Taking direct action against the climate crisis is imperative for us all. As a global publisher, this means overhauling unsustainable systems; supporting ventures and pursuing partnerships designed to create greater sustainability across the industry; and prioritizing the use of ecologically-sound materials.
PUP recently became a member of the Bookchain Project, which works with publishers to identify and partner with sustainable and equitable printers and paper manufacturers. Bookchain, which welcomes new members annually, works with hundreds of manufacturers and suppliers, who have pledged to uphold a code of conduct for labor and environmental standards, and has developed tools to help publishers make informed production decisions about forest sourcing, component and chemical screening and plastic and materials choices;, and labor practices and environmental management. With this new membership, led by Director of Publishing Operations Cathy Felgar, PUP joins Oxford University Press, Pearson, Penguin Random House, Macmillan, Hachette UK, and others, as a Bookchain member. Additional supply chain interventions are led by Caroline Priday, Head of PUP’s European Office, an inaugural member of the Book Industry Communication’s (BIC) recently launched Green Supply Chain Committee.
The Press is a founding signatory to Publishing Declares, a pledge to address climate change through sustainable supply chain interventions. Signatories commit to, among other measures: setting operations and supply chain targets to achieve net zero as soon as possible and by 2050, at the latest; protecting nature and biodiversity by working with supply chain partners that are energy efficient and use sustainable materials and processes; and using our expertise and platforms to raise awareness and motivate climate action. PUP joins more than thirty fellow publishers, including Bloomsbury, Bristol University Press, Elsevier, Faber, Pearson, Taylor & Francis, and Thames and Hudson, and four supply chain partners, in making this critical pledge.
PUP is also a proud member of the Association of University Presses, a signatory of the Publishers Compact on the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The Publishers Compact, launched in 2020, is a “voluntary commitment that recognizes the responsibility of the publishing industry to create a sustainable future through action” and works to enact industry advancement toward seventeen sustainable development goals adopted by United Nations member states in 2015.
Through engagement with a number of new initiatives aimed at advancing institutional and industry efforts—and reinforcing institutional and industry responsibilities—we commit to printing and publishing for the future of our planet.