Friesens is proud to celebrate the Green Book Alliance (GBA) receiving the Book Industry Study Group’s (BISG) 2026 Industry Innovator Award for the development and launch of the Book Carbon Calculator.
Presented during the BISG@50: Book Publishing Next Forum & Anniversary Celebration in New York City, the award recognizes an industry-changing tool that helps publishers, printers, and other book industry partners estimate the carbon footprint of individual books and better understand how production decisions impact emissions.
As a founding sponsor of the Book Carbon Calculator, Friesens helped support the development of the free resource from its early stages, alongside Gibbs Smith and Publishing Scotland. Today, the calculator is available to publishers around the world, providing practical data to support sustainability planning, reporting, and decision-making.
The project began through the vision and leadership of sustainability advocates across the publishing industry, including EJ Hurst of New Society Publishers and Jen Knoch of ECW Press, whose early work helped lay the foundation for what would become the Book Carbon Calculator. Their efforts, combined with the contributions of the Green Book Alliance steering committee, industry partners, and technical teams, transformed an important idea into a practical tool for the industry.
“This award recognizes the power of collaboration,” said the Green Book Alliance in its acceptance remarks. “Meaningful industry change begins when people recognize a shared challenge and commit to building practical solutions together.”
Friesens congratulates the Green Book Alliance and all the individuals and organizations who contributed to this award-winning initiative. We are honoured to have played a role in supporting a project that is helping move the publishing industry toward a more sustainable future.
Watch the video below for more.
