Claimed to be ‘the first publishing house that knows its trees’, Germany’s Axel Springer Verlag has for many years been a newsprint buyer that has set environmental standards. Even its suppliers are certified.
One of the first things environmental manager Florian Nehm did was to develop an environmental idea bank. His company annually invests more than 9 million U.S. dollars in environmental projects, but corporate funding is limited. I have no budget, but I have the support of the whole company, he says. All projects are financed within the departments, which means that the respective departments get all the surplus. They feel ownership. He recommends this way of organising environmental work.
Nehm works closely with internal and external experts in all ecology-relevant fields. The results are impressive, but this pioneering effort has not gone unrewarded: Axel Springers printing works in Ahrensburg was the first European printing centre to be certified in accordance with the European EMAS.
Not long ago two Norwegian forestry-owner associations, suppliers to Axel Springer, were awarded DNVs environmental certificates to ISO 14000. Thus they can prove that the timber they provide comes from forests run in a sustainable manner.
One way of documenting environmental effort is to have some independent third-party auditor to certify both the company itself and its suppliers as DNV did for these Norwegian forestry companies, says Florian Nehm.