Stories from the Frankfurt book fair

Read. reflect. relate.

What happens when the square peg of an in-person international event meets the round hole of the global need to reduce CO2 emissions? Messe Frankfurt, one of the world’s largest trade fair complexes, plays host to this conundrum.

Frankfurt calling

The Frankfurt Book Fair and its cultural-political programme, Frankfurt Calling, has come and gone once again. What is it about this booklovers’ gathering that attracts around a quarter of a million people to come together to steep themselves in everything book-related? Is it the buzz of seeing your favourite author on stage for the first time after reading all their books (twice)? Or maybe the feeling that you almost recognize everyone else walking around the multiple floors in the vast halls? (A hint: the reason they all look a little familiar could be because they remind you vaguely of the person facing you every morning in the mirror.)

At this year’s opening ceremony of the 76th iteration of the Frankfurt Book Fair (also known by its German-language abbreviation FBM), Managing Director Jürgen Boos reminded us that the FBM is not only an important marketplace for rights across all media, it has also traditionally been a politically relevant platform for informed debate. And indeed, the FBM has actively positioned itself as a showcase for controversial conversation, often hosting authors on its stages who have been banned from voicing their opinions in their own countries. At the FBM, they’re encouraged to speak out in the name of authenticity and freedom of expression. Add to that the fact that, despite its size, the FBM has remained remarkably agile, expanding over the years to include a range of formats apart from books, embracing media such as audio, games, and other new technologies, as well as strengthening its traditionally close links with the film industry. So, the FBM appeals to an increasingly wide audience, which means there are many very good reasons for all kinds of people to travel to Frankfurt to take part in this annual literary feast.

More rights than right?

But as organizations increasingly focus on ESG requirements, keen to align with the circular economy, the FBM, together with other major international trade fairs, festivals, and conferences, is well aware of the difficulties of putting on such an event while attempting to toe the sustainability line when its very existence as a global drawcard and meeting point contradicts such a position. Can it be right, for example, to choose as guest of honour a country from as far away as the Philippines? This Southeast Asian country will be FBM’s guest of honour in 2025 and will naturally cause quite an uptick in visitors to Frankfurt from halfway across the planet, as folk from this English-speaking and highly literate society fly in to attend the celebration of their literary culture in the hallowed halls of the Messe Frankfurt next October. This will very likely have at least some environmental activists up in arms, though perhaps not to the extent of gluing themselves to the front steps of the entrance.

Of course, there is an argument to be made for the fact that the better-educated among us – including, we infer, booklovers – are more likely to be able to translate the intellectual imperatives of the sustainable use of resources into the action required to service them. A grasp of the importance of reusing and recycling should, one might think, pave the way for a more or less seamless behavioural conversion from linear wastefulness to conscious stewardship. This is not, however, always the case. Abstract concepts when placed alongside the realities imposed by daily life do not necessarily always win out, so the global bookerati may feel that cutting themselves a little slack to attend a book fair in Germany isn’t quite so bad as it’s all in a good cause.

Nevertheless, at the FBM this year it wasn’t easy to find any obvious shout-outs for sustainability on the ground, apart from – literally on the ground – a statement printed in white on an otherwise bald patch of black-painted floor at the side entrance of one of the trade fair halls, which proclaimed “Less carpet – for our environment!” Indeed, the carpeting of the halls had been kept to a bare minimum, which, together with a reduction in the prevalence of plastic cutlery, cups, and other superfluous plastic packaging in the festival catering programme, gave some factual evidence of the efforts being made to reduce the FBM’s environmental impact.

Sustainability: thinking it through

On the other hand, the IMPACT Festival, also held in October this year at the Messe Frankfurt, under the banner “Empowering People to Drive Sustainability,” not only proclaimed its stance on sustainable principles and measures on its website but also walked the talk at the event itself. Apart from the more visible measures taken by the event catering company, almost all the booth space available in the exhibition hall was occupied by small companies run by young visionaries offering practical solutions to wasteful business practices and consumption habits. On its website, too, the IMPACT Festival pointed out that no event of this nature can be held without creating emissions, publishing a breakdown of how they occurred in this case (overwhelmingly travel, as one may imagine), and evidence of the Climate Contribution Certificate they applied for to mitigate them. As information goes, this is the kind of consistency and transparency that other organisations might do well to emulate.

But the IMPACT Festival with its conference stages occupied only two floors of one rather small hall, whereas the FBM routinely occupies all three levels of six enormous halls, plus ancillary spaces for side events, so in terms of sheer conceptual volume there is no comparison: drilling down to the core of every sustainable aspect of the FBM is a massive ask. And of course, it isn’t only the FBM and other international trade fairs that should give us pause for thought and trigger us to exercise our mental capacity to reason things through. If, for example, we were all to switch from combustion engines to driving EVs, would the resultant demand for electric power cause such an increase in emissions from our power stations currently still fired by coal, gas, and oil that our carbon footprint might actually be far worse than if we had continued driving our old gas-guzzlers? Let’s remember, too, that this is only half the argument if we consider the fact that in the switch-over scenario, the fossil fuels needed for mobility would be left in the ground instead of extracted as before. Or if – as claimed in recent research by Oxfam and reported on in the Guardian – fifty of the world’s richest billionaires produce on average more carbon emissions with their private jets, yachts, and other lifestyle essentials in less than three hours than the average British person does in their entire lifetime, what are the conclusions we are supposed to draw from that? Tax the wealthy and invest that money in energy and other subsidies for the poor and elderly? Great idea – you go first.

For the general public, upstream considerations are often invisible, shrouded in the mists of grimly determined political obfuscation and the influence of big business. And even where such factors do come to light, they are today often labelled “misinformation,” with proponents of existing systems issuing statements in mainstream and other media designed to allay fears and push consumers’ perception back into line regarding what is the norm and must therefore continue as before. Making lifestyle choices as simple as “do I go to the fair or not?” can be far more confusing than it ever was in the past.

Sorting fact from fiction

The information we are bombarded with today is, as Yuval Noah Harari reminded us on stage at the FBM this year, not the same as truth. And the deployment of AI to channel it into vortices designed solely to create more intense audience engagement has eroded our ability to determine what is real and how we relate to it. The ability to pick our way through the ‘echo chambers’ created especially to engage our attention and shape our opinions is becoming a critical skill.

And so, this is the dilemma we face today: we find ourselves at the massively conflicted interface of yesterday’s unconscionable thoughtlessness and tomorrow’s conservancy and are not sure quite how we as individuals should make the transition. We know that attending an event where everyone is part of a shared experience in a like-minded community contributes to our sense of belonging and therefore has a positive effect on our mental well-being, with all the knock-on benefits that brings. But we are also told that our decision to travel to some far-flung destination to take part in that deeply satisfying in-person experience ought to be offset by compromising or doing without in some other aspect of our lives so that we can “reduce our carbon footprint.” It bears remembering that the responsibility for the climate crisis has only relatively recently been placed at the doorstep of the individual to shoulder or otherwise manage as they see fit.

So with that in mind, what can we usefully deploy to help inform and make those choices?

Review rewire reset

It used to be a central wisdom that travel broadens the mind. Being broad-minded was a useful trait when interpreting and dealing with the world around us – it provided added knowledge, perspective, and discernment, as well as the ability to think critically. What if we applied the same travelling (or in internet terms, “browsing”) principles to how we gather and filter our information and pass on what we have learned? What if we tuned in to a completely different programme, for example, from our usual mainstream news source, or ignored the click trail on our social media feeds and went looking for differing views on the topics of the day? There would definitely be some surprises in store – and quite possibly a less polarized outlook to go along with it. As Sir Ken Robinson was fond of saying, imagination is part of the kit we human beings are born with. It is what drives creativity, and that is ultimately what we would like to be able to draw on when making decisions about what is right or wrong, and what we ought to be doing about it.

Because, as in many areas of our lives, we are being asked to hold two opposing ideas in our minds simultaneously. Developing the ability to apply nuance and integrity to find a balance between conflicting issues and creating and managing the space in which they have value, are respected and given precedence at the right time and in the right proportion is one of the many skills we are going to have to educate for in the future. And for that, we’re going to need books galore, fresh ideas around sustainability, and the kind of friendships you can often make serendipitously at the world’s biggest book fair.