Environment &
sustainability
We all have a responsibility to our planet. Individually and collectively, we make daily choices which can have negative or positive effects. At Emerald, we're aiming to lay strong foundations for change through education, knowledge, and action. Every small step matters to create positive intent and impact.
We recognise there’s still a lot more work to be done, but by considering the impact on the planet with every action we take, we can all make a meaningful difference and help take small steps towards a better world to live in.
As a business, we are passionate about leading change and aligning with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). While our focus is to ensure that the research we publish can fully play its part in solving significant global challenges, we are also making sure our environmental & sustainability roadmaps are aligned with the SDGs, via SDG12 and 13.
Our commitment to climate action
Signatory of Publishing Declares
We are proud to be a signatory of Publishing Declares the Publishers Association’s Climate Action Pledge. Launched in 2021, this is the UK publishing industry’s first declaration on climate action.
The five commitments of Publishing Declares are below, along with the actions we have taken so far against each. We will continue to regularly report back on our progress to ensure we stay true to our commitments and the promises we make.
Join the global climate effort to limit warming to 1.5°C by setting ambitious, measurable targets across our own operations and extended supply chain to achieve net zero as soon as possible and by 2050 at the latest.
Our actions so far:
- We are working hard to understand the climate impact of our operations across the supply chain and on setting targets for reduction.
- In 2023 we reduced our physical head office space to reduce energy consumption and switched to 100% renewable energy supply.
Work with supply chain partners that are resource efficient, use sustainable materials and processes wherever possible in the content we produce, and constantly innovate to make use of new and recycled materials.
Our actions so far:
- We work with our partners across our supply & value chains to use sustainable materials, including eco forest and sourcing.
Collaborate with our peers, authors, illustrators, supply chain partners, and business partners to translate our climate commitments into tangible actions to safeguard our planet for future generations.
Our actions so far:
- Colleagues regularly volunteer on planting, wildlife, and litter-picking schemes to support conservation initiatives.
- We work with our research communities to ensure that valuable and timely research is published to support environment and sustainability best practice.
- We have established a sustainable procurement working group to develop best practice and partner with suppliers who share our values.
- Partnering with Solidaritech, we repurpose laptops/mobile phones that have completed their lifecycle with us but are still usable, so that these can be passed on to asylum seekers and refugees to help them resolve their immigration status, pursue studies and start their lives in their new country. Those devices that are no longer usable are sustainably recycled by another partner organisation committed to a ‘zero to landfill’ policy.
Empower our colleagues to become climate literate and support them to bring that knowledge into the work that they do.
Our actions so far:
- We have introduced an environmental training course as well as embedding a learning pathway around environment & sustainability, across the organisation, which all colleagues are asked to complete.
- Our 'All Hands' staff awareness sessions regularly include updates and awareness on sustainability and environmental themes.
- Each year, Emerald 'Planet Champions' organise in-house webinars delivered by expert speakers on a variety of environmental topics including energy saving, sustainable gardening, and supporting wildlife.
- Annual awareness days such as Earth Day and Earth Hour are promoted via our internal dedicated Planet Teams channel along with tips and competitions to educate and engage staff.
Use our expertise, platform, and voice to raise awareness and drive positive climate action wherever we can.
Our actions so far:
- We have an experienced and passionate group of Environmental & Sustainability champions throughout the business, from regions across the globe
- We participate in the Net Zero Challenge at organisational and individual levels.
- We have representation on the ALPSP SDG and Publishing SIG. The aim is to provide information and share best practice to help those industry members with limited industry knowledge, build a better understanding of the UN SDGs and how they can actively contribute to them inside and outside of their organisations.
Net Zero Challenge
We all need to make changes to the way that we work and live to reduce our carbon emissions.
Being involved in the Net Zero Challenge enables Emerald employees worldwide to report on their actions, including:
- Reductions in car and air travel.
- Switching to green energy suppliers and reducing our home and work energy usage.
- Using less water at home and work, particularly hot water.
- Reducing the amount we throw away.
- Helping to protect and improve biodiversity in our local area.
Between April 2022 and May 2024, 127 Emerald Employees have taken part in the challenge and have so far avoided 48,579 kg in CO2e emissions – that's the equivalent of driving a mid-sized car approximately 295,914 km which equates to circumnavigating the Earth more than 7 times!
Our commitment to the UN Sustainable Development Goals
In 2021 we became signatories of the SDG Publishers Compact. This is a United Nations initiative launched in 2020, in collaboration with the International Publishers Association.
The Compact aims to accelerate progress to achieve the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.
As signatories, we aspire to develop sustainable practices and act as champions of the SDGs during the Decade of Action (2020-2030), which includes publishing books and journals that will help inform, develop, and inspire action in that direction.
Our commitment to sustainability
Find out what we are doing to help our industry become more sustainable, and access our free content on sustainability and the UN SDGs.
Reporting on our actions
In 2024 we will be publishing our carbon accounting (including SECR & Scope 3 emissions) as well as our Responsible Sustainability report.
Scope 3 reporting will enable us to quantify the emissions of our supply chain which will help us to capture a full view of our carbon footprint. As well as being the right thing to do, it will help us gain understanding of the true impact of our business on the climate and inform our plans to move towards net zero.
We are already disclosing our actions as part of our commitment to the SDG Publishers Compact. You can either download the PDF infographic or read the accessible version below.
Our progress on the SDG Publisher Compact 10 recommendations
1. Committing to the SDGs
Refreshed our responsible business strategy focussing on SDG 4, 10 and 13.
Communicated a clear statement of our intent.
2. Actively promoting and acquiring content that advocates for themes represented by the SDGs
62% of Emerald journals mapped to one or more SDG.
90% of our frontlist titles map to one or more SDG.
Commissioning content aligned to Goals, made up of overlapping SDGs.
Partnered with COPPUL
Worked with Joint Commitment for Action on Inclusion and Diversity within Publishing, adding new questions to ScholarOne to collect gender, race and ethnicity data.
Provide important how-to guides to aid dissemination and discovery beyond academia:
Promote 'beyond the article' content types, such as:
Books we publish aligned to the SDGs:
- Higher Education and SDGs series
- Concise guides to the SDGs series
3. Annual reporting on progress towards achieving SDGs
Committed to increasing female and non-binary representation across editorial boards and authorship by 2030.
Publish Gender Pay Gap and Ethnicity Pay Gap reports.
4. Nominating a person who will promote SDG progress
Established Publishing Development Manager roles, each focusing on broad, SDG-related areas:
5. Raising awareness and promoting the SDGs among staff
Established a team of 'SDG champions'. Developed and launched an on-demand resource for ED&I. Improved our recruitment practice:
- Recruit talent representative of diverse community groups
- Introduced AI to screen job adverts for gender-biased language
- Introduced anonymous application and screening process
- Worked with Inclusive Employers to perform an end-to-end recruitment audit
6. Raising awareness and promoting the SDGs among suppliers
- Launched an ethical procurement process
7. Becoming an advocate to customers and stakeholders by promoting and actively communicating about the SDG agenda
Clearly display our commitment to UN SDGs and SDG Publishers Compact on our corporate website.
Address global challenges facing society by bringing communities together to share knowledge and foster debate through mission campaigns:
- Indigenous voices includes the implementation of an Indigenous Peoples Advisory Board
- Do business leaders need a moral compass?
- Fairness across generations
- Lifelong learning
Established the yearly Interdisciplinary Research Award
Work in progress to align the journal programme to a lead SDG-themed Goal where relevant, for example:
8. Collaborating with other signatories and organisations to develop, localise and scale projects that will advance progress on the SDGs
A signatory of DORA
A core member of the SDG Publishers Compact Fellows and supporter of the recommended Top Action Tips
Contribute to the UN-endorsed HESI Joint Task Force
9. Dedicating budget and other resources towards accelerating progress for SDG-dedicated projects and promoting SDG principles.
Participate at annual conferences and speaker opportunities.
Dedicate curated, ungated SDG missions – content collections within our Emerald Goals.
10. Taking action on at least one SDG goal
The following are the golden thread across everything we do:
Author insights
During April 2024 we asked our recently published journal and book authors two questions about how important environmental and sustainability issues were within their institutions and when choosing a publisher.
We learnt that 7 in 10 thought their institution or employer is 'always' (50%) or 'usually' (20%) committed to sustainability and environmental issues, with just 5% saying they are 'rarely committed' and 2.4% 'never committed'.
In terms of how important these issues are when choosing a publisher, they told us that around 1 in 6 (16%) say 'extremely important', whilst the top answer was 'very important' with 41%. 17% chose either 'not at all important' (7%) or 'not so important' (10%).
We can conclude that environmental and sustainability issues are important to institutions and authors alike and, therefore, over the next few months we will delve deeper into these areas to understand further. Check out this page later in the year for more insight.
Sharing knowledge
Research has the power to change the world where it matters most.
This open access journal publishes research that links specifically to the environment and sustainability by focusing on how to combat and cope with climate change. You can access all the articles for free today.
Find out more about the International Journal of Climate Change Strategies and Management.