As a business with a reliance upon natural capital and forest products – the paper used to make its beloved book portfolio – DK Books fully recognises the importance of measuring and addressing its Scope 3 Greenhouse Gas emissions.
A process that has been underway for the past nine years, this is a team that knows only too well the need for a collaborative approach to tackle the licensing industry’s area of greatest impact. Getting a handle on Scope 3 emissions really will be a cross-sector and cross-industry effort – and that’s exactly what DK Books and a panel of speakers at next month’s Sustainability in Licensing Conference wants to address.
Ahead of the big event, we catch up with Nicola Torode, Head of Operational Compliance and Sustainability at DK Books to understand a whole lot more about the book publisher’s journey of sustainable development so far.
Hello Nicola! We’re very excited to have you join our panel session at SiLC this year – can you give us a bit of insight into DK’s approach to sustainability? Has the team got goals, ambitions, and a strategy?
At DK we recognise the detrimental impacts that the climate emergency is having on our environment and on global populations and know that we have a responsibility to take action. This means making a commitment to manage environmental issues effectively across the value chain and taking action to understand and minimise any negative impacts our business has on the environment. We’re committed to the prevention of deforestation, and to becoming climate neutral across our entire value chain by 2030.
What has that ‘journey’ with sustainability covered to date – what have been some of the milestone moments for yourself and the team?
As a business that relies on forest products – the paper that is used to make our beautiful books – we created a responsible paper and paperboard sourcing policy early on. We’ve held our Forest Stewardship Council (R) (FSC) Chain of Custody certification since 2006 and our products have been made from 100% FSC materials since January 1st 2021.
We started measuring our carbon impacts in 2014 and our climate neutral target is set against a baseline of 2018. We achieved the ISO14001 certification for our UK Head Office earlier this year (2023)
What are some of the key impact areas that you guys are looking right now – across scope 1 and 2?
Actually, scope 1 and 2 represent the smallest part of our footprint – now only about 1% of our footprint relates to scope 1 and 2 emissions. We moved our UK and German offices over to renewable electricity back in 2015, and our other key global offices moved to renewables in 2022. We also took steps to review and reduce impacts from lighting, waste management, office printing and other tech impacts.
What has DK’s approach been to measuring or tracking those scope 3 emissions so far? What do you think is key to understanding and measuring – and ultimately, reducing – those?
We’ve learnt a lot about the process of measuring scope 3 emissions since we started in 2014. It requires planning, access to quality data and collaboration. Our biggest scope 3 impacts sit with the paper that we use and with our print manufacturing – so building good relationships with these partners to ensure data is shared, data is improved, and mutual reduction goals are understood has been vital.
How is this reflective of where the children’s publishing sector is in general with the whole sustainable development journey?
I believe that the publishing sector has taken great strides in this area. The Publishing Declares initiative for example invites anyone involved in the publishing sector to make 5 commitments including taking action on climate and protecting life on land.
The UK Publishers Association have also been working to develop a carbon calculator tool to support members of the PA in their journey, and the Book Chain Project works directly with mills to understand the forest sources of papers in the supply chain, as well as with printers to collate environmental data.
What’s the focus for you right now?
Not necessarily a hurdle, but certainly a focus right now is on supporting and educating our colleagues around sustainability and the actions they can take. We’re promoting the notion of collective responsibility as we recognise that the creation of sustainable products and ability to reach our climate neutral target is not something that one person, one team or one department can achieve alone.
We want to embed sustainable design at the heart of all we do and are developing some really interesting internal training and tools to support our colleagues on this journey.
About Nicola
Nicola Torode, head of operational compliance and sustainability at DK Books will be joining an illustrious panel of licensors and licensing partners at next month’s Sustainability in Licensing Conference to discuss the emerging methodologies and metrics around getting the measure of the industry’s Scope 3 emissions.
With over 24 years’ experience in the operational space, Nicola has build a career that prioritises responsible and ethical business practices throughout the global value chain. She is passionate about driving change and working collaboratively to achieve sustainability objectives.
