Book Chain Project

The problem

No single publisher can audit the forestry, chemical safety and labour conditions of a print supply chain spread across dozens of countries. Each one doing it separately duplicates the cost and forfeits the leverage.

The solution

Publishers pool the work and share supplier data across three modules: forest sourcing (paper and board provenance, environmental performance, water risk), chemicals and materials (screening against safety legislation in seven jurisdictions), and labour and environment (shared code of conduct, questionnaires and audits).

What is distinctive

Pre-competitive collaboration in practice: the assessment of a mill is not a competitive advantage, so it is not treated as one.

Evidence

• Engages more than 400 paper mills worldwide and holds data on thousands of paper and board brands.
• More than 30 mills assessed under the Mill Assessment Framework since 2018.
• Mature infrastructure rather than a recent launch – made newly urgent by CSRD and the EU Deforestation Regulation. Member count is not published.

Compiled from public sources, August 2026. Not yet reviewed by the organisation.