Over the past several years, there has been a mass movement toward green efforts under the auspices of corporate responsibility.

At EBSCO, going green is much more than a “me too” sentiment. Quite simply, going green is the right thing to do. Interacting with the environment responsibly is an all-encompassing effort, and measuring one's carbon footprint takes no small part in that endeavor.

That’s one of the reasons we’ve partnered with sustainability organization Carbonfund.org – to make sure this lofty yet unregulated notion of eco-wisdom yields credible results.

The inventory and analysis led by Carbonfund.org on behalf of EBSCO covered several categories including electricity, natural gas and business travel. It revealed that electricity is the main contributing factor to EBSCO's footprint, accounting for more than two-thirds of the company's total carbon dioxide emission during the past year.

To that end, a few measures we are taking to reduce our carbon footprint are as follows:

Recycling

• EBSCO is increasing its recycled paper usage
• Through partnerships with vendors including Hewlett-Packard, and donations to charitable organizations, EBSCO is actively reducing e-waste such as computers, cell phones, ink cartridges and pagers
• Lighting waste reduced through bulb crusher that safely crushes fluorescent light bulbs while capturing more than 99.99 percent of the harmful mercury vapors within
• Print waste reduced through paper recycling program
• Aluminum can waste reduced through installation of can crushers in major vending areas; crushed cans are recycled
• EBSCO Missing Copy Bank – a unique online inventory of back issues – contains more than 48,000 copies of more than 2,000 different titles from the previous two years; search list of titles through EBSCONET or at Missing Copy Bank Title List to find missing or back issues that are no longer available from the publisher.
• EBSCO collects duplicate issues of serials that customers no longer wish to retain; upon request, EBSCO will provide institutions with reimbursement for postage if mailed from within the U.S.  

Reducing paper consumption in standard business operations

• Electronic distribution of files formerly sent in print, including PDF invoicing 
• EBSCONET system empowers customers to order, claim and renew subscriptions electronically

Using solar power

• EBSCO Publishing recently installed 192 solar panels to provide year-round electricity.

Practicing smarter transportation

• Leading the effort as EBSCO considers companywide adoption of hybrid vehicles, EBSCO France SAS and EBSCO Publishing are currently switching their corporate automobile fleets to hybrids.

Supporting sustainable forestry

• As part of this ongoing green strategy, EBSCO has decided to sponsor a reforestation project in Mali launched by one the customers served by its French office, Agrocampus. Agrocampus is a national institute of higher education in Agronomics.

EBSCO continues to build on these contributions as part of our larger, long-term commitment to reduce our environmental footprint and encourage corporate and individual responsibility to impact climate change.

Visit ebsco.com and EBSCO Publishing frequently in the coming weeks for updates to our green focus.

Going Green at the Library

Within the information services industry, there are numerous examples of libraries’ efforts to go green. To recognize these best practice examples and inspire other libraries to practice environmental responsibility, EBSCO is creating a repository of customer success stories. See what your peers are accomplishing, then send us your story!

Submit a Story

Going Green at Home

Make a bigger impact on climate change when you reduce your personal carbon footprint.

Learn about many other ways you can help save energy .

Free environmental database available through EBSCOhost

As EBSCO has become more environmentally friendly, we also want to do our part to inform others of the long term benefits and repercussions that our actions have on the environment. With this in mind, we have released GreenFILE – a new database that is now freely available to the public at:  www.greeninfoonline.com.

GreenFILE is intended as a resource for people who are concerned about the environment and want well-researched but accessible information. 

Other EBSCO databases consider the human impact on the environment: Environment Index and its full text counterpart Environment Complete.