SDGs and the VU Library: Publisher News

SDG publishers compact logoSDG Publishers Compact

The SDG Publishers compact was launched at the 2020 Frankfurt Book Fair. It is designed to inspire action, for publishers to develop sustainable practices and act as champions of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Signatories to the SDG Publishers Compact commit to:

  1. Committing to the SDGs: Stating sustainability policies and targets on our website, including adherence to this Compact; incorporating SDGs and their targets as appropriate
  2. Actively promoting and acquiring content that advocates for themes represented by the SDGs such as equality, sustainability, justice and safeguarding and strengthening the environment.
  3. Annually reporting on progress towards achieving SDGs, sharing data and contribute to benchmarking activities, helping share best practices and identify gaps that still need to be addressed.
  4. Nominating a person who will promote SDG progress, acting as a point of contact and coordinating the SDG themes throughout the organization.
  5. Raising awareness and promoting the SDGs among staff to increase awareness of SDG-related policies and goals and encouraging projects that will help achieve the SDGs by 2030.
  6. Raising awareness and promoting the SDGs among suppliers, to advocate for SDGs and to collaborate on areas that need innovative actions and solutions.
  7. Becoming an advocate to customers and stakeholders by promoting and actively communicating about the SDG agenda through marketing, websites, promotions and projects.
  8. Collaborating across cities, countries, and continents with other signatories and organizations to develop, localize and scale projects that will advance progress on the SDGs individually or through their Publishing Association.
  9. Dedicating budget and other resources towards accelerating progress for SDG-dedicated projects and promoting SDG principles.
  10. Taking action on at least one SDG goal, either as an individual publisher or through your national publishing associations and sharing progress annually.

IPA Publishers and the Sustainable Development Goals

The International Publishers Association is the world's largest federation of national, regional and specialist publishers' associations. Their report "Publishers and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals" from October 2020 gives a great overview of how publishing activity contributes to achieving the goals, the current state of play, and some inspiration for the 'decade of action'. There is also a good video overview by Michiel Kolman, IPA Presidential Envoy for Diversity and Inclusion.

Elsevier

Reed Elsevier Lexis Nexis (RELX) is best known in academic publishing as Elsevier, a leading publisher of journals, monographs, reference works and textbooks, as well as the databases ScienceDirect and Scopus. They are a signatory of the SDG Publishers Compact and have a wide variety of SDG related resources.

The RELX SDG Resource Centre has a wealth of resources and data from the wider group on publishing and the SDGs.

The Elsevier Sustainability Science Hub is more focussed on Academic Researchers, with reports, tools and data, and ideas on how they can contribute to achieving the goals.

 
 

Elsevier

Emerald Publishing Group are also signatories of the SDG Publishers Compact and sponsors of the 2020 Green Gown Awards. They have developed a manifesto for 'real impact' which includes helping to achieve the SDGs.

Springer Nature

Springer Nature are one of the largest Academic publishers in the world. They are a signatory of the SDG Publishers Compact and have a Sustainable Development Goals Programme to drive their efforts.

 

Taylor & Francis

Taylor and Francis are a large academic publisher and signatory of the SDG Publishers Compact. They produce the SDG Online product which you will find on the Library Resources tab of this guide. They are owned by Informa who also publish Routledge books.