Books Industry ESG Thematic Report, 2023

Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) in the Books Industry

Considering ESG into decision making and business strategies contributes to an effective due diligence and a better investment decision. The company’s which fall under Books market have been responsibly including ESG regardless academic or nonacademic, e-book or paperback.

This segment has been seeking stakeholder attention due to many reasons as there is an increased consumption of normal paperbacks and eBooks. Book industry has a significant impact on forest and biodiversity. Consumers are preferring FSC, SFI or PEFC certified books as it ensures responsible consumption of natural resources. Energy and water consumption has also been one among the crucial aspects regardless of the segment along with carbon footprint. These companies also have philanthropy and volunteerism, involving the community in various programs and initiatives. The book segment provides a huge access to education to students and professionals apart from ensuring diversity, equity and inclusion have been ensured by most of the companies with specific targets inclusive of equal opportunities to all. All these helps meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). For instance, access to education helps meet the UN SDG 4: Inclusive access to education.

Impact of the pandemic has increased the usage of books, especially reading books, which have been considered as leisure activities due to prevailing Work from home situations among IT personnel and distant education for students. Growing e-commerce market also contributed significantly to the surge in the usage of books.

ESG Trends

For this segment both Environmental and Social aspect have been considered, starting off with energy and water consumption (SDG 7- Affordable and clean energy and SDG 12- Responsible Consumption and production), this segment requires high energy consumption and in order to reduce energy use companies have various targets and agenda’s involving renewable energy, for example one of the company’s stated usage of solar array in ware house creating clean energy. Along with this, companies are strongly focusing on reducing emission of carbon footprint (SDG 13- Climate Action) with a sustainable and a responsible sourcing throughout the value chain. Targets cover Scope 1, 2 and 3 emission reduction with a specific target year and few companies tend to move to a Carbon neutral or net zero emission. As forest and biodiversity have been involved in production of paper, consumers or stakeholder are inquisitive of certification from Forest Stewardship council (FSC), Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI), Program for endorsement of Forest Certification etc. Companies disclose their status in progress of certificate, for example one of the companies discloses 100% of overall paper usage from FSC and SFI fiber for the fiscal year. Community engagement, philanthropy, and charitable giving (SDG 11- Sustainable cities and Communities)has been focused by many companies , especially the provision of donating academic and non-academic books to struggling schools or library systems, access to educationvia scholarship or donation and many other volunteer activities.

ESG Challenges

Books industry is one of the oldest industries which faces challenges majorly in the environmental area. As it has become legal to have either of known certification as mentioned for the books must be used to survive in the market. Attaining FSC or license certification is a long procedure with certain investment that varies with number of employees in the organization and type of organization (NPO and FPO). Considering and integrating a circular economy has been one of the challenges faced and unaddressed by these top companies. Especially packaging and paper production has been a major challenge to stand by current standards as mentioned. Considering Ebooks and audiobooks, energy used, or emission aroused from data centers have not been specifically addressed. Data Centers and cloud storage uses a lot of energy and produces significant indirect emission, moreover studies suggest 2% of entire greenhouse emission is raised out of data centers.

Growth of the Books Market

As mentioned, the books segment is an old and stable market, along with new technologies like e-books and audiobooks. Moreover, books are a major source of education which is a continuous process regardless of age and sections of society. It is necessary for education as well as leisure and is growing simultaneously with the ecommerce and mobile or computer-based application market. Books segment has been valued at 138.5 billion USD in 2021 and is expected to have a CAGR of 1.9% from 2022 to 2030.

Key Companies in this theme

    • Penguin Random House

    • Hachette Book Group

    • HarperCollins Publishers

    • Simon & Schuster, Inc.

    • Pearson

    • Macmillan Publishers

    • Scholastic Inc.

    • Marvel Comics

    • Morris Publishing

    • IDW Publishing

Scope of the Books Industry ESG Thematic Report:

    • Macro-economic and ESG-variable analysis of the industry, including regulatory, policy, and innovation landscape

    • Key insights on infrastructure developments and ESG issues affecting the theme

    • Identify key initiatives and challenges within the industry

    • Identify ESG leaders within the industry

    • Understand key initiatives and the impact of companies within the sector to fuel an informed decision-making process.

    • Analysis of industry activities based on multi-media sources, including significant controversies and market sentiment

Key Benefits of the Books Industry ESG Thematic Report

    • Developing a comprehensive understanding of macro-economic, Policies & Regulations and innovations affecting the Books space, globally

    • Key insights into environmental developments and ESG issues affecting the theme

    • Identifying ESG risks and opportunities to business among leading players in the market

    • Obtaining a clear and relevant understanding of company actions, progress, and impact and find opportunities for investment into the sector