Reed Elsevier, a professional information provider, has been measuring its environmental footprint since 2003. At present this footprint covers all its key locations, which are responsible for greater than 75% of its operations by business turnover, only omitting small offices at the extremities. This data is externally assured by Ernst & Young.
The most challenging and time consuming part of the measurement process is collecting the data. After reviewing external bespoke systems, Reed Elsevier decided to use excel as it was not only cheaper, but provided easy accessibility and was a tool that was familiar to all of its compilers. Inputting figures into this spreadsheet is now a fast and effective way to calculate the overall footprint. All employees involved go through a training programme on how to capture data on the relevant metrics. This is carried out via teleconferencing and web based systems such as live meeting, which reduces the need for travel.
The internal measurement tool covers all scope 1 and 2 emissions as well as scope 3 business travel. Reed Elsevier has started capturing data from all stages of its products' lifecycles, including production process, typesetting, printing and distribution and will start reporting on these under scope 3 in 2008.
Reed Elsevier has also undertaken a study to measure the difference in the environmental impact of reading one of its journals (FUEL) either in printed copy or online. It discovered, with the help of external carbon footprinting experts, Best Foot Forward, that commuting to work and end users play a big part in the total impact. It was also able to identify several areas for reductions including moving to printing on demand, which is now being rolled out in all applicable areas. With the data available Reed Elsevier was unable to find any significant differences in the carbon emissions associated with the different formats of delivery, but it acknowledges that this is just the first stage in the debate on footprinting and there is still a long way to go.
