October 23rd, 2009 · No Comments

Green Right Now Reports

It seems fitting that Houghton Mifflin Harcourt’s first 100 percent recycled text books are a series for K-5th graders called “Go Math!”

Because the math (and the science) tells us that the earth is warming and we’d better figure out how to recycle, reuse and reduce or plan to jettison the planet in a big spaceship in the not-distance future.

The “Go Math!” series will be available in spring 2010 and has already been adopted by the state of Florida. The company estimates that the green textbooks will save 40,000 trees and 8 million gallons of water in Florida alone. It will reduce carbon air emissions by 3.8 million pounds and eliminate 1 million pounds of solid waste, according to HMH.

The company reduced the carbon footprint of the book series by:

• Printing all student editions in domestic plants governed by U.S. environmental laws, which saved on shipping and waste

• Using post-consumer recycled fiber for the paper, which saves on trees and reduces manufacturing energy consumption

Boston-based Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company is the world’s largest publisher of educational materials for pre-K–12 schools. The company is committed to producing more green textbooks, said Mike Lavelle, K–12 president at HMH. “School districts across the county have expressed that environmental stewardship is a priority, so we will continue to build our Green Edition content to provide more sustainable solutions nationwide.”

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt will be competing in a rapidly changing market in which many colleges and schools are turning to electronic textbook services. With higher level educational material scattered online and across other electronic formats, paper textbooks may soon seem environmentally weighty, even in recycled form.

California has announced it is going digital with public school textbooks.

By some calculations, electronic isn’t necessarily greener. It depends on whether you’re reading that textbook on a simple reader or a high-powered computer; how long you are plugged in and where the electricity is sourced. (See this Guardian article for more discussion comparing paper to electronic textbooks.)

Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, in fact, offers some interactive educational programs, such as Destination Math.