Green Writers Press (GWP) is a Vermont-based global publisher with a mission to help foster a sustainable environment through the words and the images they publish. Dede Cummings, the founder and managing director/editor of the business, carefully considers both her business and personal decisions to ensure that they are in line with the standards GWP has set in their commitment to preserving and protecting the environment.
GWP is an L3C or a “low-profit limited liability company” which is a for-profit business that holds a charitable or educational cause as its main purpose. The business embodies their mission from their choice of printers (US printers that utilize renewable energy, forest stewardship council-certified papers, and soy-based inks) to their donation of a percentage of their profits to national and Vermont-based environmental organizations. GWP has a vision that collectively, their books will “become a chorus of voices of writers and readers, artists and photographers, who care about the fate of the earth and want to do something about it.”
GWP is a home-based publishing office and Cummings has worked hard to ensure that the home office also lives up to the GWP mission and values. The home is entirely powered by the sun. A solar array provides electricity and the home is equipped with solar hot water panels. The building’s design as a passive solar home reduces energy needs and improves efficiency as does the installation of the best available insulation, plaster walls, and state of the art fireplace/woodstove heating system. Cummings also notes that another benefit of a home office is that they don’t have to burn fossil fuels in order to commute!
Dede Cummings is proud of the work GWP has done to set a high bar for environmental sustainability and hopes others will follow their lead. She says, I think GWP is a great example of how small businesses in the Arts & Leisure segment of our state’s economy are working hard to make a difference in the climate struggle.