Penguin Random House | Munich, 02/26/2020

Climate Neutral Book Production At Verlagsgruppe Random House

Verlagsgruppe Random House, Germany’s largest general interest publishing group, is stepping up its climate protection activities and aims to annually increase the share of its climate neutral book production by 20 percent. Unavoidable emissions will be offset by climate protection projects.

Bertelsmann has set itself the goal to become a climate neutral company by 2030. The corporate divisions and companies are taking their own measures to achieve this goal – including the Munich based Verlagsgruppe Random House. It is stepping up its climate protection activities and aims to annually increase the share of its climate-neutral book production by 20 percent. As the publishing group announced, unavoidable emissions will be offset by climate protection projects. “We are aware of our responsibility as Germany’s largest general interest publishing group and will consistently advance the environmental transition in publishing by sustainably reducing our CO₂ emissions,” says Thomas Rathnow, CEO Verlagsgruppe Random House.

Annually increasing the share of sustainable books by 20 percent

All of the emissions of the publishing building in Munich were systematically recorded and clearly reduced by the use of green power and a highly efficient cogeneration plant. All of the unavoidable emissions of the site as well as all of the employees’ business travel are offset by climate protection projects. The publishing group’s Munich site has been climate neutral since 2019. As of this year, the entire book production of all of the publishing group’s children’s publishers will be climate neutral, as well. They follow the model of the publishers Ludwig and Gütersloher Verlagshaus, whose book production has been climate neutral since 2018. In addition, an increasing number of titles from other group publishers, such as all books by Maja Lunde and Peter Wohlleben, will be produced in a climate neutral way and thereby annually increase the share of the sustainable titles by 20 percent.

“We are pursuing a broad-based approach with the goal to avoid as much emissions as possible across the entire supply chain. For this purpose, we prepared a comprehensive analysis of the CO₂ emissions of our books, from the paper plant to the delivery, last year,” says Barbara Scheuer, Production Manager and Environmental Officer at Verlagsgruppe Random House. “We are able to precisely define the effects of selecting a printer, paper type or finishing on the CO₂ footprint of a title, and we can take specific actions to reduce emissions. Together with our partners, we plan to increase the share of green power in production and reduce waste, for example. Unavoidable CO₂ emissions will be successively offset by climate protection projects. This is an important step in comprehensive climate protection.”