DMGT and the Environment
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- Corporate Responsibility
- The Environment
The direct environmental impacts from most of our mostly office-based divisions are relatively low and arise mainly in our printing division.
Our offices around the world practise paper recycling, and more than half of office paper waste at DMGT headquarters is recycled. There are also schemes in place for the recycling of plastic cups, toner cartridges, mobile phones and IT equipment.
Our offices around the world practise paper recycling, and more than half of office paper waste at DMGT headquarters is recycled.
Our main focus is on how we manage the impact of our Harmsworth Printing arm in the UK and two presses in Hungary, where the key environmental impacts are waste generation (particularly waste newsprint), energy use, ink use, and paper purchasing.
All printing centres have environmental management policies. The use of energy, newsprint, ink and plates and waste disposal have cost implications and are, therefore, managed for reasons of good business sense, as well as to reduce their environmental impact.
Efficiency
The group achieved a marginal improvement in CO2 efficiency due to the closure of older and relatively less efficient print centres and the transfer of production to newer, more efficient sites.
Good improvements were made in water efficiency during the year with Harmsworth Printing making further strides to cut water use in its printing operations, following a previous study.
Waste
Waste newsprint and ink use is measured and reported to divisional board meetings on a monthly basis. Seventy per cent of the presses on which we print the Group’s titles are computer-to-plate processes, which result in less waste being produced in the printing process. Digital photography is used in ever increasing amounts.
One hundred per cent of production paper waste is recycled.
Targets for waste paper are set for each product printed. This percentage varies according to certain criteria, such as the numbers of copies required and edition changes. Actual waste volumes are compared against budgeted levels, with the results provided for monthly review at the appropriate board level. Newsprint production waste, as a percentage of total newspaper output, has fallen again this year.
One hundred per cent of production paper waste is recycled.
Sourcing
DMGT is aware of the responsibility it has along the supply chain, in particular for one of its largest purchases: newsprint. The Group has a central Newsprint Committee, allowing co-ordinated review of the environmental credentials of paper suppliers and the sourcing of their products.
Where virgin fibres are used in the paper manufacture, DMGT requires that the forests are certified either by the Forest Stewardship Council or the Pan European Forestry Commission, both of which run schemes that provide credible guarantees that the product comes from well managed forests.
DMGT sources its paper from European mills, most of which hold the environmental management standard ISO14001. Ninety-eight per cent of virgin fibre products are sourced from managed forests.
DMGT’s Carbon Footprint
During the past year DMGT has employed an external firm of consultants to carry out a Carbon Fototprint Analysis across the whole Group. They focused on every facility within the Group, gathering data for the base year of 2005/06 and then for the 2006/07 financial year. In 2005/06 the Group’s Carbon Footprint was 116,000 tonnes which increased to 119,000 tonnes in 2006/07. The results of the exercise to calculate the Group’s Carbon Footprint are being analysed with a view to developing a strategy for its reduction.