Company Info

Environment

Caring for the environment is a fundamental objective for us. Elsevier lives out this commitment through good management practices and by meeting all applicable legislation. We seek to make continuous improvements to reduce our impact on all aspects of the environment.

Download the corporate responsibility report 2011 PDF

Environmental publications

Elsevier’s leading-edge environmental publications help spread good practice and encourage debate—contributing to the world’s scientific information to aid researchers and decision makers.

Read more about Elsevier’s commitment in “The green pages: publishers strive to reduce their environmental impact” Q eContent, Jan/Feb 2009 by Miller, Ron, which includes an interview with Mark Gough, The Environment and Health & Safety Coordinator at Reed.

IPCC

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with former US Vice President Al Gore. Elsevier Editors and editorial board members contributed as authors and reviewers of the 2007 and three previous IPCC reports. Rajendra Pachauri, Chair of the IPCC, is an editorial board member of Energy Policy and Associate Editor for the Encyclopedia of Energy.

Environmental Impact Reporting

We conduct annual detailed environmental impact reporting on our largest sites by collecting and measuring data on energy and water consumption, waste production, disposal and recycling, and emissions resulting from manufacturing and warehousing. This audit is compared against annual RE environmental targets of achieving 50% recycling of our total waste, reducing energy and water consumption by 10% in 2008 from a 2003 benchmark, and reducing 2010 CO2 emissions by 10% from a 2003 benchmark.

In 2009, we achieved absolute reductions in production paper use and travel emissions, and recycled a higher percentage of waste. That same year, our absolute gross CO2 emissions increased by 10%; 157,137 tCO2 in 2008 vs 173, 425 tCO2 in 2009. On a like basis, without the ChoicePoint acquisition, we would have achieved an absolute reduction of 16% in Scope 1 and 2 emissions. There was an equivalent 5% decrease in the intensity ratio since 2008, and a 23% decrease since 2006.

The majority of our energy usage (85%) is from electricity, led by consumption at our data centres - the transition from paper to e-publishing. Data centres are responsible for 34% of energy consumption (vs. 61% for offices and 5% for warehouse/production facilities). Data centre energy usage increased by 14% in 2009 without ChoicePoint sites, and by 44% when included.

Fuel

In 2007-2008, RE commissioned Best Foot Forward, an Oxford based consultancy to analyze the ecological and carbon footprint of the Elsevier journal, Fuel. The objective of the study was to help to clearly determine the footprint of alternative channels and communicate results to journal readers and the wider industry.

The study identified 24% associated carbon product emissions from commuting. To encourage employees to find the lowest impact travel option, the new RE environmental Standards program promotes home working, biking to work and better plarking options for employees who car pool.