Annual report and accounts 2008Annual report and accounts 2008

Progress and plans

Sustainable business practice

Target 2008   Progress   Plan 2009

Sustainable business practice
Expand our individual company environmental committees into our US and other businesses, directly involving many more of our people. Ongoing Ongoing. Over 30 Green Teams now in place in Pearson facilities in the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and India.   Continue to expand our network of environmental teams across our businesses.
Continue our environmental and labour standards auditing programme, revisiting our printers in Asia, North America and parts of Europe. Achieved Achieved. Visits carried out in Australia, China, India, Japan, Mexico and in several European countries, including Germany, Italy, Spain and Slovakia.   Hold training refresher seminars with key Pearson production departments on labour standards and environmental issues.
Continue the process of becoming a climate neutral company with a view to completing that process globally by the end of 2009.  Ongoing Ongoing. Highlights include:   Continue the process of becoming a climate neutral company with a view to completing that process globally by the end of 2009, including:
Reduced energy usage from a global investment programme in lighting upgrades and server virtualisation;
Partnered The Nature Conservancy on its ‘Plant a Billion Trees’ programme. 1.5 million planted to date; Extend Planet Pearson, a new website designed by Pearson staff in the US, to be available internationally;
Established funds in the UK and the US to stimulate innovative carbon saving programmes; Continue programme to ensure our key buildings are energy efficient;
Implemented a new policy in the UK to place a carbon cap on vehicle types and in the US introduced first hybrid vehicles into our car fleet. FT newspaper to assess feasibility of setting up its own offset programme;
Purchase ‘green’ energy where available and affordable.
Audit the social and environmental policies and impact of companies acquired in 2007 and set out plans to integrate them into Pearson’s framework for corporate responsibility. Achieved Achieved. Harcourt and other businesses now integrated into Pearson framework for reporting on labour standards and environmental matters.   Continue to work with industry partners to establish a methodology to assess the carbon footprint of a book.
Maintain our position in the key indices of social responsibility. Achieved Achieved. Pearson retained its position as Global Leader for the Media Sector in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices and maintained its Platinum rating in the Business in the Community Responsibility Index.   Maintain our position in the key indices of social responsibility.

Valuing our people

Target 2008   Progress   Plan 2009

Valuing our people
Accelerate our commitment to build a truly international business by helping more of our people experience a new country on a short-term assignment, with our developing markets as a priority. Achieved Achieved. We helped 67 people through NewDirections in 2007 and increased that to 102 in 2008.   Focus our international moves to develop our rising stars and create assignments that even more closely match our corporate priorities.
Show evidence of progress in retention of people with diverse backgrounds for both entry level and management positions. Achieved Achieved. In the UK, the percentage of staff from minority backgrounds rose to over 14% in 2008, against 9% in 2003. 11% of Pearson UK management is from a minority group, of which 4% are in senior management. Since 2005, the minority representation in the US workforce has risen from 15.7% to 19.9% in 2008. Minority ethnic managers make up 12% of the Pearson US management team, up 2% from 2005, with senior management representation rising by 1% to 5% in the same time frame. The turnover of staff from minority ethnic backgrounds in the global ‘talent pool’ declined dramatically from 6.1% in 2005 to 5.4% in 2006, down to 1.2% in 2007.   Show evidence of progress in retention of people with diverse backgrounds for both entry level and management positions by tracking the success of women, people from minority ethnic backgrounds and those with a disability within Pearson. Develop more great programmes and relationships to attract talented people from the above groups into our business.
      New target New target. Increase our capacity to combine training opportunities for our staff with opportunities to partner with schools, colleges and not-for-profits.

Commitment to fairness and quality

Target 2008   Progress   Plan 2009

Commitment to fairness and quality
Launch the Pearson International Education Summit, bringing together global education leaders to identify and share exemplary educational practices. Achieved Achieved. The inaugural Summit, developed in conjunction with the US Council of Chief State School Officers, was held in Singapore. It convened delegates from 13 countries and six continents to explore first hand the educational and cultural drivers that consistently help Singapore students to score at the top of international surveys.   Continue and expand the Summit to include a focus on teacher quality and training, one of the key learnings of the Singapore convening.
Use the Pearson Foundation Development Fund to work with our businesses in Africa, India and Asia to provide training and support for local teachers in developing communities. Achieved Achieved. Launched the Pearson Professional Development Program for African educators in Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia. Provided intensive training and support for local educators, focusing specifically on early childhood development, literacy, numeracy and on teacher and student acquisition of key 21st century skills.   Extend these programmes to involve education leaders in a cross-country dialogue addressing key education needs and solutions.

Supporting active citizenship

Target 2008   Progress   Plan 2009

Supporting active citizenship
Build on the success of our ongoing Booktime and Read for the Record campaigns to showcase the importance of early reading for young people everywhere. Achieved Achieved. Booktime: 750,000 book packs donated to children in around 20,000 schools across the UK, up from 700,000 book packs in around 17,000 schools in 2007.
Read for the Record: Pearson people around the world again helped set a new world record for the largest ‘shared reading experience’ for Jumpstart’s 2008 campaign. Shared more than 200,000 books and raised nearly $2m for Jumpstart’s year-round operations, helping to draw national attention to the US early education crisis.		   Increase the number of children reached through these campaigns, expanding Booktime once again and rolling out Jumpstart’s Read for the Record programme internationally.
      New target New target. Increase the number of interventions we make to facilitate constructive debate on key contemporary issues.