CANADA (2024)
To remove barriers of entry to the publishing industry, our award-winning design team at Penguin Random House Canada (PRHC) launched two initiatives aimed at up-and-coming artists and designers: the PRHC Design Award and the PRHC Portfolio Review for Emerging Creatives.
The PRHC Design Award provides the opportunity for one selected winner to receive mentorship from PRHC’s in-house design team, consisting of six hour-long sessions over a period of six months.
The PRHC Portfolio Review for Emerging Creatives invites selected participants to a session where emerging artists and designers can receive feedback on their portfolios from our award-winning design team.
MEXICO CITY (2024)
Penguin Random House held “Pride in Your Writings,” a forum for inclusive representation in literature, on March 23. Organized by our Mexico office’s LGBTQ+ subcommittee, the event featured Penguin Random House authors and several drag storytellers. Speakers addressed a variety of topics, including the following: the experiences of authors with diverse realities, ways to support LGBTQ+ people with disabilities, representation of the LGBTQ+ community in narratives, lesbian stories beyond stereotypes, and queer stories more broadly.
Penguin Random House is taking meaningful steps to advance reconciliation with Indigenous Australians through our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), a formal commitment to respect and connect with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, developed in partnership with Reconciliation Australia.
In 2024 we completed our Reflect RAP—the first of four stages—focused on internal education, external relationship-building, and the exploration of Penguin Random House’s potential for positive impact. In 2025 we began our Innovate RAP, working closely with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander representatives and Reconciliation Australia to develop an action plan that will advance our reconciliation commitments.
MEXICO CITY (2024)
Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial employees and authors—alongside media personnel and influencers—volunteered with Reforestamos México in July to reforest 1.5 hectares of forest located approximately 150 kilometers outside of Mexico City. Together, 120 volunteers planted 1,200 trees, and members of the local community, with funds from Reforestamos México, supported our volunteers with a prepared meal.
CANADA (2024)
Penguin Random House donated over 300,000 books as in-kind donations to charities and programs like First Book Canada, Book Clubs for Inmates, Save the Children, SickKids, and more in 2024. Most of these donations came from returns or overstock, contributing to our ongoing sustainability efforts by reducing waste and spreading the joy of reading by putting books in the hands of those in need.
TORONTO, CANADA (2024)
Penguin Random House’s sponsorship of Word on the Street, a Toronto-based literary festival, helped provide necessary support to festival attendees in the form of barrier-free access, ASL interpreters, and live captioning of events. In conjunction with this sponsorship, we authored an interview with local booksellers on the importance of accessibility at book events and in publishing at large, in an effort to inspire continuing conversations around accessibility across the industry.
MEXICO (2024)
In a move to replace our current stock of wooden pallets, Penguin Random House has purchased 8,295 recycled plastic pallets for our Mexico distribution center since 2023. Wooden pallets have a lifespan of 3 months, which is almost considered single-use, and for every 10 wooden pallets made, one tree with a lifespan of 10-15 years is cut down. Our recycled plastic pallets, in contrast, have a lifespan of 8-10 years.
LONDON (2024)
Co-founded by the National Literacy Trust and Penguin Random House UK in 2021, the Libraries for Primaries campaign brings together charities, publishers, and businesses to address the lack of investment in primary school libraries—particularly in the UK’s most disadvantaged communities, where 1 in 4 primary schools don’t have a library.
In May, Her Majesty the Queen visited Moreland Primary School in London to open the 1000th library transformed through the campaign. The Queen told students, “You’re really lucky to have such a beautiful library, and I hope you’re going to enjoy reading all the books, because the more books you read, the more you’re going to learn.”
The campaign has now provided more than 382,000 primary-aged children across the UK with vital access to books. We aim to reach the remaining schools without a library in the UK by 2028.
MUNICH (2024)
At the start of the Easter holiday, employees of Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe visited the Münchner Tafel (Munich Food Bank) for the fourth time. A total of over 800 books were handed out to kids and their parents this year. Picture books were popular with the very youngest; beginning readers were particularly keen to pick up Sven Gerhardt’s MINNA MELONE. As volunteers at Münchner Tafel explained: “We are currently receiving a lot of families who have fled from Ukraine. Children’s books are also great for adults to learn German.”
This annual project has become an integral part of Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe’s long-standing charitable work to promote reading.
U.S. (2024)
In collaboration with We Need Diverse Books, Penguin Random House presented our Creative Writing Award winners with a week of professional development programming, offering practical knowledge and insight into the book world. Our six $10,000 scholarship recipients gained direct access to publishing professionals through a series of virtual events designed and hosted by the Penguin Random House Corporate Communications Team.
Since 1993, this program has awarded more than $2.9 million to public high school students for original poetry, memoir/personal essay, fiction/drama, and spoken word compositions. To learn more about the Creative Writing Awards, click here.
