Elsevier, a global leader in research publishing and information analytics, has announced its commitment to becoming net zero by 2040, signing the Climate Pledge together with parent company RELX, to reach the target at least a decade ahead of the Paris Climate Agreement’s goal of 2050.
In 2020, Elsevier was net zero for its own direct emissions (Scope 1 and 2) and business travel (part of Scope 3)1. By joining The Climate Pledge alongside other signatories, Elsevier sets out its accountability to achieve net zero carbon across all its emissions by no later than 2040. This announcement further reinforces Elsevier’s longstanding efforts to address the global climate emergency and builds upon the company’s science-based target to limit the rise in average global temperatures.
To achieve its goal, Elsevier will set a clear target to reduce carbon emissions resulting from business travel by 50% before 2025, based on a 2019 baseline, saving around 10,000 tonnes of CO2e emissions annually; establish an ambitious climate action program focused on sizing and reducing indirect emissions from suppliers (Scope 3 emissions); form a Climate Advisory Board of distinguished research experts to help identify the challenges, explore best practices and initiatives that will accelerate progress in climate change research; leverage its data analytics capabilities to map the net zero pathways in renewable energy with its latest finding due to be released in October 2021; focus on our leadership in publishing content on sustainability science and by launching interdisciplinary journals covering climate science such as One Earth and The Lancet Planetary Health; and create Sustain, an employee-driven resource group to further embed sustainable principles and practices throughout the company.
Elsevier’s wider sustainability efforts focus on accelerating progress towards the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including being an early signatory to the SDG Publishers Compact and the release of the landmark SDG Report, The Power of Data to Advance the SDGs . The report offers unique insights and initiatives, many developed together with partners to map the state of research and integration of sex and gender within each SDG area, including SDG 13 Climate Action.
Elsevier has also launched an SDG tool on SciVal, its web-based analytics solution that provides access to the research performance of global research institutions and their researchers. The SDG tool enables researchers to investigate, understand and analyze SDG research globally to develop existing partnerships or identify potential new opportunities for collaboration.
Elsevier will also publish a report analyzing the global impact of research around energy-related emissions, expected in October 2021.
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