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In an industry world first, Australia’s Yellow Pages® and White Pages® print and online directories go carbon neutral

February 03, 2010

In a world first for major directory publishers, Sensis announced its iconic Yellow Pages® and White Pages® print and online directories have been certified carbon neutral through the Australian Government’s Greenhouse Friendly™ program.

Sensis will achieve this by offsetting the carbon emissions of its directories through Greenhouse Friendly™ accredited providers and projects in Australia.

The certification is part of Sensis’ Commitment to Climate Change announcement and follows an independent life cycle assessment undertaken by environmental professional services company, URS Australia. The assessment enabled Sensis to identify which aspects of its directory business have the greatest environmental impacts and establish how to reduce impacts for the long term.

Sensis CEO, Mr Bruce Akhurst said, “The Yellow Pages® and White Pages® have been part of Australian communities for more than 130 years and play an integral role in our country’s economic and social well being.

“With this announcement, the millions of Australians who use our directories each week can be assured Sensis is committed to playing our part in combating climate change and working to reduce our carbon emissions.”

“Sensis will offset emissions generated throughout the complete lifecycle of the Yellow Pages® and White Pages® print and online directories, including the production, use, disposal and distribution of the directories, from 1 February 2010.

“We are also pleased to announce our target to reduce the company’s operational greenhouse gas footprint by five per cent year on year,” he said.

The directories (supply chain included) are the largest part of Sensis’ carbon footprint, each year accounting for approximately 175,000 tonnes of emissions, while Sensis operational emissions (fleet, electricity and air travel) account for about 30,000 tonnes of emissions.  

Sensis has already started implementing a number of initiatives to reduce its operational greenhouse gas footprint, such as: enabling video conferencing at 21 office locations; the introduction of four cylinder diesel cars into the Sensis fleet from March 2010; and the scoping of new IT Purchasing Guidelines incorporating energy efficiency.

Mr Akhurst continued, “We will measure and monitor these impacts annually through a detailed Emissions Monitoring Plan, report annually on our carbon footprint and detail the improvements we’ve been able to make.

“We’re very proud to be taking this next step on our sustainability journey, which is a key part of our corporate strategy,” he said.

While the carbon neutrality offset certification of the print and online directories is Sensis’ biggest announcement in the sustainability space to date, taking responsibility for the impact its products have on the environment and community is not new to Sensis.

Sensis introduced a directory recycling program in 1991. In the last 10 years, the program has seen the number of directories recycled by Australians increase from four percent in 1999 to 96 percent of directories now being recycled or re-used.

There are almost 59 million searches each week across the Sensis network of information services, including print, online, mobile and satellite navigation[1], while more than five million Australians use both Yellow Pages® and White Pages® print directories each week[2].

Read more about our Commitment to Climate Change.

[1] Independent research of people aged 18 years and over, conducted by TNS in Australia, October – December2009. Searches are calculated by taking the number of people who have used a Sensis product in the seven days preceding the research, multiplied by the average number of times searched.

[2] Roy Morgan data, September 2009