Hearst releases first sustainability report

Hearst has announced the publication of the 2022 Hearst Sustainability Overview. The report represents the company’s commitment to responsible environmental stewardship and is a coordinated effort to understand, measure and report on Hearst’s carbon footprint — outlining a path forward along three strategic pillars: educating the public, lowering Hearst’s carbon emissions and investing in B2B solutions that enable other corporations to achieve their climate goals.

Steven R. Swartz, President and CEO, Hearst: “This is the first of what will be an annual effort to report on and track all we are doing to make our operations more climate-friendly and to highlight all the work that our colleagues are doing to promote a healthier environment. From this baseline, we can now work toward a multi-year progression of data collection that will help us chart a course for a more sustainable future.”

David Carey, Senior Vice President of Public Affairs and Communications, Hearst: “By defining the core elements of our sustainability strategy in this report, we codify our commitment to transparency and action in the fight against climate change,” said

Hearst’s three-pronged sustainability strategy includes:

Educating the public: Hearst’s consumer media divisions are using their vast influence to educate the public on timely and compelling stories around climate change and everyday environmentalism. Watched by one in five U.S. TV households, Hearst Television launched “Forecasting Our Future,” a group-wide initiative to inform communities about the local impact of weather and climate. Hearst Magazines publications continue to provide its 141 million monthly U.S. readers with expert-evaluated recommendations for environmentally responsible home, beauty, apparel, toy and food products, including applauding those items during the Good Housekeeping Sustainable Innovation Awards, which aims to inspire audiences to make more sustainable choices when shopping, eating, cleaning, traveling and more.

Lowering Hearst’s carbon emissions: Across its various properties, Hearst has demonstrated a longstanding commitment to lowering its carbon footprint. On its Jack Ranch in Paso Robles, California, Hearst’s one million solar modules produce enough clean, renewable energy to displace over 109,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide annually — the equivalent of taking 22,000 cars off the road. Since becoming the first publicly acknowledged, triple LEED-certified building in the U.S. in 2016, Hearst Tower in New York City continues to be a symbol of sustainability, implementing no- and low-cost energy efficiency initiatives that have reduced energy costs by an additional 40%.

Investing in B2B solutions that enable other corporations to achieve their climate goals: Hearst’s strategic investments have enabled other corporations and municipalities to achieve their climate goals. Hearst Ventures investment Recurrent is working to increase the adoption of pre-owned electric vehicles and reduce U.S. carbon emissions from gasoline vehicles by 20%. In September 2021, credit ratings and research firm Fitch Group created Sustainable Fitch to provide insights, tools and data focusing on the ESG financial community. Sustainable Fitch’s ratings assess ESG impact, outcomes and performance complementing the value-neutral financial materiality of Fitch Ratings ESG Relevance Scores.

Looking forward, Hearst will continue implementing new technologies that increase the collection of actual data that will inform emissions reduction targets and will report annually on the makeup of its facilities, greenhouse gas emissions and sustainability.

www.hearst.com

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