SDG Publishers Compact
The United Nations SDG Publishers Compact is a non-binding United Nations pact open to publishers, associations, booksellers and other organizations involved in the publishing industry, in support of the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals.
Research and education is important to making progress toward achieving the 17 development goals.
The SDG Publishers Compact contains 10 commitments for signatories to take in support of reaching the 17 development goals by 2030. Signatories are encouraged both to develop sustainable practices within their own industry and to "inform, develop, and inspire action" on the SDGs worldwide through the publication of relevant books, journals and other materials.
As of February 19, 2023, 285 organizations worldwide were signatories of the SDG Publishers Compact, including 15 international and national publishers associations. An action group and signatory of the Compact, known as the SDG Publishers Compact Fellows, translates the ten commitments into actionable steps. The SDG Compact Fellows develop detailed action lists and tip sheets for use by signatories and other supporters.
Member organizations are taking a wide variety of actions in support of the SDGs.
Formation
Development of the SDG Publishers Compact followed the creation of the Sustainable Development Goals Book Club, organized in 2018 and launched at the 2019 Bologna Children's Book Fair. The International Publishers Association and others partnered to release a reading list of books appropriate for children ages 6- to 12, with a monthly focus on Sustainable Development Goals. The first month's reading list focused on SDG 1: No Poverty, and included both newer works such as A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams and older public domain titles such as The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain. Books were listed in the six official UN languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. Local chapters of the SDG Book Club formed in Norway, Indonesia, Brazil, Africa, Portugal, and Germany, working with librarians, teachers, and parents. The intention was to support young people in understanding and dealing with the SDGs in their daily lives.Development of the SDG Publishers Compact was further informed by the 2020 IPA report of publisher's activities relating to the SDGs, Publishers and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The report outlined the ways in which the SDGs are relevant to the publishing industry, with a strong emphasis on ways to take action.
The SDG Publishers Compact was formally launched by the non-profit International Publishers Association and the United Nations and the first signatories were announced on 14 October 2020 at the Frankfurt Book Fair. The SDG Publishers Compact was presented by Juergen Boos, President and CEO of the Frankfurt Book Fair, Hugo Setzer and Michiel Kolman of the International Publishers Association, Sherri Aldis for the United Nations and Nadja Kneissler for the German Publishers and Booksellers Association.
Commitments
The UN asks signatories to the SDG Publishers Compact to commit to 10 action points, in support of reaching the Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.Signatories
After launching in 2020, the SDG Publishers Compact gained 100 signatories in its first nine months.As of July 23, 2022, 226 publishers and other organizations worldwide were signatories to the Compact. Approximately 1/2 were from Europe and 1/5 from the Americas, followed by Asia and the Pacific, Africa and the Middle East. By country, the most signatories were from the UK, the USA, Germany, India, and Turkey. As of February 19, 2023, 285 organizations were signatories.
As of February 19, 2023, 15 publishers associations were signatories of the SDG Publishers Compact.
The Compact is supported by international publishing societies including the International Publishers Association, the International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers the Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers, the Association of University Presses, and the European Association of Science Editors. National publishing societies who are signatories include the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, Syndicat national de l'édition Fédération Nationale de la Presse d'information Spécialisée, The Publishers Association and Canadian Science Publishing. In 2024 Clarivate Plc has signed the Publishers Compact.
Fellows
The SDG Publishers Compact Fellows are an action group established by the UN's Higher Education Sustainability Initiative.HESI is an open partnership involving the higher education community and UN entities such as UN DESA, UN-Habitat, UNEP, UNESCO, and UNU. HESI follows the UN Global Compact's Principles for Responsible Management Education.
HESI sought input from sustainability experts, practitioners, and academics to form a working group of multiple stakeholders to consider ways in which the publishing industry could support the SDGs.
HESI, the SDG Publishers Compact, and the Fellows Action group are all examples of partnerships.
The Fellows action group is itself a signatory of the SDG Publishers Compact. the group co-chairs were Debra Rowe and Roger P. Worthington.
The SDG Publishers Compact Fellows' aims are to make SDG research and publications discoverable and applicable and to encourage the implementation of the SDGs. They encourage publishers to prioritize the SDGs in research and education and to integrate the SDGs into their organizations and workflows. The 22 Fellows develop basic guidelines and best practices, translating the broad commitments of the Compact into practical policies and steps for adoption. Fellows provide practical tools and actionable guidance in support of a community of practice.
Their action lists and tip sheets suggest ways in which authors, editors, researchers, students, publishers, librarians and others can carry out the 10 commitments and implement the 17 SDGs.
The action group has formed four workstreams to develop guidelines for aligning education and research with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Workstreams focus on:
- Academic Societies and Textbooks: Integration of SDG-related content into educational materials
- Connecting Academic Researchers and Practitioners: Best practices for communication between researchers and practitioners, including formats such as a synopsis of content
- Impact and Reach: Development of new standards for assessing research impact, and standardized terminology for use by researchers, publishers and policymakers
- Higher Education: Broad incorporation of SDGs into the larger academic and publishing ecosystem
Actions
The SDG Publishers Compact Fellows provide action lists and tip sheets outlining ways in which authors, editors, researchers, students, publishers, librarians and others can support the 10 commitments and implement the SDGs. For example, academic authors can consider the relevance of their work to the SDGs and use relevant keywords and terminology. Publishers can explicitly commit to the SDGs in vision and purpose statements and connect journals and other publications specifically to SDGs. Editors and peer review processes at institutions can support research that is being translated into practice. Research societies can create awards to recognize significant work relating to the SDGs. Librarians and publishers can implement methodologies to increase the findability of SDG-related content and to track and assess the impact of publishing on the SDGs.
In agreement with the Compact's Action Point 10, individual publishers such as Emerald Publishing,
IOS Press
Oxford University Press,
Springer Nature,
and Wiley have publicly disclosed sustainability reports of their actions.
Impacts of the SDGs can be categorized as discursive, normative and institutional.
Discursive effects
Discursive effects are changes in the way people and institutions understand and communicate. This includes explicitly referencing the goals, targets and provisions of the 2030 Agenda.As early as 2018, Emerald Publishing issued a Real Impact Manifesto, challenging publishers and the research community to reconsider their operations in terms of impact and sustainability.
In 2021, the European Association of Science Editors
published an Environmental Manifesto outlining a variety of environmentally responsible actions for publishers and others. Digital publication, the role of editors, and improvements in journal distribution are particularly relevant to publishers, but the adoption of an environment policy and improvements in office, employee, food, and building management are broadly applicable to other types of organizations.
Also in 2021, the International Publishers Association created the IPA SDG Dashboard, a repository for information about how publishers are addressing the SDGs.
The International Association of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers has officially endorsed the SDG Fellows action suggestions and established its own SDGs Academic Publishers Forum in 2022 to provide information and support.
Several awards have been created to acknowledge and encourage SDG-related initiatives. The Association of Learned and Professional Society Publishers and Cambridge University Press launched the University Press Redux Sustainability Award in 2020. The inaugural award was given to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development for its SDG Pathfinder, an open-access digital discovery tool for finding content and data relating to the SDGs. Also recognized were Taylor & Francis' Sustainable Development Goals Online, an online library curated around the alignment of publishing with the SDGs and Bristol University Press' "brilliant publishing" imprint, Policy Press, formed in 1995 to address sustainability and development issues.