Sustainable business practice
We know that many of our stakeholders – young people, educators, business people and everyday citizens – are passionate about sustainability, as are many of the people that work at Pearson. We have been included in the FTSE4Good indices since their inception and place great importance on not compromising our standards of quality or causing harm to suppliers and their workers, wherever they may be in the world.
We are a founder signatory of the UN Global Compact – which sets out ten principles on labour standards, human rights, the environment and anti-corruption – and we have written to our key suppliers to advise them of our commitments to the Compact and our code of business conduct. Our chief financial officer now has board responsibility for matters relating to corporate responsibility and chairs our Environmental Executive Committee to guide our policy and activity in this area. He chairs a corporate responsibility steering group comprised of colleagues around the business and the globe, to help keep our CR strategy in line with current and future overall business strategy.
Fast fact:
Pearson headquarters’ recycling scheme
In 2009, the whole Pearson headquarters building at 80 Strand, including the floors used by our external tenants, turned to a more environmentally robust recycling scheme. All rubbish is now separated by using communal waste bins for paper, recyclable material, wet waste/non-recyclable material and organic waste. Composting bins are collected by a company called Juniper, which then produces compost for farmers in Kent, UK. This scheme is now in place throughout all Pearson buildings in the UK, with various composting companies.