Environmental Impacts
Managing the impacts of climate change is among the most pressing issues across society today.
At Informa, we are taking accelerated steps to reduce our carbon and waste footprint and to help our customers understand their own climate impacts, championing the shift to a lower carbon future across the specialist markets we work in.
We’re moving Faster to Zero
As a company working in knowledge and information sector, Informa's direct consumption of natural resources is relatively limited, and under our FasterForward programme, we are working towards being a zero waste and net zero carbon business by 2030.
We call this Faster to Zero.
We are reducing the emissions associated with our business as far as possible, by being more efficient with energy consumption and using renewable electricity. We are also reducing the emissions associated with our supply chain and customer use of our products and services as far as practical.
Where emissions are unavoidable, we purchase high quality carbon offsets, supporting projects around the world that have been certified as reducing or avoiding greenhouse gases being emitted.
Faster to Zero Commitments
Progress & Highlights
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Informa is a certified CarbonNeutral® Company, in line with The CarbonNeutral Protocol -
96% of Informa offices are powered by renewable electricity -
100% of our business travel is carbon offset -
We have reduced our Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by nearly 80% since 2017 -
MSCI has rated Informa AAA for ESG performance -
We have set Science Based Targets for reducing carbon emissions at the most ambitious 1.5°C level
Faster to Zero in action
The largest opportunities to reduce waste and the use of natural resources are in our event operations and printed books and journals, so this is where we focus.
Faster to Zero in action
Printing smarter
Most of the research we publish is bought in a digital format.
Where customers choose to buy printed books, we take an approached called print-on-demand. This means we print the amounts that are needed near to where our customers are based. It reduces storage and transportation and the energy these require, and makes it less likely we’ll need to recycle products that aren’t bought.
Where customers choose to receive printed journals, we’re trialling alternatives to plastic packaging such as polywrap covers. Customer feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Over 75% of our mailed journals are now plastic free and we are committed to reaching 100%, saving millions of plastic wraps each year.
Better events with Better Stands
Better Stands was created by Informa and is now an industry-wide campaign.
Our goal is to phase out all single use and disposable stands worldwide by encouraging customers and event contractors to use modular and reusable stands. We train our event colleagues on this, so they can support customers along the way.
Better Stands shows how sustainable business can be better business too. Reusable structures not only reduce waste; they reduce the time it takes to build and take down stands, reducing the cost of construction and design.
Outside of stands, we’re continuously working to make our events more sustainable. This includes using renewable energy to power events, where it’s available in our host cities and venues, making recycling as widely available as possible, and encouraging suppliers to be more efficient in areas such as logistics.
Read more on our sustainable events programmes in the Sustainability Report
Partnering for success
We don’t work alone.
Our suppliers and partners play a major role in reducing our use of energy, waste and water and making sure we’re all using natural resources responsibly and sustainably.
We collaborate with event venues, contractors, paper producers and all our major partners on the goals we have in common.
For some programmes we more formally assess or audit our partners too, to make sure shared standards are being met.
Supporting worldwide projects through carbon offsetting
In the cases where we cannot yet avoid carbon emissions, we work with the specialists at Climate Impact Partners to purchase high quality carbon offsets. Through these offsets, we support a number of fully validated projects around the world that reduce or avoid greenhouse gases being emitted, and which often bring other benefits to the local community too.
Some projects we support
Teak Afforestation
Tree Planting, Mexico
A tree planting project to create fresh breeze teak plantations across several states in Mexico. The plantations capture and store large amounts of carbon dioxide. Teak afforestation, a sustainable timber, also helps meet the demand for quality wood products from well managed plantation forests.
American Grasslands
Conserving grasslands, USA
A project that creates financial incentives for conserving grasslands, which both store carbon and support rare and endangered endemic species. The area is also an outdoor school that teaches fifth graders botany, zoology and geology.
Rimba Raya Biodiversity Reserve, Borneo
Preserving carbon-dense tropical peat swamp
A project that focuses on halting deforestation and preserving carbon-dense tropical peat swamp. This work also supports the endangered Borneo Orangutan and the community living in the area.
Domestic Energy Systems, India
Solar lighting and charging systems
A project that distributes and maintains solar lighting and charging systems and clean biomass cookstoves to rural households. It helps limit the use of kerosene lamps and open stoves, reducing emissions, indoor smoke and household costs while helping children study in the evenings.
Better Stands
Better Stands is an Informa-created and now industry-wide campaign that encourages companies to choose modular and reusable stands, instead of single-use or disposable stands, when they exhibit at events.
We are working with customers to phase out all disposable stands, worldwide. It's a key way we will reach our waste reduction goals.
Better Stands also shows how sustainable business can be better business too. Reusable structures not only reduce waste but they can reduce the time it takes to construct and take down stands, reduce the cost of design and construction and allow for investment in higher quality and more successful stands.
Packaging-free
Most of the advanced research we publish is purchased in a digital format. Where customers choose to receive printed versions of Taylor & Francis journals, we’ve successfully trialled alternatives to plastic packaging including mailing copies with no packaging at all.
Customer feedback to removing plastic packaging has been overwhelmingly positive, and we are committed to mailing 100% of our journals plastic-free, saving millions of plastic wraps each year.
