Simon & Schuster UK Environmental and Ethical Purchasing Policy

Our Mission

Simon & Schuster UK Ltd recognises our environmental and ethical responsibilities and we are committed to safeguarding a healthy and sustainable environment for future generations, as well as ensuring human rights violations do not exist within our supply chains.

We also recognise the importance of these issues for our authors and customers and our approach is influenced by their high expectations.

Our mission is to consistently conduct our business in a socially, ethically and environmentally responsible manner.

Environmental

Context and scope

At Simon & Schuster UK we understand that urgent action is needed to tackle deforestation and protect other natural ecosystems.

Through managing and reducing the environmental impacts of our everyday practices, we aim to lead by example and motivate our colleagues, clients and suppliers to take action to create a significant and lasting awareness of environmental responsibilities within the publishing industry and beyond.

Our Impacts

There are two distinct areas of our business that we recognise to have adverse environmental impacts:

1. Through the physical production and distribution of our books*

2. Day-to-Day in our workplace environment**

*see Supplier Standards & Sustainable Sourcing section
** see Office & Employee Initiatives section

In both areas, our known impacts are:

· The consumption of resources through our use of energy, raw materials, general supplies and equipment

· The production of waste materials

· The environmental performance of our suppliers

· Emissions to atmosphere from the use of carbon based energy and fuel in transport including all delivery services both in-coming and out-going
 

Our Objectives

· Focus on the three ‘Rs’ – Reduce consumption/waste/pollution at source wherever practicable, Re-use where possible and Recycle remaining waste

· Both in the workplace and through the production of our books; endeavour to buy, sell and use products that have been sourced in an environmentally-friendly, socially responsible and economically viable manner

· Always take into consideration the environmental ethics and performance of suppliers and service providers

· Strive to conserve energy/natural resources

· Continue to educate ourselves on new developments, to stay up-to-date to ensure we are doing the best we can to respect the law and protect the environment

· Ensure that our environmental initiatives are open and accessible to all employees, by issuing regular newsletters and updates

 

Our aim with all of the above is to measure and monitor our progress and commit to setting annual targets that will be made publicly available for all to see.
 

Our established “Green Initiative Committee” will meet each quarter to monitor and review the progress, and to discuss new ideas and best practices.

 

1. Physical Production of our Books
Supplier Standards & Sustainable Paper Sourcing for our Books:

Simon & Schuster UK Ltd is committed to using timber from legal, sustainable and well-managed sources. We aim only to use suppliers that share this commitment and are able to show that they have taken steps to reduce the impact of their business on the environment (e.g. EMS ISO 14001 accreditation Environmental Management System) as well as actively encouraging internal processes to safeguard the environment.

All our paper providers/suppliers must also be certified to an internationally recognised Chain of Custody standard such as FSC or PEFC whilst also complying with local government regulations. Any new supplier will be asked to provide its corporate environmental policy and/or relevant certification/documentation that demonstrates its environmental practices and goals – including but not limited to climate impact, energy use, and air and water pollution.

Simon & Schuster UK Ltd has been a participant in the Book Chain Project since 2008, and uses its Forest Sourcing Tool, formerly known as PREPS (Publisher’s database for Responsible Environmental Paper Sourcing) to identify papers with responsible forest sources. For more info on the Book Chain Forest Sourcing Tool click here.

Whilst our preference is to use FSC certified papers wherever possible, we require at the very least, that all our papers meet Book Chain grade 3 or higher – meaning that papers are risk assessed and from known, legal and responsible sources.

To achieve this end, we require our paper suppliers to provide the full mill brand name for all papers and boards, prior to manufacture. Any proposed change to the materials used must be communicated at the earliest opportunity and ahead of production.

In addition to this, and in collaboration with the Book Chain Project, we conduct random fibre analysis sample testing on papers manufactured in high deforestation or transhipment risk countries, to verify their forest sources which the Book Chain grade is based on.

If any supplier is found to have breached this commitment we will work with them to ensure compliance is achieved as soon as is possible. If ongoing compliance is not achieved they will be removed from our approved supplier list.

 

Simon & Schuster UK Print Purchasing Targets

In 2015 we began labelling 100% of our UK printed books with the FSC Mix logo.

· Continue to produce and label UK printed books on FSC MIX sourced paper stocks
· Our goal for non UK printed books is to source a minimum of 80% of our paper from FSC MIX certified sources by the middle of 2021

 

Ethical Purchasing

Simon & Schuster UK opposes the use and exploitation of forced and bonded labour and we expect all those who work for us, or on our behalf, to share our zero-tolerance approach. As part of the ViacomCBS group you can find more details in relation to the UK Modern Slavery Statement here: https://www.viacbs.com/about

Book Production

Like many other Book Publishers, we work with suppliers across the globe to produce our books. We expect our suppliers to respect the rights of their workers and the local indigenous populations.

As a participant in the Book Chain Project we endorse their publishing industry Code of Conduct (https://bookchainproject.com/resources) and expect all our global suppliers to adhere to it – both new and old. This Code articulates standards of labour practice and environmental performance - outlining both Simon & Schuster UK’s commitments to our suppliers as well as what we expect from them in return. It is based on internationally recognised standards, codes and laws, including the ILO Convention, the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the ETI Base.

Simon & Schuster UK also supports the ICTI Ethical Toy Program, the responsible supply chain programme for toys and children’s products.

The Book Chain Project allows suppliers to voluntarily share their labour & ethical audits.  Simon & Schuster UK expects all high-risk suppliers to upload a third-party audit, using a Book Chain Project approved audit standard (ICTI, SMETA, SA8000, WCA) at least every two years.  If any supplier is unable to achieve this we will work with them to ensure compliance is achieved within a realistic timeframe.  If ongoing compliance is not achieved they will be removed from our approved supplier list.
 

1. Day-to-Day in our Workplace
Office and Employee Initiatives: 

Suppliers and Service providers’ environmental and ethical standards

When selecting suppliers and service providers for general office use, we will ensure that we always factor in their corporate responsibility policies during the procurement process. We will endeavour to work only with businesses that share our commitment to protecting the environment and ethical work practices. 

All suppliers of our general office equipment, including but not limited to stationery, furniture, catering provisions and printing equipment are ISO 14001 certified.

All our service providers such as cleaning, security and maintenance are ISO 9001 certified as a minimum requirement to prove effective management of resources, including human resources and their organisation’s work environment.

We will continually review all companies we are associated with and any company that falls short of their commitments will be removed following a 3 months rectification period. Failing this, they will be removed from our approved supplier list with immediate effect.

 

Office Supplies

We will always evaluate the environmental impact of any new products before purchasing them and where possible we will only purchase the most environmentally friendly and efficient products available to us. We will continue to buy only recycled and recyclable paper products for the office including but not limited to notebooks, repositionable notes, general envelopes and padded envelopes. 

We will use local suppliers and materials where available to reduce CO2 emissions from travel and freight and help the community.

We are using 100% recycled paper as standard for general office printing and our office presentation paper is at minimum FSC certified.  

We have a re-use policy for packaging received into the office, any packaging that is unable to be reused is recycled where possible.

We have a ‘follow me’ printing service meaning that any documents sent to print in error or multiple times can be deleted without wasting paper. All documents are also sent to print double-sided as standard with this system.

If a product we use falls short of our environmental policy expectations, we shall re-evaluate on an annual basis if our needs can be met in another way and seek an alternative wherever possible.  

 

General Office Environment

The majority of our office has a movement sensor lighting system to ensure energy is not wasted by lights being left on unnecessarily. Only meeting rooms and private offices have on/off switches to allow for lights to be able to be turned off for presentations as and when required.

We have launched a companywide scheme to remind staff to turn off their monitors when away from their desks to reduce the amount of energy consumed. So far this has been done by a sticker campaign on all monitors, along with an internal green awareness poster campaign to educate employees surrounding the additional energy consumption, cost and waste.

The energy consumption and efficiency of new products such as new computer equipment and printing equipment will be taken into account when purchasing to support and reduce our overall energy consumption to help meet our targets.

We will evaluate the energy consumption on an annual basis and make necessary adjustments where applicable.

 

Employee Initiatives 

Our ‘Green committee’ is open to all employees across the business to actively encourage all departments to be involved in not only the implementation of our policy and targets, but for greater commitment and improve our environmental impact.

When we update our office environmental policy on an annual basis, we will ensure to consult with staff and other stakeholders where necessary to make sure it is as relevant and as achievable as possible.

We will work with and support all of our suppliers, contractors and sub-contractors to help them improve their environmental performance where possible.

 

Simon & Schuster UK Office Targets

 

• To use 80% recycled and/or recyclable stationery supplies by January 2021
• To achieve 70% paperless internal meetings by the end of December 2020
• To convert 100% of employees currently using a desktop PC to a more energy efficient laptop by April 2020
• Introduce multiple additional recycling streams within the office including but not limited to battery and stationery recycling by December 2020

 

Date: [11/05/2020] 

Date for review: [05/2021]