Indigo

Indigo Becomes First Green Book Retailer

Canada’s largest book retailer, Indigo Books & Music Inc., plays an important role as the main interface between the publishing industry and the reading public. In this role, Indigo has become a leader in environmental action and education.

Indigo began their green initiative in 2007, when they formed a green team to focus on developing an eco paper policy that included targets for waste reduction and greener purchasing practices. With the guidance of Canopy, Indigo developed an innovative strategy to use their leadership position in collaboration with publishers to make books and paper more environmental. Indigo has added environmental paper criteria into their vendor agreements and asked publishers to meet concrete targets for recycled and Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) contents in each book and magazine sold in their stores.

Publishers’ ecological performance is now highlighted in-store and online, which means customers can identify the products that offer ecological benefits. This level of transparency enables informed purchasing decisions by consumers increasingly motivated by environmental considerations.

Indigo’s publisher engagement strategy is unique in the book-retailing world. We anticipate that the model and targets championed by Indigo will spark significant change throughout the publishing and retail worlds. Indigo’s actions are predicted to result in as much as a 50% reduction in virgin wood content in books—a significant benefit for endangered forests, our climate and threatened species like the woodland caribou.

Learn more about Indigo’s environmental initiative.

Indigo Leadership Profile

• Created a Green Team

• Developed a cutting-edge policy

• Established minimum eco-paper requirements with vendors

• Ongoing work with publishers around eco-requirements

• Transparent reporting about environmental paper qualities of books and magazines in stores

photo: Daniel Beltr