Vicky Evans, Head of Sustainability
- Cambridge University Press & Assessment
Annie Harvey, Operations Manager, Journals -
Cambridge University Press
Andri Johnston, Digital Projects & Open Access Books Editor - Cambridge University Press and Assessment
As a department of the University of Cambridge, Cambridge University Press and Assessment shares the University’s aim of contributing to a sustainable future for all. Setting a target of reducing our energy-related carbon emissions to zero by 2048 is one way in which we aim to add social and environmental value to the world and minimise impact on the environment and the communities where we operate. Many other universities represented at UKSG will have similar targets and we have much to learn from each other about how to achieve them. Working collaboratively with our partners, suppliers and stakeholders is essential to scale up global progress. Find out how we are addressing the challenge of environmental sustainability at CUP&A, including how we are decarbonising buildings, analysing our own Scope 3 data and tackling the knotty problems of reducing emissions associated with both print and the digital hosting of publications.
3. Access to climate education
Building sustainability skills
Fair and sustainable sourcing
Low impact packaging
Reducing waste
Reducing carbon emissions
We inform on
climate change whilst
constantly improving
our environmental impact
4. Our carbon commitment
Cambridge University Press & Assessment has committed to
being carbon zero on all energy-related emissions by 2048,
with a 72% reduction by 2030
5. What are you working on?
Intiative %
Energy reduction (e.g. LED lighting) 76%
Switching to digital first policies 45%
Replacing maintenance and transport vehicles with electric vans,
buses and trucks
31%
Double glazing improvements 25%
Improved insulation 22%
Other (please specify) 21%
Purchasing renewable-only electricity 19%
Building solar or wind installations to generate its own electricity 19%
We are not actively working on this 15%
Degasification of buildings 13%
Don’t know 3%
6. What are you working on?
31%
Electric vehicles
25%
Double Glazing
22%
Improved insulation
76%
Energy reduction
45%
Digital first
policies
19%
Renewable Energy
10. Targets into Action…
• Journals to
online- only
• Member print
Traditional & DDP
Subscriptions
10%
Member Print
84%
Gratis
6%
Total Print Copies by Subscription Type
Traditional & DDP Subscriptions Member Print Gratis
11. Minimise impact of remaining print
Packaging
Shipping
Print materials
and methods
Wastage
Optimise print runs
13. Moving to online-only
Conversion Considerations
• Partners
• Community
• Location
Customer Insights
• Telemarketing
feedback
• Renewal rates
• Ad hoc
feedback
14. Our Progress To Date
0
100000
200000
300000
400000
500000
600000
700000
800000
900000
1000000
2020 2021 2022 2023 2024 2025 2026 2027 2028 2029 2030
#
Print
Copies
Volume Year
Cambridge Journals Print Copies - Actual vs Target
Target Print Copies Actual Print Copies*
2030 Target
*2022 & 2023 are forecast figures until such time as all the year's volumes complete publication
17. To understand the impact of making certain decisions around our products and platforms on the planet
and our customers, and to use this information to make informed choices.
DIMPACT project & tool
= reporting
Digital sustainability
= real world impact
18. What did we do?
Aim to identify areas with the highest emissions
Project with the DIMPACT tool to calculate the carbon emissions of our publishing
workflow and the academic eco-system of websites for 2019 and 2020
Published article in Learned Publishing journal
19. Quick Poll: Where do most emissions come from?
Cloud hosting Networking End users
A B C
20. DIMPACT project 2021 results
Majority from end user
devices, particularly
laptops and desktops
43% in 2020, 37% in 2019
customers accessing
from outside “Global
North”
2021: 91.6 tons
2020: 81.2 tons
2019: 64.4 tons
22. Where our emissions come from
heavier than standard pages
3-6x
Identified “heavy” pages
Pages with large amounts of images, videos and GIFs
Creation of
Standards and Guidelines
23. Online Events
100 participants
avg. per session
14 countries
73% UK & 17% US
15-20kg of CO2
Carbon emissions
from conference
ALPSP Redux 2022
2 day conference
1
hour long car
journey
56
Round trip flights
London to NYC
24. What does this mean for libraries?
53% moving to
Cloud Hosting for
institutional
repositories
BUT
Only 3% moving to
Green Cloud
Hosting