About SMI Distribution Services

Global distribution of publications is the core of our business and over the past 15 years we have established a reputation for the efficient, timely and resourceful delivery of publications all around the world.

SMI operates from its warehouse facilities in Stevenage, England, which is designed especially for the storage of books.

SMI also provides Earthprint.com, which is the world’s leading environmental and agricultural online bookstore, with more than 4,000 publications instantly available to order. Each month, visitors from over 160 countries order or search the latest publications within our unique title offering.

Our key publishing partners include United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT) amongst many other important non profit making organisations.

Strategy

While SMI recognize that we are facilitating trade, we are a responsible service provider and are therefore committed to setting high standards for our own environmental business conduct.

One of our principal goals is to go climate neutral from 2010. By thinking green across all of our operations, our endeavour is to make a significant difference to our present environmental footprint.

We plan to measure our emissions of greenhouse gases in 2009 as a baseline, using the Green House Gas protocols

We will set goals for reducing our emissions in the years to come.

We will purchase offsets to compensate for the remaining emissions from the UN Cleaner Development Mechanism (CDM), starting from 2010.

We will inform and inspire, in particular our customers, suppliers and employees on our climate neutral strategy.

Action plan for 2009

We will engage a consultant group where their methodology is based upon the internationally accepted Greenhouse Gas Protocol.
The company’s strategies and action plans are aimed at four areas for 2009/10:
•    Procurement
•    Waste
•    Resources
•    Travel

Procurement
•    Base our procurement policy on environmental criteria
•    Give preference to environmentally responsible suppliers of products and services
•    Repair equipment before replacement.

Waste
•    Recycling of separate waste: paper, cardboard, plastic bottles, cans and kitchen waste.
•    Use of electronic file storage whenever possible to avoid printing.

Resources
•    Carry out efficient resource-saving measures.
•    Save material resources by reduction of internal printing.
•    Double sided printing.
•    All office equipment is switched off at the point when not in use and overnight.
•    Use of natural light rather than artificial lighting.

Travel
•    Use telephone conferencing for long-distance where possible
•    Choosing the most climate neutral means of transportation: use of railway instead of air travel
•    Whenever possible we work from home offices, thereby eliminating any transport emissions to and from work.
•    Car share where possible.
•    When business air travel is necessary, multiple meetings are arranged to maximise long distance travel per trip.

Future Strategy (under consideration)
•    Offset carbon emissions for despatch of products with voluntary carbon tax to our customer base: provide proceeds to renewable project.