Commitments: Environment & Sustainabililty

Penguin Random House volunteers ran this year’s Botanical Book Bike at Madison Square Park, choosing a children’s book from the bike and reading every half hour from 12pm – 2pm. During non-storytime periods, volunteers helped the Botanical Book Bike Associate (a Madison Square Park Conservancy staff member) answer general questions about the books, lending/borrowing procedure, and other inquiries. For more information about the Botanical Book Bike, click here.

On Thursday, May 30, 20 NYC-based Penguin Random House employees volunteered with the Madison Square Park Conservancy.  Volunteers engaged in some light physical activity and got in the weeds—both literally and figuratively—to plant hundreds of blooming plants in the park for visitors to enjoy. To learn more about Madison Square Park Conservancy, click here.

In September 2021, Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial in Miami got together in-person for the first time since the start of the pandemic to lead a beach cleanup at Matheson Hammock Park. We partnered with Waterway Advocates, a nonprofit organization that develops and hosts meaningful community service and learning opportunities to empower individuals from all backgrounds to embrace their role in the conservation of the environment. 

At our warehouses in the U.S., we are working to minimize the use of plastic filler inside our outbound cartons. In our Crawfordsville, IN, Hampstead, MD, Reno, NV and Westminster, MD facilities, we are using 100% curbside recyclable paper filler inside our loose cartons. The innovative shape of the paper padding provides a more sustainable option, while still protecting our books. We have ten paper cushioning machines to produce carton filler packaging in two of our distribution centers, with plans to add more in Crawfordsville, IN, and Westminster, MD. We are aiming to reduce plastic filler by 90% by the end of 2023. 

 

Corporate Services and the Sustainability Subcommittee have formed a Zero Waste Task Force to execute on a long-term Zero Waste initiative for the company’s New York City office, rethinking how we reduce, divert, and dispose of waste that ends up on-site. Achieving zero waste means conserving all resources with responsible production, consumption, and reuse of materials with no discharges to land, water, or air that threaten the environment or human health. We have been tracking our waste diversion for 1745 Broadway on a monthly basis for over a year now to inform and quantify our waste diversion efforts. We diverted 167 tons of items from landfill primarily through recycling and donation programs in the first 12 months of tracking.

We care deeply about the planet and creating a business that gives back to nature. In 2022 we partnered with One Tree Planted, a 501(c)3 nonprofit dedicated to global reforestation that plants trees to restore nature and biodiversity. As part of this partnership, for every new employee that joins PRH U.S., we donate to have a tree planted in their honor. We also celebrate career milestones by donating to have the corresponding number of trees planted for the number of years worked in five-year increments. To learn more about One Tree Planted, click here.

Since 2009, PRH has been a member of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) SmartWay Transport Partnership, an innovative collaboration between the EPA and the freight industry designed to increase energy efficiency while significantly reducing greenhouse gases and air pollution.
When carrier capacity fluctuates, the Transportation Department focuses on securing the best resources to move our freight, including utilizing freight carriers who are considered best in class. Volume shifts and capacity constraints during 2021 (the latest EPA data set year) required working with a vast array of carriers which slightly decreased our overall percentage of SmartWay carrier miles, but we maintained our status as a SmartWay Partner.