Hodder Children's Books

Ethical and Environmental Policy

Introduction

Hachette Livre UK is committed to working with environmental organisations to ensure that its policies and practices not only protect the environment but also improve it wherever practical. Our environmental policy is part of a broader range of social responsibility policies that include a focus on working conditions at our own sites and those of suppliers, a responsible attitude to our suppliers, equal opportunities and charitable giving.

Our view is that care for the environment goes hand in hand with good business practice and we are continually developing and revising a sustainable publishing model to satisfy ever more ambitious aspirations in both these respects.

The area in which we believe we can make the biggest difference is in the sourcing and conservation of paper, board and packaging. We are profoundly concerned that our use of these materials should not destroy or degrade ancient forest habitats that are home to people, animals, birds and plants and we positively reject irresponsible logging. Furthermore, as the largest publisher in the UK, with sister companies all over the world and with extensive contact with other like-minded publishers, we believe that our active participation in reform can lead to our being able to make a difference to an extent beyond that which has yet been achieved by other publishers whose businesses are smaller and simpler.

The following statement of detail is being issued following consultation with Greenpeace for whose help we are grateful.

Paper

We expect our suppliers of paper sourced all over the world to declare to us the sources of the paper used in printing our books. Hachette Livre UK is a founding member of PREPS (Publishers' database for Responsible Environmental Paper Sourcing) which helps in this regard by providing robust and transparent means of differentiating between the environmental credentials of a very wide variety of types of paper.

We will not knowingly use paper sourced from any ancient or endangered forests and we are committed to the phasing out of any particularly controversial sources of paper fibre.

Where practical and viable, we will give preference to post-consumer recycled fibre and we aim to ensure that any virgin fibre used is certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). We are working with our suppliers to increase the availability of commercially viable and attractive papers that maximise post-consumer recycled content.

We support the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), the leading international forest management certification association. The FSC has undertaken remarkable work to establish �chain of custody' from forest to pulp to paper so that publishers can much more reliably establish the true source of their papers than was the case even a few years ago.

Soon after Hachette Livre UK was formed, we began a process towards gaining full FSC certification. Such certification confirms that we have in place watertight training procedures to ensure that we maximise our knowledge of the sources of our paper and only indicate that FSC paper is being used in the production of our titles when we have full supporting evidence. Because of the size, diversity and federal structure of our group, it has not yet proved practical for us to achieve blanket certification; we are therefore now working to achieve this certification on a company by company basis.

We expect the Little, Brown Book Group to achieve FSC certification by the beginning of 2008 and for the other Hachette Livre UK publishers, including Headline, Hodder & Stoughton, Hodder Education and Orion to achieve certification later the same year.

In the meantime, despite shortage of supply, we started over a year ago to switch an increasing proportion of the paper we use to FSC-certified grades. Little, Brown Book Group has been printing all its paperbacks on FSC-certified paper since the beginning of 2007 and by the end of this year hardbacks will follow suit. The wider Hachette Livre UK group is a client of Paper Management Services for the procurement of the majority of its trade publishing papers and we expect 25% of all such papers used to have been FSC-certified by the end of 2007. Our aim is to move substantially all our trade publishing onto FSC-certified papers by the end of 2009, and simultaneously to have made major progress in the same direction for our educational and illustrated publishing, on the assumption that many more FSC-certified papers will be commercially available in that timescale.

Most of the board used in the production of books published by our trade divisions is FSC-certified via the relevant supplier.

While we consider that FSC certification is the highest available standard, if we are unable to use it in the short term we universally apply other standards to ensure that our paper sourcing does not run contrary to our environmental principles. The Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification Schemes (PEFC) provides a framework for the mutual recognition of different national and regional certification schemes.

It is our preference to use paper mills, printers and other suppliers who have gained or who have applied for EMS ISO 14001 accreditation. IS0 14001 is an internationally accepted standard that sets out effective Environmental Management Systems recognising a commitment to effective management of waste, careful use of energy and ensuring recycling processes are in line with government standards.

We take environmental issues and good practice very seriously at our distribution centres. Bookpoint has EMS IS0 14001 accreditation and Littlehampton Book Services will follow suit.

We are committed to using recycled and FSC-certified paper for photocopying, business correspondence and marketing materials within all our offices.

Ethical Trading

Hachette Livre is also a founding member of Prelims (Publishers Resolution for Ethical International Manufacturing Standards). This publishing initiative has now been widely adopted by publishers throughout the UK and has adopted the code of conduct used by the International Council of Toy Industries. It is a practical, thorough and fair system of monitoring conditions and treatment of workers in factories outside the EU and we aim to only use suppliers who have passed the audit or who are working with us to gain accreditation.

In addition Hachette Childrens' Books ensures that all books with play value have been tested and have passed the European Safety Standard EN71.

Recycling

We recycle as much paper, packaging and other waste as possible. Our UK warehouses recycle well over 90% of their waste. Recycling is a major priority in publishing offices too. For example, our head office in the Euston Road recycles over 80% of its waste and we review our practices continually to ensure we maintain and, if possible, exceed our high targets in this area.

Carbon Emissions

The overwhelming majority of scientific opinion confirms a direct link between carbon dioxide emissions and global warming. For general environmental reasons we believe that emissions of many other substances into the atmosphere, water, and land are to be avoided as far as possible and we are therefore attending to the processes by which our source materials are made as well as to the wood used in their making and to the carbon dioxide emissions involved in the wider business of publishing.

We are determined to reduce our carbon emissions. In the short term, we have embarked upon a number of initiatives: persuading our head office landlords to re-engineer our office lighting system so that night-time lighting is restricted to areas occupied by members of staff, introducing dual fuel �hybrid' cars into our company car fleet and encouraging reduced use of cars. Energy-saving is a priority at our distribution centres with a Green Team ensuring that machinery, lights and other items are used efficiently and switched off when not in use. This is monitored very carefully and substantial energy savings have been made year on year.

We are commissioning the Carbon Trust to advise us on a long-term strategy to improve our energy management and to identify other ways in which we can reduce our emissions.

Environmental Projects

We will engage with environmental groups to further our aim to improve the environment, probably by tree-planting projects similar to those to which we contribute in Australia, where � through the environmental agency Greenfleet and the Murray Darling Rescue and other projects it supports � we have arranged for our carbon emissions to be matched by the planting of trees.

Monitoring and Reporting

Hachette Livre UK has an Environmental and Ethical Board which meets at least six times a year to lead, monitor and report on the group's environmental and ethical initiatives. This board reports to the main board, at which these matters are standing agenda items. Further, the majority of our divisions also have their own Environmental Committees addressing more local needs. We intend to report fully and regularly on the progress we are making on all environmental initiatives.

Tim Hely Hutchinson, CEO of Hachette Livre UK said:
�Our environmental policy demonstrates that care for the environment and good business practices go hand in hand. We know that environmental issues are hugely important to our staff, our customers and our authors and I am delighted that we have brought together the best practices of all our companies into one policy for the group.�

Belinda Fletcher, Senior Forests Campaigner at Greenpeace UK said:
�By choosing recycled fibre and paper certified by the Forest Stewardship Council for their books, Hachette Livre UK is making great strides towards being a truly forest friendly company. Greenpeace welcomes Hachette Livre UK's ethical and environmental policy � once implemented, it will be great news both for the environment and for consumers.�