Climate change isn’t going away. As publishers of the research that drives progress and finds solutions, we have a shared responsibility to develop more sustainable publishing practices. This includes updating our policies and behaviours as organizations, as well as changing the way we publish, to reduce our carbon footprint. So, what are we doing to achieve these goals and how can we work together to Go Green?

How we’re investing in a greener future

We have company-wide commitments to reduce the effect of our operations on the environment. As part of the Wiley Impact program, which drives this agenda forward, we have a Wiley Research initiative called Go Green.  Go Green focuses on understanding the extent of our environmental footprint and making changes to reduce it. This includes updating policies and workflows (such as disseminating print copies in a more sustainable way) but also involves supporting colleagues and partners to evolve greener publishing practices in their journals.  

We are a CarbonNeutral® certified company across our Global Operations. While this is great, there is still more we can do! So, we have committed to set emission reductions to reach net zero through the Science Based Targets Initiative, a global body enabling businesses to set ambitious emissions reduction targets in line with the latest climate science. Read more about our progress and commitment to limiting our impact on the environment here. 

Offsetting print with Trees for the Future

A significant portion of our carbon footprint is driven by the distribution of our print products. We have an opportunity to drastically reduce our impact on the environment, by reducing print and proactively offsetting our carbon footprint. Thanks to the Go Green Fund and our collaboration with Trees for the Future, we plant a tree for every print copy we actively stop printing. By planting trees, we are actively creating carbon sinks that address the environmental impact of our print operations.

Together, we’ve made good progress to reduce our environmental footprint and eliminate print where it’s not needed. Thanks to this work – and your participation - the Go Green Fund has planted 505K trees in total since July 2021, in partnership with Trees for the Future. But there’s more to do, so we’re making a commitment:

Our goal is to plant 1 million trees in 3 years, by reducing our print volume by 1 million copies.

But we need your help! There is huge opportunity to reduce print on journals. If we work together to eliminate all unnecessary print, we can achieve this ambition.

Your members and their views on print

While it’s key that we make efforts to become more sustainable, we know it’s also important that you serve your members in the best way possible. With the 8^th Annual Society Member Survey, we can find insights that help us understand your members’ preferences around print and sustainability.

The findings are consistent with past years and show that 94% of members said they are happy with some form of online delivery, with only 6% wanting mostly or only print. While half of the respondents selected a combination of print and digital access as their preference, 60% said switching to digital-only would have no impact on the value of membership and 30% said although they would prefer print, digital would suffice.

Of those who consider the speed of delivery of the print version important, just under half said they would be willing to accept a slower delivery speed if there were environmental benefits, with an additional 33% saying they would consider it. Meanwhile, 69% of respondents are looking for societies to lead measures to improve environmental sustainability. This indicates that sustainability is a key element influencing the value of membership. For those who have never been a member of a society or who have left one, they would be more encouraged to (re)join a society that is a proactive sustainability champion. 

As well as helping you to make informed decisions around improving sustainability, this data will inform Go Green’s work to support our company-wide ambitions. We will print only when necessary and in the most sustainable way possible, continue to improve digital access to content, and provide support to societies around environmental issues in publishing.

Get personalized insights about your members, with Go Green’s survey

The Wiley Society Member Survey shows that, across all subject areas and regions, only 6% of society members prefer to access content in print only. Would you like to understand more about your community’s preferences around print? If you currently partner with us, Go Green can provide an anonymous survey on your behalf, to find out how your members want to access journal content. If you’re interested in getting personalized insights on your members’ preferences on print, please reach out to Molly Green at mogreen@wiley.com to request a survey for your society.