Read it again
Children’s books have one advantage no other product has: they are meant to be used over and over. A picture book read every night for a year has done far more work per sheet of paper than ten books read once. Bedtime is where this is most true, because repetition is the point — the same words in the same order are what make a story settling rather than exciting. That is how our bedtime stories for kids are built, and it is also the most sustainable thing a book can do.
What to look for on the book itself
The paper. An FSC or PEFC mark on the imprint page means the paper is certified as coming from responsibly managed forests. It is the one environmental claim most printed books can make and back up.
The print run. Books printed in large runs and returned unsold are often pulped. Printing closer to demand — smaller runs, or print-on-demand — means fewer copies made for nobody.
The format. An audiobook or an ebook uses no paper, but it does use a device. For bedtime the trade-off is less about carbon than about light: whatever you choose, dim it and keep it short. Several of the Tardy books come as Kindle or audiobook editions as well as in print.
What the rules ask of publishers
Large UK publishers are companies like any other, and the reporting rules reach them the same way. Large companies have reported their energy use and carbon emissions under Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting since April 2019, and the UK Sustainability Reporting Standards now set out how UK companies disclose climate-related risks and emissions more fully.
For a publisher most of the footprint sits outside its own offices — in paper, printing and distribution — which is why the big houses increasingly ask their printers and suppliers for emissions data. If you want to understand what those disclosures contain, the sustainability reporting standards guide explains the frameworks in plain terms. (Both are sister reference sites to this one.)
Small independent publishers are mostly outside these regimes. For them, and for parents, the useful questions are the simple ones above: what paper, how many copies, and will this book still be read in a year.
The short version
Buy fewer books and read them more. Look for certified paper. And if a book becomes the one that is asked for every night, it has already done the most sustainable thing a book can do. For how to make that nightly story work harder, see the parents’ page.