Publishing climate solutions
Publishing trusted, peer-reviewed climate research, and enabling it to reach the decision-makers who need it, is the greatest action we can take to tackle climate change.
2022 highlights
- 0+ articles published by Springer Nature were cited in the recent United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report
- 0+ climate research journal articles and book chapters shared since 2015 (a 19% increase since our 2021 report)
- 0% of our SDG-related journal articles were open access
Case study
Climate research in action
We know real climate action is driven by research – inspiring and guiding both policy and behaviour change – yet we need to bridge the gap between the evidence and impactful action.
Our Climate Research in Action campaign amplifies research that can help us tackle the climate emergency. Launched in 2021, it has been updated to coincide with key events in 2022, including:
- Publication of the International Panel on Climate Change Sixth Assessment Report.
- The 2022 Hay Festival, in the UK, where we sponsored a series of sessions on sustainability, showcasing science communicators.
- COP27 climate conference, for which we featured a new research collection from Nature Human Behaviour and Nature Climate Change.
Case study
Open access climate journal
Climate change is an urgent societal challenge to be solved collaboratively. The more we exchange information, the greater the chances of navigating the intricacies of climate change and its governance.
In 2022, Climate Action published its first articles. This new open access journal sits between humanities, social sciences, Earth science and environmental studies ‒ so the solutions published are cross-discipline, just like climate change. The journal plants 10 trees for every review completed.
Case study
Plastic-free-certified new york office
Our New York City office was awarded the 3-Star Plastic-Free Blue Seal by Oceanic Global in recognition of our commitment to eliminating harmful single-use plastics, responsibly managing our waste and furthering the sustainability of our office. We are the first office space in the United States to be recognised as a Blue Verified business.
Environment highlights
- 0% reduction in our gross emissions from our baseline year (2019)
- 0% reduction in our energy use from our baseline year (2019)
- 0% reduction in flight emissions from our baseline year (2019)
Our approach to carbon
We have been carbon neutral since 2020 and are now working towards science-based targets with an aim to be net zero carbon by 2040. We will achieve this by focusing on emissions reductions over the next 10 years.
| Area | Targets | Progress and next steps | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Net zero | Set science-based targets against a 2019 baseline, covering at least 95% of our scopes 1 and 2 emissions and two-thirds of our scope 3 emissions in 2022. | Submitted our science-based targets to the SBTi. Targets are scheduled for review in 2023. |  |
| People | Roll out introductory sustainable business training to all employees via a three-year programme starting in 2022. | Launched four Sustainable Business training modules with a 95% completion rate. The programme will run until 2025, and we are planning an additional Environment module. | |
| Offices | Set up Green Building Checklists and action plans for major sites in 2022, and review half-yearly 2022–2025. | All 18 major sites completed the Green Building Checklist. These include action plans comprising 43 identified potential actions across all 18 sites. We review every 6 months. | |
Implement space-saving strategies across our global office portfolio and measure associated carbon reductions. | Reduced office space in 7 locations partly in response to increased remote working. The implementation of space-saving strategies is ongoing. We will measure the impact of this reduction. | | |
| Products | Inform end-of-life recycling by labelling new titles in our printed books and journals portfolio by 2025. | We have identified key stakeholders and are building action plans. |  |
| IT | Transition from data centres to carbon-neutral and energyefficient cloud-based suppliers wherever possible by 2025. | We are completing a list of applications that could be moved from our data centres to the cloud, in consultation with internal stakeholders, and we will now form a dedicated migration team. We are continuing to turn off on-site infrastructure that is no longer required. | |
| Suppliers | Actively engage 50% of print and 50% of pre-press suppliers (by spend) to align on our sustainability targets by 2022. | Developed and delivered our supplier sustainability pilot, covering over 50% of print and pre-press suppliers by spend. We spoke to all suppliers about our net zero commitments across our supply chain. | |