GRAUNIAD'S CLAIMS--HIGH BUT NOT MIGHTY

The Guardian's sustainability vision 2009
We want to be a leader on media sustainability and environmentally regenerative in our activities
guardian.co.uk, Monday 27 July 2009 18.56 BST
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Our vision is to be a leader on sustainability within the media industry and to be environmentally regenerative in our activities. Through our editorial coverage and business activities, we will demonstrate to readers, staff, advertisers, suppliers and our communities that Guardian News & Media is committed to enhancing society's ability to build a sustainable future.

Editorial

Clearly our greatest impact comes from informing and influencing our global audience. We will therefore build on our position as a recognised leader in the reporting of environmental and social justice issues, by providing the most comprehensive news coverage on subjects such as climate change, environmental degradation and social inequality.

These topics will be explored from the social, economic, political and scientific perspectives, both nationally and globally.

We will promote public debate and harness the power of our readers and users by creating online tools and projects that give them the opportunity to share knowledge and ideas, as well as encouraging them to make a difference, both as individuals and within their communities.

Social justice has always been at the heart of our journalism and we will consistently give a voice to disadvantaged communities around the world who are most affected by climate change.

Commercial

GNM's reputation puts us in a strong position to benefit from the growing trend in businesses moving towards a more sustainable future.

We will support our large existing clients in this endeavour as well as enable small and emerging companies to develop their markets.

We recognise that tensions can arise between our need for advertising revenues to sustain our business and being a medium for promoting consumption. Our role is neither to hector our readers nor to censor on their behalf. Our editorial coverage informs and influences our audience in their choices.

We will work with our readers and users to gain a deeper understanding of what products and services they want in this area, and use this knowledge to engage with our advertisers and sponsors on the issue of sustainability.

Operational

Our ambition is to be environmentally regenerative. We will investigate how we can become carbon positive – go beyond carbon neutral and positively affect climate change.

Our offices and print sites will be of the highest environmental standards and we commit to minimising waste and maximising both efficiency and recycling. We will avoid unnecessary energy use, reduce our energy consumption where possible, use renewables and only offset emissions where there are no real alternatives.

Sustainability will be at the heart of our procurement processes as we recognise that our suppliers represent a key part of our operational impact.

We will consistently increase the amount of recycled and certified virgin newsprint in our products and will work across the industry to minimise the ecological footprint of paper supply and newspaper distribution.

People

We will empower and inspire everyone who works at GNM to act by encouraging sustainable behaviour. We will achieve this through leadership, raising awareness and incentives. At our new offices in Kings Cross, our working culture will aim to minimise waste and we will make it easy for all of us to act responsibly. We will also work in partnership with our local and global communities to address their social and environmental needs, by highlighting the issues and providing volunteering, resources and funding.

• Our vision was agreed by the board in 2007 and any changes are signed off by directors. The last revision was in 2008, strengthening the community component and also committing to be a leader in the media sector

Definitions
There is no universal definition of sustainability, which for many companies has become the accepted term for what previously was known as corporate social responsibility. So we felt it was important to be clear on our interpretation and also to define what we mean by our ambitious aim to become environmentally regenerative.

Sustainable development

We have developed our definition from the Brundtland Commission:* sustainable development is development that meets our present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet theirs. This gives us, as individuals and collectively as a business, a shared responsibility for our impact on the environment as well as confronting and addressing social injustice within our local and global communities.

Environmentally regenerative

GNM has a vision to be environmentally regenerative, which for us means ensuring there is a net decrease in atmospheric gases that contribute to climate change resulting from the existence of our company. This long-term goal means not only dealing with our direct emissions but also those from the products and services we consume.

Alongside this, we will continue to concentrate our editorial resources on informing and influencing our audiences around the world to minimise their own environmental footprint, and to challenge the political and economic structures that lead to unsustainable behaviour.

We will work with communities both locally and in the developing world to deepen their knowledge and understanding of sustainability and reduce their own environmental footprints.

*Our Common Future, published by Oxford University Press in 1987.