts guard such information much more closely. The secrecy has spawned environmentalists' efforts to make such data more publicly accessible.

Paying a Premium

Markets Initiative says that it cost Raincoast some 5 percent more in production costs to use recycled paper—a cost that may be reflected in the Canadian edition's higher cover price. Many booksellers are discounting The Half-Blood Prince, so U.S. consumers will currently pay an even greater premium to order Canadian editions. Excluding shipping costs, the price today on amazon.com is U.S. $16.99, versus $24.60 (Canadian dollars)—the equivalent of U.S. $20.16—on amazon.ca, the Web retailer's Canadian site.

Increased cost isn't the only factor standing in the way of more widespread use of recycled paper. Many publishers cite the limited availaiblity of such products, and recycled paper providers' inability to keep up with demand.

The controversy doesn't seem to be affecting U.S. sales of the wildly popular Potter's latest adventures. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was released at 12:01 a.m. Saturday, and Scholastic reported that the book had sold 6.9 million copies in the U.S. by midnight.

The pace shattered the standing one-day record of five million set by the last Potter book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Based on an average cost of U.S. $17, Americans spent some 117 million dollars on The Half-Blood Prince on the first day alone.

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