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Each year we set ourselves targets to help us become the kind of company we strive to be: one that is brave, imaginative and decent. You can read below about how we performed against them in 2007.
We continued to improve our ranking in the Business in the Community Corporate Responsibility (CR) Index for 2006. Our score has risen from 58% in 2002 to 95% in 2006 which means that we achieved the highest ranking (Platinum) in the CR Index – placing us joint sector leader. The 2007 results will be published in May. We improved our status in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for 2007 by being named media sector global leader, and maintained inclusion in the FTSE4GOOD Index Series.
Our environment executive visited distribution centres in parts of the Far East and provided advice to local management on environmentally friendly packaging materials. We continued our programme to consolidate our global shipping freight and deliver both cost savings and reduced environmental impact.
Audits were carried out at our main book printers in France and Spain and our environment executive and production and purchasing management visited book printers in India, China, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia.
We continued the progress made in previous years to increase our use of paper with recycled content and carrying Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certification. We expanded our chain of custody programmes to include our Dorling Kindersley business.
Plans were formulated in both the UK and US and actions have commenced to start to meet this objective. We have widened the scope of what we include in our Greenhouse Gas Inventory and carried out a review of our data collection process in 2007. Pearson companies emitted around 200,000 metric tonnes of CO2 caused by activity over which we have control. However, this figure excludes the effect of portfolio changes in 2007 and early 2008 which means we expect it to take a bit longer to meet our commitment.
In 2007, we set a target to move at least 50 people internationally between companies and countries. We achieved 67 moves and 50 of these moves included an emerging market. These assignments are part of the New Directions short-term international assignment programme, and help Pearson to take a step towards developing new and emerging markets and becoming a more international company. In 2008 our target is to move at least 100 people and to develop this programme in each part of the business.
We have increased the number of people we hire from minorities in the US and the UK, expanded our minority intern programmes on both sides of the Atlantic and added new titles to our African-American and Hispanic lists. But we do not have enough executives at middle and senior management levels from minority backgrounds and we continue to work hard to correct this. In 2008, we will continue to run our internship programme aimed at attracting ethnic minority candidates into the media and publishing industry, and place an increased focus on the recruitment and retention of managers from diverse backgrounds.
Since its launch the fund has supported several projects, including the Citi-FT Financial Education Summit in Delhi, the establishment of a Media Centre at the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa and digital arts training and support for non-profit organisations in Africa.
In 2007 Booktime gave 700,000 book packs to children across the UK and Pearson again served as the national sponsor of Jumpstart’s Read for the Record campaign, which set a new world record with almost 400,000 people registering to read the same book on the same day.