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This adds to the complexity of measuring our footprint and taking action. We have to gather lots of detailed information from many different suppliers and work out how much of it is attributable to us. We are grateful that so many of them have been forthcoming with the information we need, particularly when the last few months have been challenging for many in the newspaper industry.As well as measuring our emissions, we have been looking at different areas of our business to consider how our sustainability commitments should inform what we do. That led to our announcement earlier this year that we were refusing any advertising from fossil fuel companies. More recently, our Guardian Jobs team has made it easier for employers to advertise sustainability jobs to our audience of environmentally-conscious readers.We have now set a goal of eliminating at least two-thirds of all emissions from our own operations and our supply chain by 2030. That feels like a daunting challenge but we wanted to set ourselves an ambitious goal that would force us to think creatively about how to achieve it.There are a few big areas that we are focusing on initially. We need to do everything we can to reduce unnecessary energy use or materials in our own operations. That includes everything from making the lighting in our offices as efficient as possible to reducing the amount of packaging we use for our newspapers. The way we work has a big impact. Like almost everyone, we’ve been forced to find new ways of doing things this year in response to the coronavirus pandemic – increased use of technology is likely to help us reduce our environmental impact over the long term.We also need to make our supply chain as sustainable as possible. That means making sure that environmental considerations are consistently a key part of our purchasing decisions, and working with our suppliers to see how we can help them to reduce emissions within their own operations.We are clear that reducing our emissions as much as possible is the priority, but for the emissions that we cannot eliminate, we are looking at ways to remove the equivalent carbon from the atmosphere.While emissions are an important part of our sustainability performance, they are not the only thing we should address. For example, we can also look at things such as the amount of recycled or recyclable materials we use. While we are pleased with the progress we are making, we know that there are many areas that we have not fully considered yet and we expect our sustainability plans to evolve a lot as we learn more.glossary
Our readers are always a great source of ideas and challenging questions that force us to think harder about what we do. Since certifying as a socially aware B Corporation last year we have gained lots of new ideas and inspiration from fellow B Corps, and of course our journalism is a constant source of information about new developments and technologies that can help us improve.These measures are intended to demonstrate that we must back up words with action. The Guardian wants to lead the world with authoritative, compelling, revelatory journalism about the climate crisis. We can only credibly do so if we ourselves face up to the challenges that confront policymakers, businesses and households in these troubling times.• Julie Richards is delivery portfolio director and leads GNM’s initiative to achieve net zero emissions
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/05/guardian-net-zero-emissions-carbon-neutral-2030
