Thirteen stages, one loop. This is where a YATS book's footprint actually lives, told in the terms our print partner is audited against, not the terms we'd like to use.
01
It starts as a seed in a certified nursery
Every page traces back to a seedling raised for a working forest. Our print partner is FSC®-certified, so the chain of custody that ends with your book starts here, before a single tree is in the ground.
FSC® chain of custody, licence code FSC-C022913
02
Planted to be replaced, not just removed
FSC® certification only covers forests managed to regenerate: what's harvested is replanted or regrown, and the forest has to keep its ecological function, its workers' rights and its community rights to keep the certificate.
Managed forests only, replanted and audited under FSC® rules
03
Decades of growing, storing carbon as it goes
A working forest grows for decades before harvest, drawing down carbon the whole time. The certificate is re-audited every year, so the claim on the paper is only ever as good as the last inspection.
Annual third-party audits keep the certificate alive
04
Selective harvest, logged at every hand-over
Trees are cut under a management plan, not clear-felled for the sake of it. From the forest gate on, every hand-over is recorded so certified fibre can't be swapped for anything else on the way to the mill.
Every hand-over recorded from forest gate to mill
05
Fibre moves to the mill, paper moves to the press
Logs and chips travel to the mill; finished paper travels to Pureprint in East Sussex. That freight sits inside our printer's Scope 3 inventory, measured to the GHG Protocol and ISO 14064-1 rather than estimated away.
Scope 3 upstream transport counted in the printer's inventory
06
Pulp becomes a 150gsm uncoated sheet
The sheet under every YATS page is FSC®-certified, 150gsm and uncoated: no plastic coating to strip out later. Purchased paper is the biggest line in a printer's footprint, which is why it's bought under a written Responsible Paper Purchasing Policy.
150gsm FSC® uncoated paper, no plastic coating
07
Ink, handled as a measured input
Inks and press chemistry are controlled under our printer's COSHH, Pollution and Waste & Hazardous Materials policies, inside an ISO 14001 environmental management system that has been certified since 1993, the first in UK print.
ISO 14001 environmental management, certified since 1993
08
Printed once, when a child is waiting
Your book is printed on demand on digital presses at Pureprint, the world's first CarbonNeutral® printer (2002). Digital means no printing plates and no make-ready run, and the printer's SBTi-validated targets commit it to a 42% cut in Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2030 and net zero by 2045.
−42% Scope 1 & 2 by 2030, SBTi-validated against 2022
09
Glue-bound, then left to cure
Pages are gathered and glued into the cover; there's no stitching in a YATS book. The glue then cures fully over a working day before anything else happens, because a rushed bind is a book that sheds pages.
Days 2–3 bind on day two, a full day to cure on day three
10
Picked and packed at the press, plastic-free
There's no warehouse in the chain. The cured book is picked and packed at the printer in plastic-free packaging on day four, so the only stock that ever exists is the one copy on its way to you.
0 books held in stock, ever
11
One short journey to the door
The order travelled as data; only the finished book travels by road. It's dispatched on day five with Royal Mail Tracked, so you can follow it from the press to the doorstep.
Day 5 dispatched, Royal Mail Tracked 24 or 48
12
The lowest-carbon book is the one read a hundred times
Built to be a keepsake, not a throwaway: heavyweight uncoated paper and a fully cured bind so it survives years of re-reading. Every re-read spreads the footprint of the making a little thinner.
Years of re-reading is the whole point of the build
13
If it ever reaches the end, the loop closes
Uncoated paper and board recycle in the household paper stream, so the fibre that started as a seedling goes back around rather than to landfill. That's the loop we're measuring end to end for the first product-lifecycle report.
Q3 2027 first product-lifecycle report
