• Responsibility

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• What we're doing
• Our progress and plans
• Health & Safety
• Ethics
• Environment 2008
  • Our strategy
  • Realising our strategy
  • Climate footprint
  • Our initiatives
  • Engaging others
  • Water, Waste and Packaging
  • Going beyond our direct impacts
  • Progress and plans
  • Data and Trends
  • Assurance Statement
• Policies and downloads
• Report archive
• Contacts

Progress and plans

Reporting and ratings

We use external recognition of environmental management by the company as a measure of our performance.  As well as achieving accreditation for our UK operations under the environmental management standard ISO 14001, we again performed well in other key external benchmarks:

• We were ranked top of our sector in the Business in the Community Environment Index 2008.  Environmental Management at Pearson was again ranked as 'platinum', the highest performance tier within the index.
• We continue to report on our progress to the UN as part of our commitment under the Global Compact.
• Pearson has been included in FTSE4Good indices since their inception.
  
  

Commitments & targets

Our main environmental commitment is to become a climate neutral company by the end of 2009 for existing operations.  This means that using 2007 as the base year, we aim to reduce our Greenhouse Gas emissions by 100% by the end of 2009 for our operations excluding new acquisitions.  Where it is not possible to reduce our emissions by other means, we expect to purchase carbon credits.

Pearson adopted a new baseline for data in 2007.   Our environment archive provides historic data on our performance against targets. 

2008 Targets		Progress		2009 Targets
Expand our individual company environmental committees into our US and other businesses, directly involving many more of our people.		Ongoing. Over 30 Green Teams are now in place in Pearson facilities in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and India.		Continue to expand our network of environmental teams across our businesses.
Continue our environmental and labour standards auditing programme, revisiting our printers in Asia, North America and parts of Europe.		Achieved. Visits carried out in Australia, China, India, Japan, Mexico and in several European countries, including Germany, Italy, Spain and Slovakia.		Hold training refresher seminars with key Pearson production departments on labour standards and environmental issues.
Continue to explore aspects of our wider product related carbon footprint		Ongoing.  Discussions with industry partners continued.		Continue to work with industry partners to establish a methodology to assess the carbon footprint of a book.
Maintain our position in the key indices of social responsibility.		Achieved. Pearson retained its position as Global Leader for the Media Sector in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices and maintained its Platinum rating in the Business in the Community Responsibility Index.		Maintain our position in the key indices of social responsibility.
Using 2007 as the base year, we aim to reduce energy use on a like-for-like basis by 5% by the end of 2009		Achieved an 11% reduction in 2008.		Introduced a revised target.  Using 2007 as the base year, we aim to reduce energy use on a like-for-like basis by 15% by the end of 2009.
Using 2007 as the base year, we aim to reduce our Greenhouse Gas emissions by 25% by the end of 2020		Achieved a 10.4% reduction in 2008.		Using 2007 as the base year, we aim to reduce our Greenhouse Gas emissions by 25% by the end of 2012.
Using 2007 as the base year, we aim to achieve a per employee reduction in air travel by the end of 2009		Ongoing. Air travel per employee increased this year to reflect inclusion of additional data from Penguin in the US.		Using 2007 as the base year, we aim to achieve a per employee reduction in air travel by the end of 2009.
Various initiatives to reduce air travel		Ongoing. Investment programme in vide-conferencing technology approved in the US.		Continue to encourage alternatives to air travel. Extend data coverage to include our top 10 markets.
Using 2007 as the base year, our target is to reduce like-for-like water use across the company by 10% per square metre of occupied space by the end of 2012		On track. Achieved a 3.5% like-for-like reduction in 2008.		Using 2007 as the base year, our target is to reduce like-for-like water use across the company by 10% per square metre of occupied space by the end of 2012.
Maintain our reuse/recycle rate for all unsold books and newsprint in excess of 95%.		Achieved 99%.		Maintain our reuse/recycle rate for all unsold books and newsprint in excess of 95%.
To establish a global Environment Fund to encourage capital investment projects that deliver significant GHG reductions.		Achieved
To investigate the viability for Pearson to invest in generating its own renewable energy at sites above 1 million square feet.		Ongoing. Our focus is on our buildings in the US.		To continue to investigate the feasibility of generating renewable energy using solar panels or wind turbines at key Pearson buildings.  Our aim is to commission our first project in the US by 2010.
To review our approach and use of renewable energy		Ongoing. We will secure the supply of green electricity for all our main buildings in the UK in 2009		We will look to extend that commitment to the US by 2010.
Continue to raise employee awareness of the steps we are taking on corporate responsibility and how they can help.		Ongoing. We launched Planet Pearson, a cross-company environmental intranet site as a pilot in the US.		We will look to expand its usage across our international businesses.
Continue our drive for independently verified certification to ensure the suitability of paper we purchase for our books, newspapers and magazines.		Achieved.  See our separate report on paper purchasing		Continue our drive for independently verified certification to ensure the suitability of paper we purchase for our books, newspapers and magazines.

Commitments in 2008

• Our new building in Sandy, Utah is on track to be our first building to be Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified by the US Green Buildings Council
• In both the US and UK, we reduced the number of cars in our fleet, aiming to replace others with hybrid and lower emission vehicles where possible.  We will continue with this programme in 2009 and will look to set a global reduction target
• We will continue to minimize the environmental impact of packaging and distribution in our book companies.
• Last year, we set a target is to achieve a 15% reduction in consumption of paper per head by 2010 using 2005 as the base year.  There has been progress.  Penguin has purchased digital reading devices such as Sony Readers and Amazon Kindles for Penguin's sales force (US) and editorial and marketing staff (Australia, US and UK) to reduce paper use.