Building a more sustainable publishing future together
Liz Martin explains some of the strategies that led to a 36 per cent reduction in carbon emissions at IOP Publishing
Making the academic publishing sector more sustainable is one of the most rewarding parts of my role. Every carbon reduction we can achieve helps shape a better future for the scientific community we support and for the generations that will follow. As a mother, I’m acutely aware that the choices we make today are about safeguarding the world they will inherit, as well as the wider community we serve.
We can’t cut what we can’t count
When we, at IOP Publishing (IOPP), began our sustainability journey in earnest back in 2020, our first step was to map out our carbon footprint in detail. It meant digging into the data and asking questions to really get to grips with the impact we, as a society publisher, have on the environment. We needed to understand where exactly our emissions were coming from before we could take action to reduce them.
With the support of our partner ClimatePartner and as a participant in DIMPACT, we got into the weeds of benchmarking our operations against industry standards and setting science-based targets. These collaborations gave us the tools and insights to move beyond good intentions and into measurable progress.
Year-on-year reductions
Now, five years on, our efforts have resulted in a 36% reduction in carbon emissions compared to our 2020 baseline. The most impactful steps we’ve taken on our sustainability journey include our move to a new head office, our digital-first publication strategy and our engagement with our supply chain to ensure sustainable practices and commitment. Although our move to The Distillery, our new Bristol headquarters, in 2022 initially caused a temporary rise in carbon emissions as we operated two sites in parallel, the new office is a modern, energy-efficient space designed for long-term reductions, which we are already seeing.
At the same time, our digital-first publishing strategy continues to deliver substantial savings across the content lifecycle, reducing the need for resource-intensive print processes and distribution of physical products. I’m proud of our achievements so far, but we won’t stop here. Together with our Sustainability Taskforce we are committed to make the coming years a success too, even though some emissions fall outside our direct control.
Working with our supply chain
In 2024, 99% of our emissions were Scope 3, which includes purchased goods and services, business travel, and employee commuting. These three categories together account for nearly 90% of our total footprint, making them our top priorities for action.
Tackling Scope 3 emissions is complex, but it’s also where we can make the biggest difference. We are focusing on working with our suppliers and colleagues to reduce emissions in these hotspots. We do that by engaging directly with vendors and asking them to report on their environmental impact. That way we are creating a ripple effect of awareness and action that extends far beyond our own footprint.
Engaging colleagues
Engaging colleagues is another priority. Without bringing them on the journey with us, we won’t be able to achieve our targets. Over the years we’ve helped colleagues to take actions. From travelling to work in a more sustainable way to organising talks with world-leading environmentalists and activists as guest speakers such as Laura Young, known as ‘Waste Less Laura’, who shared her insights on how to live with less waste. We also learned from climate change expert Mark Maslin, about the science and politics of climate chang and Jojo Mehta, who is regular speaker at United Nations summits, delivering a talk about Stop Ecocide International which aims to make the mass destruction of ecosystems a prosecutable, international crime against peace.
To encourage further personal action, we also introduced Giki Zero to all our colleagues. GikiZero is a tool that helps individuals understand their carbon footprint and take practical steps to reduce it. With the help of the tool, many colleagues made changes that contributed to lowering our overall impact.
Similarly, in 2024, several colleagues took part in challenges like the Employee Race to Zero, a global two-week sustainability competition with the aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Over 30 organisations completed 5,307 activities, avoiding 33,960 kg of carbon which is the equivalent of 890 short-haul flights. Our team placed 9th by completing 71 steps and taking 202 actions.
Publishing for a greener future
Impact of academic research is a key motivator for authors, funders, institutions and publishers. It’s easy to talk about “impact” in abstract terms, but at the end of the day, it really does come down to getting good ideas into the world and into the hands of people who can use them. That’s a big part of why IOPP has signed on to the UN SDG Publishers Compact. As a signatory we are committed to making knowledge accessible and push important discoveries in support of the UN SDGs.
Following that, we created our Sustainability Collection which now consists of more than 10,000 freely available articles that support the SDGs. These papers were downloaded millions of times last year which shows that people are actively looking for trustworthy information about sustainability and equity. Every download teaches someone something new, questions something old, or provides data they can use in their own work.
Another area that’s been evolving quickly is our Environmental Research series. What began as a single journal has expanded into a whole family of open access titles, each focused on a different piece of the environmental puzzle: climate, ecology, energy, food systems, health, infrastructure and water. The series has become this cross disciplinary meeting place for ideas that might not have crossed paths otherwise and where the latest environmental insights are shared.
And then there’s our newest addition: Sustainability Science and Technology. This journal also brings together different disciplines in support of a greener future. The hope is that by bringing together perspectives from engineering, chemistry, physics, materials science and environmental science, we can help surface solutions that don’t fit neatly into one category. Sustainability challenges are messy and interconnected which means that the research tackling them should cover the breadth and complexity of these challenges too.
Working on these projects has made me more optimistic about what publishing can contribute to global sustainability. Together, we’re proving that research publishing can and must play a role in building a more sustainable, diverse, and equitable future.
For me, this work is about more than metrics and milestones. It’s about leaving behind a legacy for future generations, for the scientific community and for the planet we all share.
If there’s one thing I’ve learned as a sustainability lead, it’s that sustainability is a shared responsibility. Whether you’re a researcher, a publisher, a policymaker, or simply someone who cares about the world we’re shaping, our actions matter. The future is not something we inherit, but it’s something we build together.
Liz Martin is Sustainability Lead at IOP Publishing