DK and a Sustainable future
Our Code for Corporate Social Responsibility
Responsible DK
In our books we set out our four priorities as a responsible business. We are proud of our record and delighted that you wanted to learn more. In the sections below we explain why we chose each as a priority and what we are doing.
Our paper is assessed for its environmental impact
Books require paper and board which comes from forests. Each felled tree that helps make up a book can pass through a saw mill, a pulp mill, a paper plant, a printer, warehouses and a retailer or distributor before reaching you. Forests are the natural air purifiers of our blue planet, the earth. They are very precious and we care for them. We have made two commitments:
- We will purchase from forests that carry Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification wherever we can. Unfortunately, for many DK books, FSC grades are just not yet available [or sometimes just too expensive].
- Where we cannot use FSC certified product, we will grade all our papers using PREPS.
What is PREPS?
We are founding members of the Publishers Database for Responsible Paper Sourcing (PREPS). Using a grading system based on that created by WWF all papers are graded based on if the pulp sources are from known, responsible and low risk sources:
Grade 1 - Unknown or unwanted
Grade 3 - Known, responsible and low risk
Grade 5 - FSC or 100% post consumer recycled
It is our policy to use board and paper from grade 3 and above. Grades 2 and 4 are no longer used by PREPS.
|
Penguin (including DK) |
DK |
||
|
2010 |
2011 |
2010 |
2011 |
Total Tonnage (metric tonnes) |
47,000 |
51,000 |
25,000 |
29,000 |
FSC (%) |
37% |
38% |
11% |
16% |
Grade 3 and above (%) |
80% |
100% |
72% |
100% |
The work that we have put into sourcing materials and labelling our books was recognised by FSC in 2010 with an FSC International Award for promoting FSC paper and products.
For more, read our global paper report
We check our suppliers' working conditions and eco credentials
It is our duty to think about the entire journey our books take from forest to printed page. We are committed to treating the members of our supply chain fairly, right back to the forest owner - sharing with our partners a care for the environment, respect for local communities and a concern for all the people who work on our books.
Working conditions
We are founder members of the publishing industry group PRELIMS whose purpose is to assess worker rights, working conditions and pay in our suppliers. We, and PRELIMS, support the ICTI Care Process in Asia and in 2011; PRELIMS adopted its own code of conduct for other parts of the world. All of our printers in the Far East will be audited against the standards set out by these codes of conduct. We also make our own visits and commission our own supplier audits too. We use the results of these audits to decide on who we work with and to encourage improved working rights and conditions where we can. To date, all 18 of our printers in the Far East have been audited.
Manufacturing and being green
We want our printers to increase rates of recycling, reduced water, energy and materials consumption and moving to more environmentally friendly materials such as vegetable inks. We ask that all our printers have ISO14001. We gained our own ISO accreditation in 2009 and so know that ISO 14001 asks for continual improvement across the scope of environmental impacts. Over 85% of our spend is with printers that either have ISO 14001 or a similar environmental management system. We will continue to work with printers who are willing to engage in this process but haven't yet achieved the accreditation. We also ask our largest printers to report on their environmental performance.
Product Safety
Ensuring product safety is integral to the design and manufacture of all products made by or on behalf of Penguin and DK. Our legal and moral responsibility is to ensure that everything we put on the market will not harm a person or the environment. The Penguin Product Safety Manual, first developed in 2008, records procedural steps, legislative requirements, developmental advice and labelling information to help achieve this goal. Now in its 8th incarnation the manual is regularly updated to reflect changing global requirements and developments to internal processes and due diligence procedures. We only work with suppliers who source and supply materials that are fully compliant with all relevant directives and legislation for the territories into which our goods will be sold and every supplier is asked to sign an appendix to our Terms and Conditions of trade to verify this.
To become climate neutral, we:
- Measure - independently verify our climate footprint relating to our buildings and from business travel.
- Reduce - cut the energy we use in our buildings and business travel. We have introduced energy-efficient design across our buildings, invested in alternatives to business travel such as video conferencing, and all the electricity we purchase in the UK comes from renewable sources.
- Offset - Whatever emissions we have not been able to reduce or avoid are offset by supporting projects that either save or absorb a metric tonne of carbon for each tonne that we emit.
Reduction
We share with Penguin. Together we have:
|
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
% reduction in last 2 years |
Energy |
|
|
|
|
Electricity and Gas (Mwh) |
34,700 |
25,150 |
23,100 |
33% |
% electricity from renewable sources |
100 |
100 |
100 |
|
Business Travel |
|
|
|
|
(Km travelled by air, sea |
13,150,000 |
9,500,000 |
10,800,000 |
18% |
Carbon footprint |
|
|
|
|
Buildings & business travel (C02e) |
8,573 |
6,652 |
4,883 |
43% |
Our offset partners
We reduce and avoid whatever we can, but for those emissions we cannot eliminate by other means, we work with offset partners
Woodland Trust
During 2011, we helped the Woodland Trust launch Woodland Carbon, the first offset initiative certificated under the UK Government's new accreditation scheme, the Woodland Carbon Code. We offset the emissions relating to the UK buildings in the UK through Woodland Carbon.
DK Rainforest.
We offset our travel by helping protect rainforest in Costa Rica through a partnership with Children's Tropical Forest.
We support literacy initiatives around the world
Reading informs, educates and inspires. It should be no surprise that we are passionate about reading and want to do all we can to nurture enthusiastic readers. So check out:
- We Give Books. You can read a DK book online and as a reward, we will give a book to a literacy project of your choice around the world. Created by Penguin and the Pearson Foundation working together, the We Give Books website has led to over 600,000 books being donated, so far including many DK books.
- Booktime. We gave our 6 millionth book under our Booktime programme, which sees every child in England starting school receive a book pack containing two free books from Penguin Children's and Pearson Primary to take home, keep and to read. As part of Booktime, DK people volunteer in local schools to help struggling readers improve their confidence.
- Book Aid. And we are the largest donor of books to Bookaid, who support the development of libraries in schools and local communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Together with Penguin and Pearson, we have donated over 1 million new books through Book Aid, helping benefit over 2,000 libraries last year alone.
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Glossary of Terms and Abbreviations
are registered or trade marks of DK.
