Oxford University Press (OUP) has published the latest Responsible Publishing Report outlining how—as a signatory to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Publishers Compact—it aligns many of its operational and publishing activities with the SDGs through its ongoing commitment to environmental sustainability, operating ethically, and supporting the communities it serves. The report also highlights how OUP continues to engage with some of the most important challenges facing society today, both through its publishing and across a range of initiatives supporting research and education.
Notable initiatives and activities delivered by OUP in 2023 /24 include:
• Encouraging sustainability and environmental action in science education through the development of the PISA 2025 Science Framework for the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
• Compiling the Oxford Dictionary of African American English (ODAAE)—a landmark scholarly initiative to document the lexicon of African American English, in collaboration with Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.
• Helping teachers to support refugees with their education, through the publication of a new research paper, ‘Supporting refugees: a primer for language teachers’ and a partnership with The Educational Equality Institute (TEEI).
• Extending OUP’s Raise a Reader initiative in partnership with the National Literacy Trust for a second year, to help tackle concerns around the widening vocabulary gap1.
The Oxford Language Report, 2023 highlighted that 4 in 10 pupils have fallen behind in vocabulary development.
In addition to its publishing highlights, OUP continues to make progress against its three environmental sustainability targets, which it aims to achieve by 2025, including a 6% reduction in carbon footprint versus the previous year; 90% of the paper it uses being certified as sustainable for print publications; and 85% of waste being recycled with some OUP offices achieving zero waste to landfill.
To further its educational mission, OUP also donated more than 292,000 books worldwide—many of which were distributed through its partnership with Book Aid International—and colleagues volunteered almost 1,000 hours to support relevant charitable initiatives.
The Responsible Publishing Report: Responsible Publishing Report 23/24 is available here.
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