- Sustainability
Vegan. Sustainable. Authentic. – An Interview
As an art book publisher, SHIFT BOOKS produces its books exclusively sustainably and, if possible, vegan. Because of this, the UmDEX editorial team interviewed us about our motivation as a publisher for taking this important approach.
- von Guido Rochus Schmidt
Why sustainable and vegan production?
It’s about true sustainability in the creation of books and other publications. It goes without saying that we try to have all books produced as vegan as possible, because we want to help raise awareness of all the possibilities that now exist. But sometimes you have to make a compromise when it comes to design resources because it is not (yet) possible to implement something vegan. But it is much more important to consider the entire creation process than just looking at the vegan aspect.
We cannot save the world alone, but everyone can act responsibly in an environmentally friendly way and do their part with every decision. This includes when buying books. That is why we only work with sustainable regional and local printers, thus shortening the production and delivery processes. We are always working to leave a lasting impression and are far from satisfied.
Local production?
We only produce our publications in Germany with certified printers. Certifications guarantee transparency and credibility. Ecologically produced materials that still have to be transported all over the world lose their meaning in the cycle of resources. Greenwashing has no chance with us.
»Every German consumes 250kg of paper, almost five times the amount of the average person on earth, who consumes around 57kg per year. That’s a lot!«
Climate-neutral printing?
Our printing companies cover their energy needs, either largely or entirely, with renewable energy and/or offset their CO2 emissions with their partners. For example, myclimate or climatepartner. Waste heat from the production processes is also consistently recycled, processed and reused. A well-rounded solution for environmental protection.
Sustainable paper?
Every German consumes 250kg of paper, almost five times the amount of the average person on earth who consumes around 57kg per year. (Source: wwf.de) That’s a lot! It is therefore particularly important to use your resources as carefully as possible. That’s why we make sure that our products are made from paper with the appropriate verifiable certifications, such as Blue Angel, FSC® or PEFC™. Complete transparency is important to us when producing our publications.
Vegan printing and binding?
Yes, we print vegan whenever possible! Conventional printing inks can contain organic dyes, fats and binding agents. In special colors, these partly consist of the dye carmine (E120), which is made from lice (in Europe, cochineal scale insects). To produce the dye, the lice are bred on selected plants, “harvested”, dried and boiled in water (with the addition of sulfuric acid). That is why our books are printed with vegan inks based on vegetable oil as standard. #ProudToPrintVegan #ProudToPrintVegan
Vegan printing company?
Oeding Print from Braunschweig, together with ProVeg. eV, has developed a standard for vegan print products and is now the first printing company to be allowed to print the well-known V-Label on its products.
© SHIFT BOOKS
Sustainable interaction!
During a stormy, almost nine-hour night train ride from Düsseldorf to Munich, we, UmDEX journalist Guido Rochus Schmidt and high-end media designer Mario Drechsler, had enough time and opportunity to devote ourselves to the literary and production-technical aspects of the work »Let me draw you a bath« . We received the book at the Print Digital Convention from Roland Makulla, the Head of Sustainability at oeding print GmbH, which produced this work sustainably and vegan.
The first impression was overwhelming: the sensual feel of the paper used, the user-friendly open thread stitching, the fine binding, the graceful image quality – all of this created a deep connection with the medium of artistic book production.
To produce such a sustainable masterpiece requires not only production-technical finesse – the redundancy of printing technology options is hardly questioned these days anyway – but even more so the interaction of the partners involved and their shared conviction.
»To produce such a sustainable masterpiece requires not only production-technical finesse … but even more so the interaction of the partners involved and their shared conviction.«
© SHIFT BOOKS
© SHIFT BOOKS
© SHIFT BOOKS
© SHIFT BOOKS
An artist (Bianca Kennedy) whose aesthetics are derived from the critical examination of the future of evolution and the sustainable transformation of the centuries-old existence of an anthropocentric worldview.
A publishing house (SHIFT BOOKS) whose publishing maxim is based on publishing works that are subject to exclusively certified sustainable ecological and vegan criteria from creation to delivery.
A printing company (oeding print GmbH) that has designed its production processes from A to Z to be sustainable, environmentally friendly and vegan.
Only in this complex interplay was it possible, and will continue to be possible in the future, to produce sustainable works whose forward-looking aesthetics will sustainably reform the book market and make this approach a sensual experience for readers.
Let Me Draw You a Bath
Bianca Kennedy
25€
In her monograph Let me Draw You a Bath, artist Bianca Kennedy takes us into a world where the bathtub is not only a place of relaxation and hygiene, but also becomes a stage for a variety of plots and existential themes. In four series of works, she stages the bathtub as a symbol of birth, sexuality, death, and more. Personal hygiene becomes a minor matter.
This article first appeared on the umdex.de website
Guido Rochus Schmidt
Author, editor, expert for sustainable media production, lobbyist for the sustainable transformation
Guido Rochus Schmidt was managing director of Ulenspiegel Druck GmbH & Co. KG, which was the first printing company in Bavaria to receive the EMAS certificate of the European Union in 1999. As an environmental expert, he was in charge of the company’s ecological development from 1999 to 2017. Since 2017, the expert has been advising companies on all aspects of sustainable media production.
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