Sustainability Project
THE ECONOMIST GROUP
Defining the CO2e footprint for the Economist’s global distribution of it’s publications. Subsequently developing a tool to allow them to test shifting printer locations and distribution routes to see the environmental benefits of doing so.
Goal
TO DEFINE THE GLOBAL CO2 footprint for distribution and help reduce it
Contracted to: R.I.S.E (ROYAL INSTITUTE OF SWEDEN)
Date: 2020-2021
The project ran over two years and comprised of analysing their global CO2e footprint for their magazines both physically and also digitally. As a result of their Science Based Targets (SBTs) the group was also looking to tie together commercial decisions with environmental ones. Using Google Sheets, Maps and Geocode APIs, a tool was developed to allow printers to be relocated, publication weights to be adjusted, modes of transport to be changed and subscriptions to be converted from paper to electronic in key geographic zones.
The result was a shift in printer locations and the use of ships to transport paper over aeroplanes and long distance truck journeys to ship the final product. This localisation and in some instances shift to a digital product resulted in 60% CO2e reduction in their distribution footprint. It also influenced commercial decision making within the group.
