Similarly, we are committed to minimizing any adverse impact of our operations, products and services on the environment.

Sweet & Maxwell and the environment

As a publishing house with a still-thriving print portfolio, our environmental impact is more obvious than that of many other businesses. Sweet & Maxwell's Green Print initiative was launched in early 2007 as a focus for those of our various activities aimed at reducing the environmental impact of our business operations.

Our product:

70 percent of our revenue comes from making and despatching print products across the world - which naturally involves felling trees. We have gone a long way toward tackling this massive impact through the adoption of the Forestry Stewardship Council standard for all of our print paper. This ensures that all of our paper is from audited renewable sources and is produced, from the forest to the end consumer, in an environmentally responsible and socially sustainable manner.

Product despatch:

We have considerably minimised the impact of product despatch by using environmentally friendly packaging materials where we can - including wheat-based packing chips - and by the use of recycled paper for key customer communications.
 
Our impact in the office:
 
Our London office works in partnership with London Recycling, who provide us with quarterly statistics on how much we are recycling and what happens to the materials that we have carefully sorted.

94 percent of our recycling is paper, cardboard and similar materials, with the remaining 6 percent coming from drinking vessels, cartons, and plastics and so on. In the first six months of 2008 we recycled about 42,500 kg of paper from London sites alone - the equivalent of some 720 trees. 100 percent of the materials collected were recyclable and none was rendered to landfill.

Sweet & Maxwell in the community

Sweet & Maxwell's office in Mytholmoyd employs 220 staff and as such is the largest private employer in the Calder Valley. A firmly established relationship with Calder High School sees our staff giving their time to work on an extensive student-mentoring programme. This includes helping with additional language lessons and offering careers advice (including tutoring in job interview techniques and CV writing skills).

In addition, our business enjoys long-standing partnerships with PLAN UK, with whom we funded a new school in Ghana that opened in 2008, and with CLAPA (Cleft Lip & Palette Association), to whom our staff give their professional expertise to assist in fund raising, staging events and newsletter production.