News | Gütersloh, 06/05/2020

On The Path To Climate Neutrality In 2030

On World Environment Day today, the focus is on environmental protection efforts. The “be green” officers in our divisions provide insights into current environmental protection measures and report on the progress made to date on their own targets as a contribution to Bertelsmann’s larger 2030 climate protection target.

Bertelsmann intends to be climate-neutral by the end of this decade. To achieve this, the greenhouse gas emissions caused by the mobility of its employees and the manufacture of its own products at its locations around the world are to be reduced by 50 percent compared to 2018. The remaining emissions will be offset through climate protection projects. To achieve this ambitious goal, three action areas have been defined: “Sites,” “Employees,” and “Products.” As they do every year, the divisional “be green” experts have been busy gathering current environmental data in recent weeks. The Group-wide 2019 Carbon Footprint will be published shortly as part of Bertelsmann’s sustainability reporting in accordance with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) standards. In addition to this fundamental work, the “be green” team is also advancing the development of climate strategies in the divisions. The team explain specifically what this means and where the focus lies during the coronavirus pandemic.

“Many RTL Group business units have launched initiatives on the path to climate neutrality,” reports Angelique Zachary from RTL Group Facility Management. “For example, Fremantle recently initiated an industry-wide partnership to calculate the carbon footprint of its global film productions. Mediengruppe RTL is developing its own sustainability strategy. Our colleagues from RTL TVI in Belgium have drawn up a roadmap for projects in the areas of waste management, mobility, cafeteria, and buildings as part of an open discussion. And overall, we have a record number of locations participating in the Group-wide data collection for 2019.”

Penguin Random House has made it its mission to publish books responsibly and to minimize its own impact on the environment, says Michael DeFazio, Vice President Purchasing & Production at Penguin Random House in the U.S. “To become carbon-neutral together with Bertelsmann by 2030, we will continue to improve our processes, infrastructure, and supply chain. We have also set up a global Responsibility Sustainability Committee to share case studies and experience. This committee helps us protect the environment for the next generation of readers.”

Climate neutral production

Verlagsgruppe Random House in Munich aims to continuously increase the proportion of climate-neutral titles produced each year, explains Barbara Scheuer-Arlt, Production Manager and Environmental Officer at Verlagsgruppe Random House. “Our publishers Ludwig and Gütersloher Verlagshaus have been producing all titles carbon-neutrally since 2018, and our children’s book imprints followed suit in 2020. By conducting a detailed analysis of the entire supply chain we can determine exactly what effect the selection of a printing plant, a particular type of paper, or finishing has on a title’s carbon footprint, and can therefore take specific measures to reduce emissions.”

“Climate-neutral production is also a priority at Gruner + Jahr,” explains Chief Sustainability Officer Ulrike Penz: “Through our own calculations and by surveying suppliers and service providers, we have already been able to significantly improve transparency regarding CO2 emissions in the production and supply chain of our magazine paper. We will continue to work intensively on this, and in the next step will include additional data on magazine production. Gruner + Jahr will switch to green electricity at its sites starting next year. We also plan to collect site-specific data in the area of mobility, especially on employees’ commuting. It is particularly important to us to build employees’ knowledge and awareness of climate and environmental issues. To this end, we are relying on comprehensive communication on the G+J intranet ‘Greenport’ and beyond.”

Collecting energy data with ‘green screen’

“At Arvato Supply Chain Solutions we are currently developing our own climate protection strategy with which we will contribute to achieving the Group-wide targets,” says Melanie Engler from the newly created Buildings & Environment department. “To this end, we are working intensively with the environmental data from the ‘green screen’ IT platform, which we were able to collect more comprehensively this year. Incidentally, we also use the data collected for our customers, who are making increasingly detailed demands on our sustainability and CO2 reporting. We have also made progress in networking relevant colleagues. For example, we are currently working with Transport Management to determine transport emissions.”

Volker auf der Landwehr, Senior IT Project Manager and “be green” officer at Majorel, says: “After the founding of Majorel, the focus this year has been on collecting environmental data from additional companies and sites, especially the companies brought in by Saham. We already collect energy data daily or monthly in ‘green screen’ at numerous German locations. This also gives us access to current values and can already detect a coronavirus effect: Due to the surge in people working from home, CO2 emissions from buildings and business travel have fallen significantly in recent weeks. Despite the coronavirus-related restrictions, the company was able to carry out the planned energy efficiency audits at more than 20 locations using Microsoft Teams.”

“The Bertelsmann Printing Group is planning a sustainability summit with all its divisions to develop a roadmap for climate neutrality by 2030,” explains Lars Peter, Head of Energy Management at Prinovis and Printing Group “be green” representative. “We are currently already taking the first steps towards climate neutrality in selected departments such as IT at the Bertelsmann Printing Group, for example by monitoring energy consumption online in ‘green screen’ and developing an employee questionnaire about commuting. In line with the ‘One Company Approach,’ we are also working on consistent solutions concerning the environment. For example, we are planning an integrated CO2 calculation of the product carbon footprint for our customers, so that we can take the path to climate neutrality together with them.”