Embedding sustainability: Tips for ebook and print production - Tech Forum 2025

Working toward sustainability means embedding green practices throughout the publishing production cycle and across departments. In this presentation, attendees will hear from Jazmin Welch, Founder of fleck creative studio, and Tzviya Siegman, Sustainability Director at the World Wide Web Consortium. Together, they will explore practical ways to integrate sustainability into both print and ebook production. From using paper-saving typesetting tips that maintain high-quality design and reading experience, to applying digital sustainability standards in eproduction, Jazmin and Tzviya will share actionable insights to help you move toward greener publishing operations.

Link to recording and transcript: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/embedding-sustainability-tips-for-ebook-and-print-production/

Presented by BookNet Canada on October 23, 2025 with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.

1. Jazmin Welch
Book designer at fleck creative studio
Production manager at Arsenal Pulp Press
[email protected]
Embedding sustainability:
Tips for ebook & print production
sustainable book design

2. Paper is the biggest contributor
to a publisher’s carbon footprint
Therefore sustainability decisions need to
happen at the production/design level
why we’re here today

3. the problem: page count on the rise
• Longer books = more paper
• More paper = higher environmental and
financial impact to:
-
Print
-
Ship
-
Return
-
Dispose
• We’re too busy to plan and make sustainable
production choices
-
A manuscript has come in much longer than
intended and there isn’t enough time to edit
it down
-
A manuscript has come in too short so we’re
beefing it up with really wide spacing, big type
and margins
-
We didn’t have time to think through and plan
the design choices
Note: Editorial decisions impact the
carbon footprint of a book too!

4. the solution: sustainable book design
where to start
• Slow things down and question production decisions
• Give more space for more generous timelines
• Find who is keen to lead this initiative on your team (designers or other production folks)
• Consider the benefits to get your team excited (SAVE MONEY & the environment!)
• Empower your designers (freelancer or in-house)
• Foster a spirit of curiosity, play, research, experimentation, collaboration
• Discuss with your team target page counts

5. applying expert advice
• 2K/DENMARK coined the term sustainable
typesetting: sustainabletypesetting.com
• You can hire 2K/DENMARK to typeset, lisence
their templates and proprietary sustainable
fonts (“Sustainable Serif” “Niv Comfort Font”)
or create a new font
sustainable book design basics
elements to consider
• Font choice
-
Size
-
X-height
-
Thickness
-
Width
• Leading
• Margins
• Line length (characters per line)
• Conventions (starting on rectos/blank pages)
• Signatures, reducing paper waste with
optimal page counts

6. Xx Xx
adobe jenson
11.5pt
adobe garamond
11.25 pt
Xx Xx
sabon lt pro
10pt
minion pro
11pt
merriweather
8.5pt
Portada
8.75pt
Xx Xx
Faustina
10.5pt
source serif
9.75pt
Xx Xx
compare typefaces
Look for:
• Higher x-height
• Narrow
• Distinguishable
letterforms
• Reasonable
thickness
• Even contrast
• Review close up
• Print paragraph
samples
• Personality
-
The point sizes are equivalent for each font (output approx. same number of pages)
-
Sizes are suggested miniumums

7. These are not strict rules but
suggestions for teams
to explore and expand upon
—
The goal is to be more
sustainable without sacrificing
readability or design
—
Pages can be clean, balanced,
and well designed while also being
more economical

8. experimentation
ways to test
• Design one page for per page word count
• Quickly flow in a full manuscript (using masters
to make quick adjustments)
the parameters of my test
• 86,269 word, text only manuscript
• 6 × 9 trim
• Design details:
-
Part names set on their own pages
-
Chapter opening text starts partway down the page
-
Dingbat editorial breaks

9. reducing pages
BOOK TITLE HERE
Mint, common cattail and white angelica burst forth from loamy
soil along the riverbanks. As though in prayer, aspen, birch, cottonwood,
brushy alder and willow leaned over the roaring water. Farther inland,
brilliant spurts of sky-blue lupine, wild-pink geranium, charity, twin-
flower, pink pyrola and bunchberry. Kinnikinnick carpeted the dark
woods and stony slopes; glacier lily clawed its way to the timberline.
Yellow bell, pearly and rosy everlasting. Rocky Mountain grape burst
into scraggy blotches. High in the alpine, snow willows, bluebell and
cinquefoil eked out a hardscrabble existence.
Here come the ungulates, the cloven-footed beasts. Bison and elk,
moose and deer, wolves and coyotes, black and brown bears, humpbacked
silvertip grizzlies. Bighorn rams, pikas, rock rabbits, blue-ruffled Frank-
lin’s grouse. Spotted-tail hawks, golden eagles, magpies and whisky jacks
circled the skies, lowered their beaks and cut ribbons into the wind. In
the cold rivers, Yellowstone cutthroat, Dolly Varden, rainbow, Eastern
brook, Rocky Mountain whitefish, burbot, squawfish, suckers, steelhead
and salmon swam downstream in the spring, and lunged upstream in
the fall, wasted, wimpled wrecks. The wonder of it all. As it was in the
beginning and would be in the end.
Here come the First Peoples. The Clovis culture snatch granite,
feldspar, quartz and flintstone from the rocky ground and craft them
into simple, blunt weapons for hunting. The Old Cordilleran people
carve spear points of obsidian and basalt while the Agate Basin trap
animals. Weapons precede hostilities. The Mummy Cave culture settle
on the plains and construct atlatls to sling rocks at their enemies. The
McKean culture oust the original peoples but not the Mummy Cave
people. Their ingenuity to create atlatls and adapt to life on the plains
ensures their survival. The Pelican Lake people reach Crowsnest and
establish summer hunting camps for sheep, deer, bison, elk. They build
stone weirs, nets and fish traps, and trawl whitefish and suckers, trap
beaver, rabbits, squirrels. Then the Besant advance and seize the plains,
avoiding the shadows of the mountains until the Plains Natives come
25
Original typeset 1: 310 pages
• All chapters starting on rectos
• Adobe Jenson 11.5pt / 16pt leading
• Margins: top: 1" / bottom 0.875" / inside: 0.9375" /
outside: 0.875"

10. Mint, common cattail and white angelica burst forth from loamy
soil along the riverbanks. As though in prayer, aspen, birch, cottonwood,
brushy alder and willow leaned over the roaring water. Farther inland,
brilliant spurts of sky-blue lupine, wild-pink geranium, charity, twinflower,
pink pyrola and bunchberry. Kinnikinnick carpeted the dark woods and
stony slopes; glacier lily clawed its way to the timberline. Yellow bell,
pearly and rosy everlasting. Rocky Mountain grape burst into scraggy
blotches. High in the alpine, snow willows, bluebell and cinquefoil eked
out a hardscrabble existence.
Here come the ungulates, the cloven-footed beasts. Bison and elk,
moose and deer, wolves and coyotes, black and brown bears, humpbacked
silvertip grizzlies. Bighorn rams, pikas, rock rabbits, blue-ruffled Frank-
lin’s grouse. Spotted-tail hawks, golden eagles, magpies and whisky jacks
circled the skies, lowered their beaks and cut ribbons into the wind. In
the cold rivers, Yellowstone cutthroat, Dolly Varden, rainbow, Eastern
brook, Rocky Mountain whitefish, burbot, squawfish, suckers, steelhead
and salmon swam downstream in the spring, and lunged upstream in
the fall, wasted, wimpled wrecks. The wonder of it all. As it was in the
beginning and would be in the end.
Here come the First Peoples. The Clovis culture snatch granite,
feldspar, quartz and flintstone from the rocky ground and craft them
into simple, blunt weapons for hunting. The Old Cordilleran people
carve spear points of obsidian and basalt while the Agate Basin trap
animals. Weapons precede hostilities. The Mummy Cave culture settle
on the plains and construct atlatls to sling rocks at their enemies. The
McKean culture oust the original peoples but not the Mummy Cave
people. Their ingenuity to create atlatls and adapt to life on the plains
ensures their survival. The Pelican Lake people reach Crowsnest and
establish summer hunting camps for sheep, deer, bison, elk. They build
stone weirs, nets and fish traps, and trawl whitefish and suckers, trap
beaver, rabbits, squirrels. Then the Besant advance and seize the plains,
avoiding the shadows of the mountains until the Plains Natives come
and then the Avonlea, who alter the rules of the land and bring the bow
and arrow, pound out sharp stone tools.
The Ktunaxa travel back and forth between the plains and moun-
tains. They fish in early spring and the women collect root vegetables;
in mid-June the men journey onto the plains and track bison. Summers
BOOK TITLE HERE
25
typeset 2: 272 pages
• Original but leading changed to 14pt

11. BOOK TITLE HERE
Mint, common cattail and white angelica burst forth from loamy
soil along the riverbanks. As though in prayer, aspen, birch, cottonwood,
brushy alder and willow leaned over the roaring water. Farther inland,
brilliant spurts of sky-blue lupine, wild-pink geranium, charity, twinflower,
pink pyrola and bunchberry. Kinnikinnick carpeted the dark woods and
stony slopes; glacier lily clawed its way to the timberline. Yellow bell,
pearly and rosy everlasting. Rocky Mountain grape burst into scraggy
blotches. High in the alpine, snow willows, bluebell and cinquefoil eked
out a hardscrabble existence.
Here come the ungulates, the cloven-footed beasts. Bison and elk,
moose and deer, wolves and coyotes, black and brown bears, humpbacked
silvertip grizzlies. Bighorn rams, pikas, rock rabbits, blue-ruffled Frank-
lin’s grouse. Spotted-tail hawks, golden eagles, magpies and whisky jacks
circled the skies, lowered their beaks and cut ribbons into the wind. In
the cold rivers, Yellowstone cutthroat, Dolly Varden, rainbow, Eastern
brook, Rocky Mountain whitefish, burbot, squawfish, suckers, steelhead
and salmon swam downstream in the spring, and lunged upstream in
the fall, wasted, wimpled wrecks. The wonder of it all. As it was in the
beginning and would be in the end.
Here come the First Peoples. The Clovis culture snatch granite,
feldspar, quartz and flintstone from the rocky ground and craft them
into simple, blunt weapons for hunting. The Old Cordilleran people
carve spear points of obsidian and basalt while the Agate Basin trap
animals. Weapons precede hostilities. The Mummy Cave culture settle
on the plains and construct atlatls to sling rocks at their enemies. The
McKean culture oust the original peoples but not the Mummy Cave
people. Their ingenuity to create atlatls and adapt to life on the plains
ensures their survival. The Pelican Lake people reach Crowsnest and
establish summer hunting camps for sheep, deer, bison, elk. They build
stone weirs, nets and fish traps, and trawl whitefish and suckers, trap
beaver, rabbits, squirrels. Then the Besant advance and seize the plains,
avoiding the shadows of the mountains until the Plains Natives come
and then the Avonlea, who alter the rules of the land and bring the bow
and arrow, pound out sharp stone tools.
The Ktunaxa travel back and forth between the plains and moun-
tains. They fish in early spring and the women collect root vegetables;
in mid-June the men journey onto the plains and track bison. Summers
are spent hunting and berry picking and they go bison hunting again in
11
typeset 3: 260 pages
• Same as 2 but margins reduced
(on all sides, fitting 1 additional line of leading)
• Line length approx 75 characters
typeset 4: 252 pages
• Same as 3 but chapters starting on rectos & versos
(except when right after a part opening page)

12. BOOK TITLE HERE
Mint, common cattail and white angelica burst forth from loamy soil along
the riverbanks. As though in prayer, aspen, birch, cottonwood, brushy alder
and willow leaned over the roaring water. Farther inland, brilliant spurts of
sky-blue lupine, wild-pink geranium, charity, twinflower, pink pyrola and
bunchberry. Kinnikinnick carpeted the dark woods and stony slopes; glacier
lily clawed its way to the timberline. Yellow bell, pearly and rosy everlasting.
Rocky Mountain grape burst into scraggy blotches. High in the alpine, snow
willows, bluebell and cinquefoil eked out a hardscrabble existence.
Here come the ungulates, the cloven-footed beasts. Bison and elk, moose
and deer, wolves and coyotes, black and brown bears, humpbacked silvertip
grizzlies. Bighorn rams, pikas, rock rabbits, blue-ruffled Franklin’s grouse.
Spotted-tail hawks, golden eagles, magpies and whisky jacks circled the skies,
lowered their beaks and cut ribbons into the wind. In the cold rivers, Yellowstone
cutthroat, Dolly Varden, rainbow, Eastern brook, Rocky Mountain whitefish,
burbot, squawfish, suckers, steelhead and salmon swam downstream in the
spring, and lunged upstream in the fall, wasted, wimpled wrecks. The wonder
of it all. As it was in the beginning and would be in the end.
Here come the First Peoples. The Clovis culture snatch granite, feldspar,
quartz and flintstone from the rocky ground and craft them into simple, blunt
weapons for hunting. The Old Cordilleran people carve spear points of obsidian
and basalt while the Agate Basin trap animals. Weapons precede hostilities.
The Mummy Cave culture settle on the plains and construct atlatls to sling
rocks at their enemies. The McKean culture oust the original peoples but not
the Mummy Cave people. Their ingenuity to create atlatls and adapt to life on
the plains ensures their survival. The Pelican Lake people reach Crowsnest and
establish summer hunting camps for sheep, deer, bison, elk. They build stone
weirs, nets and fish traps, and trawl whitefish and suckers, trap beaver, rabbits,
squirrels. Then the Besant advance and seize the plains, avoiding the shadows
of the mountains until the Plains Natives come and then the Avonlea, who alter
the rules of the land and bring the bow and arrow, pound out sharp stone tools.
The Ktunaxa travel back and forth between the plains and mountains. They
fish in early spring and the women collect root vegetables; in mid-June the men
journey onto the plains and track bison. Summers are spent hunting and berry
picking and they go bison hunting again in September. The Blackfoot, direct
descendants of the Besant, chase them all out of the foothills.
Here come the Europeans, sallow-skinned men from far-flung countries
who kill, torture, rape, and enslave the First Peoples. They bring their strange
tongues, weapons, tools, diseases, and ties to their homelands as they violently
12
5: Source Serif 9pt/14pt leading
typeset 5 & 6:
238 pages
• Same as 4 but testing fonts
legible at smaller scales:
Source serif 9pt & Fausina
9.5pt font, 14pt leading
• Note: this is getting small
with long line lengths
(harder for readability)
but the thicker fonts and
higher x-heights are more
legible than Jenson at the
same size
BOOK TITLE HERE
Mint, common cattail and white angelica burst forth from loamy soil along
the riverbanks. As though in prayer, aspen, birch, cottonwood, brushy alder and
willow leaned over the roaring water. Farther inland, brilliant spurts of sky-blue
lupine, wild-pink geranium, charity, twinflower, pink pyrola and bunchberry.
Kinnikinnick carpeted the dark woods and stony slopes; glacier lily clawed its
way to the timberline. Yellow bell, pearly and rosy everlasting. Rocky Mountain
grape burst into scraggy blotches. High in the alpine, snow willows, bluebell and
cinquefoil eked out a hardscrabble existence.
Here come the ungulates, the cloven-footed beasts. Bison and elk, moose and
deer, wolves and coyotes, black and brown bears, humpbacked silvertip grizzlies.
Bighorn rams, pikas, rock rabbits, blue-ruffled Franklin’s grouse. Spotted-tail
hawks, golden eagles, magpies and whisky jacks circled the skies, lowered their
beaks and cut ribbons into the wind. In the cold rivers, Yellowstone cutthroat,
Dolly Varden, rainbow, Eastern brook, Rocky Mountain whitefish, burbot, squaw-
fish, suckers, steelhead and salmon swam downstream in the spring, and lunged
upstream in the fall, wasted, wimpled wrecks. The wonder of it all. As it was in
the beginning and would be in the end.
Here come the First Peoples. The Clovis culture snatch granite, feldspar,
quartz and flintstone from the rocky ground and craft them into simple, blunt
weapons for hunting. The Old Cordilleran people carve spear points of obsidian
and basalt while the Agate Basin trap animals. Weapons precede hostilities.
The Mummy Cave culture settle on the plains and construct atlatls to sling
rocks at their enemies. The McKean culture oust the original peoples but not
the Mummy Cave people. Their ingenuity to create atlatls and adapt to life on
the plains ensures their survival. The Pelican Lake people reach Crowsnest and
establish summer hunting camps for sheep, deer, bison, elk. They build stone
weirs, nets and fish traps, and trawl whitefish and suckers, trap beaver, rabbits,
squirrels. Then the Besant advance and seize the plains, avoiding the shadows
of the mountains until the Plains Natives come and then the Avonlea, who alter
the rules of the land and bring the bow and arrow, pound out sharp stone tools.
The Ktunaxa travel back and forth between the plains and mountains. They
fish in early spring and the women collect root vegetables; in mid-June the men
journey onto the plains and track bison. Summers are spent hunting and berry
picking and they go bison hunting again in September. The Blackfoot, direct
descendants of the Besant, chase them all out of the foothills.
Here come the Europeans, sallow-skinned men from far-flung countries
who kill, torture, rape, and enslave the First Peoples. They bring their strange
tongues, weapons, tools, diseases, and ties to their homelands as they violently
12
6: Faustina 9.5pt/14pt leading

13. results?
• We could save up to 72 pages per book by
tweaking our design choices.
• Across a print run of 3000 copies, that would
save 216,000 pages!
• Less pages also means lighter books that have
a smaller shipping footprint

14. tips
• Folio and running header/footer placement can
impact how many lines fit (running them together
will save space)
• If reducing margins and font size, before going
smaller, be sure to check the number of characters per
line (ideally 50–75) for readability
• Always test print your font size and leading to ensure
legibility, the goal is not to sacrifice readability

15. other considerations
• GREP & justification adjustments did not have
significant impact on page count (though use for
better reading experience)
• InDesign keep options can be changed depending
on press house styles (can 1 line of a paragraph be left
at the top or bottom of a page?)
• Removing orphans/widows/runts can save a few
pages across a large book
• The amount white space around chapter openings
can impact page count

16. questions to ask
production/design
• Can we start chapters on both recto and verso pages?
• Do we need a half title page? If there’s an advance
praise page, can it replace the half title page?
• What is the most economical page count from our
printer that will have the least amount of paper waste?
• What shifts can we make to remove extra blanks?
• Can we reduce the margins without the design looking
too condensed?

17. Jazmin Welch
Book designer at fleck creative studio
Production manager at Arsenal Pulp Press
[email protected]
thank you!
questions?

18. @W3C
Embedding sustainability: Tips for
ebook and print production
Tzviya Siegman, W3C
[email protected]
October 2025

19. Web Sustainability
●Context: Why these guidelines?
●Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) Overview
●How does this translate to ebooks?

20. Environment
Address the Internet’s
environmental impact
ESG
Social
Improve social impact of
digital products & services
Governance
Employ responsible economic
practices for tech projects
ESG

21. WSG: Starting Goals
●Make it easier for anyone to apply sustainability
principles to digital products and services they
create or manage.
●Measurably improve the internet’s environmental,
social, and economic impact.
●Align efforts with existing environmental, social,
and economic reporting standards (GRI)

22. Business &
Product Strategy:
Guidelines aimed at organizational
and team leaders to help them
make more informed strategic and
operational decisions.
Examples:
—Estimate the
environmental impact
—Plan for a digital
product or service's
care and end-of-life

23. Examples of
Business &
Product Strategy
5.9Support mandatory
disclosures and reporting
Create policies and
documents showing evidence
of commitment towards impact
progress, how this is
achieved, and any applicable
regulations you are meeting.
Success Criteria
—Policies and practices
—Impact report
—Impact reduction

24. Web
Development:
Guidelines to help programming
teams improve performance,
reduce data payloads, and lower
digital emissions.
Examples:
—Set goals based on
performance and
energy impact
—Avoid redundancy and
duplication in code
—Structure metadata for
machine readability

25. Examples of Web
Development
Guidelines
3.4Remove unnecessary code
Clear out dead or unused
code as it builds up in a
project to reduce the amount
of wasted data being
transferred.
Success Criteria
—Remove redundancy

26. Hosting &
Infrastructure:
Guidelines to help teams make
more informed decisions about
third-party technology suppliers
and practices.
Examples:
—Choose a sustainable
service provider
—Optimize caching with
offline access
supported
—Data storage
strategies
—Automation efficiency
practices

27. Examples of
Hosting/Infra
Guidelines
4.2Optimize caching with offline
access supported
Use caching on all
appropriate resources,
prioritizing the ability to
use the resource offline if
possible.
Success Criteria
—Utilize caching
—Offline access

28. UX Design
Guidelines to improve digital
experiences for all users while
also helping people make more
sustainable choices.
Examples:
—Understand the impact
for non-users
—Avoid being
manipulative or
deceptive
—Evaluate feature use,
value, and impact

29. Examples of UX
Design
2.15Optimize images for
sustainability
Ensure images, if required,
are optimized, correctly
formatted, and sized, with
lazy loading as appropriate,
and are managed effectively.
Success Criteria
—Need for images
—Optimized images
—Lazy loading
—Sizing and deactivation
—Image management
and use

30. What do I do?

31. Good news! You’re already doing it!
●Many WSG SCs match WCAG SCs
●Example: 3.11Structure metadata for
machine readability corresponds with WCAG
1.3.1 Info and Relationships
○Required elements (e.g. title element)
○Meta tags
○Structured data

32. Alignment with a11y, security
●2.17Ensure animation is proportionate and easy
to control
●3.15Ensure your code is secure
●4.4Setup necessary error pages and redirection
links

33. How to take the next steps
Similar to a11y, privacy, it’s about your products (ebooks)
and your tooling (websites, internal systems)
●5.2Assign a sustainability advocate
●5.9Support mandatory disclosures and reporting
●4.1Choose a sustainable service provider

34. Guidelines that are directly relevant
●UX -2.23 Reduce the impact of downloadable and
physical documents
●Web Dev -3.12 Use sustainability beneficial user
preference media queries
●Infra -4.2 Optimize caching with offline access
supported
●Business -5.4 Communicate the environmental
impact of user choices

35. Measuring
There are many tools to test websites, reduce emissions, and
improve performance.
●Ecograder
●CO2.js
●https://websustainabilityindex.com/
Next step for ebooks is adapting these to EPUB
Carbon.txtis machine-readable sustainability data that could
easily be added to EPUB

36. Sneak it in when you can, get
support to move it forward.

37. Thank you.
Questions?