Environment

Growing our impact on society, not the planet

Sustainability links to everything we do: from climate education and research to cutting our own carbon emissions. We are committed to being part of a positive, sustainable future in which everyone can thrive.

Our commitment

Cambridge University Press & Assessment recognises the climate emergency and our responsibility to act. Our role as a leader in global education and research is to inform and progress action and debate around the world’s most pressing challenges, including the environment and climate change.

We are also committed to reducing our environmental impact across all areas of our operations. We work to support our suppliers to share our ambitions for a carbon zero supply chain, while promoting our environmental ambitions to our people, customers and partners around the world.

Contributing to global goals

We are a signatory to the United Nations (UN) Global Compact, and we commit to upholding the principles of environmental responsibility and innovation across all our operations. Our actions for sustainability are aligned to support the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We consider our impact across a range of issues including biodiversity, water use and the consumption of resources as well as gender equality and quality eduction.

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Sustainable & ethical procurement

All our suppliers must comply with our code of conduct, which reflects our business ethics. We aim to use only use legal and sustainable sources, regardless of the complexity of the production process. We use our international buying power to encourage suppliers to review their own practices, working with them to solve mutual problems and to evaluate the environmental credentials of our supply chain as part of our tendering process.

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Reducing emissions

We are committed to being carbon zero on all energy-related emissions by 2048, with a 72 per cent reduction by 2030. We've set science-based targets for our UK electricity, gas and fleet emissions (scopes 1 & 2) and are working on science-based targets for other indirect emissions across the entire value chain such as purchased products, travel, transport and waste (scope 3). Our strategic approach to reducing our energy use and carbon emissions involves switching to greener heating and cooling systems, using more renewable energy sources, using our sites efficiently as well as actively encouraging our team to adopt energy-efficient practices.

Find out more in our annual report Our carbon report 2021-22

Responsible use of resources

Alongside reducing our carbon, we have identified the need to reduce our use of paper and plastic as well as water use and potential contamination. We've already switched some of our packaging to paper and reduced the amount of plastic used in our secure packaging while we seek alternatives. We are also actively reducing our waste. Our main waste contractor for our Cambridge sites sends nothing to landfill, processing recycling and food waste sustainably and using any other waste to generate greener energy.

Cut emissions

In the last financial year we reduced our UK electricity and gas emissions by 7 percent (scopes 1 and 2 of the greenhouse gas protocol).

Plastic-free packs

We're commited to plastic free journal distribution by the end of 2023. So far, 40 percent have been switched from plastic polywrap to FSC approved paper wrapping.

FSC certification

60 percent of all our paper use across our publishing, assessments and office use is now from certified sustainable sources. We're aiming to achieve FSC chain of custody certification.

ISO 14001

We passed an external audit in May 2022, confirming again we meet this international standard for managing our enviromental impacts. We've held this recognition since 2007.

Sustainable travel

We now have fewer fleet cars, travelling fewer miles, and added electric car charging points to our UK sites. Our travel policy encourages our team to get to work by active travel & public transport.

Our publishing

The books and research we publish as Cambridge University Press aim to improve understanding of big, global challenges – from climate change to pandemics – and to find solutions. Many of these titles have won a range of prestigious awards, with the most recent ones listed in our latest annual report.

Many of our authors are at the forefront of climate science, and our publishing ranges from scientific research to general books from some of the world’s highest-profile climate activists. Some of our key climate and sustainability titles include:

The Citizen’s Guide to Climate Success: Overcoming Myths that Hinder Progress by Mark Jaccard
Named one of the best books of 2020 for environment in the Financial Times.

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There is No Planet B by Mike Berners-Lee
‘Mike doesn’t preach, instead he shares his insights with warmth and wit, and his book could not be more timely.’ David Shukman, BBC Science Editor.

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Global Sustainability

An open access journal dedicated to supporting the rapidly expanding area of global sustainability research. It publishes interdisciplinary research, reviews and commentaries that explore human social and economic pressures and sustainable solutions.

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Environment publishing highlights

Our qualifications and assessments

Our content is being systematically updated or built into syllabuses, curricula and support materials to help teachers to bring environmental sustainability topics into the classroom.

Cambridge Learner Attributes is designed to recognise students’ need to develop attitudes and life skills throughout their education

Global Perspectives series across early years, lower secondary, IGCSE and AS and A Level helps students learn core, transferrable skills such as critical thinking.

CELTA and DELTA, benchmark qualifications for teaching English overseas, help more people access the language of climate change and sustainability.

Our UK exam board OCR is working on a new GCSE in Natural History and we also have plans for vocational qualifications.

Sourcing sustainable paper

As a publisher and examination group, we are reliant on sourcing paper and board and recognise the impact that this has on the environment. It essential we set serious targets to reduce the impact on the natural world of everything we procure.
We only use legal and sustainable sources, regardless of the complexity of the production process. To help us, we work with recognised standard setters such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Overall, 60 percent of all our paper use across our publishing, assessments and our office use is now from these certified sustainable sources. In our Cambridge University Press books and journals, 75 percent now contain only paper and board that is either FSC or PEFC certified, and the remaining 25 percent are being updated to include paper and board from sources rated by the Publishers Database for Responsible Environmental Paper Sourcing (PREPS).
As part of our commitment to championing sustainability with our supply chain, we are working with the Book Chain Project to capture detailed information about the environmental impact of our supply chain and identify areas for collective improvement. We have also completed systematic supply audits with the top 25 percent of our suppliers using Sedex Members Ethical Trace Audit (SMETA), helping us to understand working conditions in our supply chain.

Accreditation and awards

The passion, energy and commitment of our colleagues has resulted in external recognition from accreditation to international standards to an array of sustainability awards for Cambridge University Press & Assessment.

ISO14001 environmental management

We achieved ISO14001 certification again after an independent external audit in May 2022, having first achieved the international standard in 2007. To be certified to ISO14001 standard – which meets international best practice – we have to prove we have considered our impact on the environment, have plans, leadership and sufficient resources in place to improve our environmental performance, and we monitor and document our performance to ensure we can continually improve.

IPG Sustainability Award winners

Cambridge University Press won the Independent Publishers Guild Sustainability Award two years in a row, which recognised the concrete actions we have taken to make our operations more sustainable, as well as the powerful combination of our climate change and sustainability publishing, and the energy and enthusiasm of our colleagues. We were proud to be a finalist again in 2022.

Green Impact Awards

In 2022, we achieved a Platinum Green Impact award for our UK operations in recognition of extensive efforts to promote sustainability practises at work, Silver for our Cape Town team and bronze for Madrid. Two colleagues achieved special awards, one for environment improvement for bringing our on-site allotment back in to use; and for colleagues who organise monthly climate cafes. Cambridge Assessment has previously won the Platinum Award and Cambridge University Press's environment action group gained a Bronze Award for their work to reduce the environmental footprint of University Printing House.

Timber Scorecard

In 2019 the Press gained the top Timber Scorecard rating from World Wildlife Fund – a prestigious 3 Trees score recognising our work to make sure we source sustainable timber. We went from a 0 Tree score in 2015 to 3 Trees in 2019. The scheme has been discontinued.