Sustainable Book Fairs

Julie’s Bicycle has created a guide to sustainable book fairs, in partnership with the Institut de l’Ecoedició and with support from the Institut Català de les Empreses Culturals (Catalan Institute for Cultural Companies) and the Generalitat de Catalunya (Government of Catalonia).

Book fairs are an essential space for communities to connect, share stories and knowledge, and discover new creative works through literature. Faced with the urgency of climate change and the depletion of natural resources, sustainability and climate action have become key issues driving significant changes in the publishing world and the entire publishing value chain (see more in our blog post about the wider publishing sector).

The guide is formatted as a checklist and includes:

• Suggested actions across design and waste, digital, energy, travel, food and drink, ecological footprinting and communications.
• Case studies from book fairs such as Sabadell Book Fair, the Madrid Book Fair, the Guadalajara Book Fair, the Las Preses Book Fair, the Mantova Literature Festival, and other festivals including the Galician Sin Sal Festival.
• Additional resources from across the industry.

It is available in English, Spanish and Catalan. The accompanying Excel spreadsheet (also in three languages) provides an editable version to support action planning and evaluation.