About the Sustainability Network  

“From the tree in the ground to the book in your hand: together we can create a sustainable publishing industry, which changes minds, not the climate.” Piers Torday Chair of the Sustainability Network 

The Sustainability Network was set up in 2021, to explore ways of growing awareness around issues of climate change, biodiversity loss and sustainability in the publishing industry. The group hosted online information sessions and presentations from specialists. 

In 2024, the Sustainability Network  opened as a peer-support network to all members with an interest in matters of climate change and sustainability, as the next step of empowering authors to influence positive change – both individually and as a union – in a time of climate crisis. As well as helping authors become climate literate through information-sharing and educating on all things sustainability, it is committed to using its expertise, platform, and voice as a network to drive positive climate action. These aims are key to its role in delivering on the publishing industry’s climate action pledge, Publishing Declares [LINK]. 

. The Sustainability Network will do this by: 

• • Holding regular online community meetings to discuss issues, offer a platform for peer-support, experience sharing, and conversation, and to foster a sense of community 

• • Acting as a supportive network to encourage positive climate action, in a way that is respectful of the individual needs of each member without prescribing one-size-fits-all changes 

• • Hosting panel discussions with experts from across the industry, as well as developing and sharing professional development resources 

• • Signposting authors to the contract vetting https://societyofauthors.org/advice/] and other support offered by the SoA 

To learn more about the SoA’s work on sustainability, see Where we Stand: Sustainability. 

The steering committee 

Holly Farrell 

Holly Farrell Holly Farrell is an award-winning garden writer, and author of books including Healing with Plants: The Chelsea Physic Garden Herbal; Do Bees Need Weeds? (co-author); RHS Get Growing; RHS Plants from Pips; Growing Herbs (Kew Gardener’s Guides) and Garden Media Guild Award finalists RHS Gardening for Mindfulness and The Jam Maker’s Garden. Her most recent titles are The RHS Little Book of Wild Gardening; The Herb Almanac (for Chelsea Physic Garden) and The RHS Little Book of Cut Flower Growing. She is a frequent contributor to The Simple Things magazine and an RHS Wisley-trained horticulturalist. 

Holly is the Administrator for the Guernsey Literary Festival and a volunteer librarian at a local primary school. 

Instagram: @holly_farrell_books | Substack: @mudandink 

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Sophie Galleymore Bird  

Sophie’s first published novel, Maneater, was a filthy feminist Frankenstein tale. Her second, To See The Light Return, was written as a response to Brexit and self-published. It has sold few copies but still bears the dubious distinction of having been scraped to train AI, without her permission. She is a communications consultant for ecological charities and businesses and is currently studying for an MA in Crime Writing Crime Fiction at the University of East Anglia. 

Website: www.sophiegalleymorebird.co.uk | Twitter: @OySophBird | Instagram: @sophiegorebirdnoveller   

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Wren James

Wren James is the Carnegie-longlisted British author of many Young Adult novels, previously published as ‘Lauren James’. Their books include Last Seen Online, Green Rising and The Next Together. Amazon MGM Studios is developing The Loneliest Girl in the Universe as a feature film. They are a RLF Royal Fellow and the story consultant on Netflix’s Heartstopper (Seasons 2 and 3). Wren is the founder of the Climate-Conscious Writers Handbook and editor of the anthology Future Hopes: Hopeful stories in a time of climate change. They work as a consultant on climate storytelling for museums, production companies, major brands and publishers, with a focus on optimism and hope. 

Website: wrenjames.co.uk

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Philip Kavvadias   

Philip is an author, engineer and sustainability expert. He is passionate about helping kids discover the pleasure of reading, and about inspiring the engineers, scientists and policy makers of the future.  

Website: https://philipkavvadias.com | Twitter: @PhilipKavvadias | Instagram: @philipkavvadias   

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James McConnachie  

James McConnachie is an author, critic and editor of the Society of Authors’ journal, The Author. He is working on a biography of a Himalayan mountain. He loves trail running, and is currently excited by foraging seaweed.  

Twitter: @j_mcconnachie   

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Zara Slattery

Zara Slattery is a graphic novelist, illustrator and tutor and author of the award-winning graphic memoir, Coma. She collaborates with writers and organisations in creating work on issues around the environment, identity, health, disability and was recently the disability consultant for Canterbury Cathedral’s Miracle Windows comics project. She’s currently working on the medieval eco-fable, Sweeney’s Progress, with writer Gregory Norminton. 

X: @inksplattery | Instagram: @zaraslattery | Website: www.zaraslattery.com

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Piers Torday (chair)  

Piers Torday’s award-winning, best-selling Last Wild series examines themes of biodiversity loss for young readers, and his latest, The Wild Before, was a showcase attempt at publishing a sustainable book commercially.  

His plays The Box of Delights (RSC), The Child in the Snow, and The Wind in the Wilton’s (Wilton’s Music Hall) were produced to the sustainable standards in the Theatre Green Book.  

Piers is also the first Chair of the Society of Authors’ Sustainability Network steering committee, and was involved in launching the Society’s Tree to Me campaign on sustainability in publishing, a subject on which he writes, broadcasts and campaigns regularly. 

Website: https://www.pierstorday.co.uk/ | Twitter: @PiersTorday | Instagram: @piers_torday   

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