HBG’s Green Progress Report for 2019

New York–December 20, 2020

Hachette Book Group (HBG) is dedicated to protecting the environment and to the responsible use of natural resources. We are committed to publishing this annual report on our progress toward the goals laid out in our environmental policy. Download the full report here.

Reducing Climate Impacts

We are continuing to optimize wherever possible to reduce our carbon footprint, with an annual reduction goal of 2.5% for the 2017–2020 period. In 2019, HBG’s carbon footprint declined 3%, due primarily to decreases in business travel, mailings, office paper, and improvements in electricity usage in our Boulder office.

Increasing Certified and Recycled Fiber

In 2019, 100% of HBG’s overall paper usage came from FSC (Forest Stewardship Certified) and SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative) fiber, exceeding our combined FSC/SFI goal of 95%.

For the 2017-2020 period we have had an aggressive target for recycled fiber, aiming for recycled to represent 20% of our overall paper use. In 2019, recycled fiber was 9.3% of our overall paper usage, an increase of 1.5% over the prior year. We remain committed to sourcing recycled papers when they are available in the market and to push our suppliers to integrate recycled fiber into more paper products.

Fiber Testing

HBG began fiber testing in the second half of 2016. Thus far, we have not found any fiber sourced from at risk areas or tropical hardwood forests in our title sampling. In 2019, we did more aggressive fiber testing and enforced strict rules on new papers outside of the PREPS (Publisher’s Database for Responsible Environmental Paper Sourcing) rated papers. HBG will continue random fiber testing (to include new papers and substitutes) and will monitor results and manage our supply chain to align with our strict environmental policy.

Protecting Endangered Forests

Our goal in this area is to continue HBG’s diligent oversight of our supply chain to ensure that we avoid using any controversial sources of paper fiber and require our paper to be free of unacceptable sources as defined by FSC’s controlled wood standard. We regularly discuss paper sourcing with our suppliers and remind them of their strict adherence to HBG’s paper and environmental standards.

Monitoring and Reporting

HBG’s environmental initiatives span many different areas, including paper sourcing, office recycling, energy usage, product transportation, and packaging. We are guided by our strong policy and our commitment to communicating consistently about our progress on our green goals.

Hachette Book Group CEO Michael Pietsch said, “We made significant progress toward our environmental targets last year, with a reduction in Hachette Book Group’s carbon footprint, 100% certified fiber usage in our books, and increased recycled fiber usage.  We also changed our packing materials to a more environmentally friendly material and eliminated expanding foam. HBG’s new goals for 2021-2023 will keep us focused on continued improvements in paper sourcing, production, and energy use. Social and environmental responsibility is a core value for our parent company, Hachette Livre, and I’m proud to see our momentum in the US contributing to their progress globally.”