Environmental & Social Information • Dec 31, 2018
Environmental & Social Information
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Sustainability Report 2018
Informa is an International Business-to-Business Events, Academic Publishing and Information Services Group.
Informa serves commercial, professional and academic communities in many different sectors by helping them connect and learn, and by creating and providing access to content and intelligence that helps people and businesses work smarter and make better decisions faster.
Connects buyers and sellers in specialist markets at major branded exhibitions and online.
Creates content-driven events, training and digital platforms for learning and networking.
Delivers research, insight, events and exhibitions to specialist international technology communities.
Provides specialist data-driven insight and intelligence in targeted customer markets.
Publishes high quality scholarly research and reference-led content.
We are proud to be members of:
I've seen many changes during my time at Informa, both changes within the Company, and changes in the wider world. Sustainability is a relatively new term in business at large. To me, it means long term. And the world we live in today is one in which people are demanding that business leaders, politicians – society at large – take responsibility for the long term.
Businesses around the globe are increasingly asking how they can run their organisations in a way that meets people's needs now and, in the future, in a way that creates a positive legacy for all. That's why sustainability has a growing role in our organisation; we must think of sustainability as something to build from, not simply to comply with.
It takes some brave hearts to ask the question: are we as a company doing things in a way that ensures our long-term business success, whilst making sure our contribution to society and the environment is as positive as possible? It's clear to me that these imperatives have become inextricably linked. It's also clear that more and more people expect their employer to step up. I am inspired by the passion in the younger generations' expectation that business does consider their planet and society, and it's obvious that the successful businesses of the future will be those who genuinely share that passion.
Of course, financially, holding this perspective requires some faith. I draw parallels with Informa's investments in products, platforms, property and people – you rarely see immediate returns. But you should see iterative long-term success if, as well as those investments, you have a principled culture, commitment and the right attitude. We are committed to and should be proud of our long-term investments, not just in infrastructure but in those things that demonstrate our values on a day-to-day basis. These range from green energy and healthier offices to Walk the World and our culture.
I also want us to share the results so that others can use, feedback on and build on what we do, wherever they are based in the world.
So, I would appeal to everyone who is a stakeholder – colleagues, suppliers, partners, investors – don't be passive. Join the effort, help lead the way, and together we will create a legacy of which we can all be proud.
April 2019
From top to bottom: Stephen A. Carter – Group Chief Executive, Ben Wielgus – Head of Sustainability
Ben Wielgus: When we spoke this time last year, we talked about the potential addition of UBM to the Informa Group, what it would mean for the business, and our progress towards making sustainability a competitive differentiator for Informa. Let's start there – how has bringing UBM into Informa influenced our approach to sustainability?
Stephen Carter: First and foremost, both companies were already making sustainability a differentiator and a key part of their strategies, although in different ways. For example, Informa is recognised for our broad work on being a responsible business in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index whereas UBM has won awards for the environmentally conscious way it manages events. Coming together strengthens our foundations.
Of course, bringing UBM into Informa made sense for many more reasons. We expanded the business into new regions, particularly in Asia, and overall the business has nearly doubled its footprint in three years. This gives us more options and more flexibility to decide how we invest now and in the long term. But if the last year has underlined one thing to me, it's that we are both face-to-face businesses. Connecting people is in our bones.
Ben: We've talked in the past about Informa's role of connecting people and knowledge together to help them succeed. "Face-toface" seems to describe so much of how we do business. Can you tell me a bit more about what it means to you?
Stephen: It goes much deeper than bringing people together at events and conferences, connecting them online or through publications and databases. It describes an ethos that influences how we interact with each other, our Customers and Communities. You'll see it right across our Divisions and I saw it this year when I met our new colleagues around the world. What we all have in common, through all of our Divisions, is that we care about human interaction.
Ben: This is about a common culture. How important and relevant is that commonality of culture to sustainability, and vice versa?
Stephen: They're fundamentally intertwined. Culture is crucial to long-term and short-term business performance. We don't have a unitary culture in our business because that diversity gives us the freedom and flexibility to adapt to our markets and allows people to bring their whole selves to work. However, I firmly believe that there is much we share and the values we have are common. We are people who understand people. We are people who understand the importance of honesty and integrity in business relationships. That's the essence of doing business face-to-face, and it's the way we operate all the time. And we are also people who understand the importance of committing to, and investing in, our markets, our society and the environment because that's what people do.
Ben: Yes, I think that's why the pillars of our current sustainability strategy are about the different relationships we have with our customers, colleagues and communities, including our supply chain. A lot of our stories this year look at how we create meaningful connections that contribute towards a broader purpose and help our sectors solve problems they are facing.
Stephen: Investing in relationships is, I believe, key to creating a sustainable business. I say that to our investors all the time. That's why we plough back some of our revenue every year into making new content, deepening customer relationships and supporting our communities. As service providers, we must strike the right balance between creating value and extracting value. We can only do the latter when we are successful at the former. At 2018's Reinvent senior leaders' conference, where around 100 leaders from the enlarged Group gathered, I used the metaphor of planting trees along a country lane. The planter knows they might not see those trees grow to full maturity, but they believe it's the right thing to do in order to create a long-lasting benefit.
Ben: I've had lots of conversations with teams of colleagues who talk about sustainability in terms of the purpose or role that their product or service plays in helping the market address short- and long-term challenges. And it often ties into the market's role in solving big challenges the world is facing: curing disease, creating opportunity, building infrastructure, promoting talent and so on. Many of these are directly related to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals. It seems to enable us to do good, whilst building our business.
Stephen: This is a trend that will continue. Our role is not to be on the stage, it's to create the stage for our customers, be that in an event, in a book or online. We'll do well if we listen carefully and stay close to our customers' evolving needs, so that we can continue to provide the services and knowledge that they care about. One thing I'm still astounded by every day I come to work at Informa is the sheer power of human collaboration – within our teams, and within the networks and industries we serve. That's why it's so important that all of us feel the freedom and licence to collaborate with others – and to adapt what we do, as the world around us evolves. But the thing that remains constant is the integrity of our relationships. That's the thing that will make us sustainable.
Ben: There's an interesting comparison to so much of what we're seeing in the world, where technology has created more desire to build trust, to meet face-to-face and to experience connection and gain knowledge together.
Stephen: When people come together, it's much easier to behave with integrity, to connect with each other more meaningfully. That's why you'll hear me repeat over and over that if we can behave as if every interaction we have is face-toface, we'll do better business this year, and we'll be a more sustainable business for years to come.
Stephen A. Carter Group Chief Executive
World leaders from government and business have rallied around 17 interconnected United Nations Sustainable Development Goals – known as the UN's SDGs. Representing the most pressing challenges and knowledge gaps that face the world today, they are designed to provide a framework to protect the planet and reduce poverty, inequality and injustice by 2030.
If the world is to achieve these goals, businesses must play a vital role. And it is worth highlighting that, with trillions of dollars of investment directed by policy and ambition to meet the SDGs, new business opportunities will arise in the form of new markets, innovation and cost savings.
Informa makes a direct impact on the SDGs through our operations and the way we do business. But far greater are the indirect impacts we have through the content and connections we help to create, curate and disseminate. Arguably, almost all our markets are seeking to solve sectoral, regional or global challenges such as improving health, building better cities, promoting economic prosperity or finding ways to ensure access to clean and affordable energy. By providing our customers, partners and markets with the knowledge and connections they need to solve these problems, we believe we can grow together while also having a positive impact on the world.
We spent 2018 working with parts of our business to explore how we can go beyond business as usual and more explicitly work with the SDGs as a mechanism for growth.
We have also continued our work to estimate where our content and markets are best positioned to make an indirect contribution to the SDGs. This is shown in the graphic above. We've also highlighted the SDGs that Informa can influence most directly through the way we run our business and deliver our products Primary and Secondary contributions. In 2019, we'll be adding the impact of UBM's portfolios to this analysis to better help us understand where we are best positioned to contribute to, and benefit most from, the SDGs.
Responsible Consumption and Production
13 Climate Action
17 Partnerships for the Goals
As part of our commitment to SDG4, we want to make it easy for our readers to find research on the SDGs and for our authors to find relevant journals where they can share their research.
Working with our editors in the BEES team (Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences), we mapped each of our journals against the 169 SDG targets to assess which corresponded to each journal's primary objectives. We discovered that many of our journals were publishing research related to SDGs but could highlight the link to those targets better.
We are working to rearticulate the aims and scopes of our journals to help authors and readers link to the right journals for their work on the SDGs. We have also commissioned editorials and special issues to focus on SDGs and give prominence to dedicated SDG research.
Sukumar Verma, Managing Director, Informa Connect, Singapore
We've seen new business opportunities related to the SDGs and most recently co-operated with the Sustainable Rice Platform ("SRP") on the first Global Sustainable Rice Conference and Exhibition.
The SRP is a multi-stakeholder partnership which promotes sustainability in rice farming and throughout the entire rice value chain. Co-hosted by UN Environment and the International Rice Research Institute, we held the first ever conference bringing together research institutions, international organisations, producers and civil society groups with the aim of contributing to SDG 2 and SDG 17.
Discussions at the SRP developed many ideas for the future as well as identifying new knowledge gaps we need to fill as a sector. Participants also agreed to the Bangkok Declaration's aims to increase collaboration across the value chain, furthering the ambitions of sustainable rice production.
AfricaCom is all about "connecting the unconnected" by giving more people across Africa the technology to be able to access the internet. The World Bank tells us that every 10% of broadband penetration can lift GDP by up to 1.4%, and we believe it can benefit the poorest portions of society by providing access to education, banking services and stimulating small business growth.
And, with 9 out of 10 attendees telling us that "economic empowerment and social mobility through digital technology" inspires them, AfricaCom is contributing to SDGs 1, 8 and 10 through bringing together our 14,000 delegates every year.
AfricaCom has also been a platform for collaborations between our Informa Tech and Taylor & Francis Divisions. We provided attendees with a free online collection of resources on social enterprise and sustainable development, which supports ongoing learning in our markets.
The Routledge India Originals ("RIO") publishes topical volumes with an audience of readers in South Asia. Our work covers many of the challenges the SDGs are concerned with – issues that are being addressed in everyday life to build communities and nations in South Asia. They include health, education, water, energy, gender equality and governance.
It feels good to know that the RIO list dovetails so beautifully with the SDGs. It underlines their relevance as well as our role at the forefront of connecting people with the knowledge needed to address them. It also means we're publishing books in an area of growing interest and sales with more students, researchers and professionals looking at the SDGs.
Our Content is all the knowledge, information and products we help our readers, attendees and other customers access. It can be something we create but, more often, we provide the platforms and systems for others to use to share their own knowledge. The better we do each of these things, the more possibilities we create for others to find solutions to their challenges.
do a job. However, increasingly we are seeing the
With the expansion of the Informa Group, we are strengthening our position as a leader in the Knowledge and Information Economy. We take our responsibility as a curator and creator very seriously and, now that two-thirds of our revenue comes from events and conferences (where the majority of content is created by partners), it's crucial that all content is trustworthy. Not only does this help people make informed decisions, it also helps our customers share their specialist knowledge in ways the wider world will respect. By continuing to focus on knowledge created by experts, we believe we help to improve the trustworthiness of knowledge and our products.
We now employ over 11,000 people in more than 30 countries. Many of our colleagues are specialists in niche sectors, and we rely on their qualifications and professional experience to maintain standards. Each sector has its own processes for quality assurance (aligned with what customers in those markets expect). For example, our peer review process ensures we meet the standards of academic publishing. Within exhibitions and events, our approach varies by market but we create the most trust in markets where we can carry out due diligence on exhibitors to ensure a high level of quality and accuracy in their content.
We're seeing a universal demand for better, faster and more effective ways of accessing knowledge. Many of our investments in the business, such as our Growth Acceleration Plan which completed in 2017, are about finding new ways of connecting trustworthy information with the people who need it. We look to explore new formats and routes to market that allow us to grow our audiences in a commercial and fair way. We're also increasingly engaging with people online, 365 days a year – helping us build audiences of the future and grow our brand recognition and profile.
We want to be the best informed in all of our specialist markets, so that we can spot new trends and innovate. In many markets, this means creating new digital content and online resources and toolkits. On the show floor, "pocket theatres" and pop-up education sessions are bringing more excitement. In Taylor & Francis, we've seen a growing demand for long-form content to be made into custom books for specific needs supported by the ability to search journals down to chapter or even paragraph level.
The content we provide must, of course, be relevant and unbiased – but we also want it to inspire progress towards a better world. At our best, we work with our customers and partners to understand what challenges they're trying to solve, then use our unique skills and relationships to support them. We believe the right knowledge can light the way, and we use our position to share content that we believe will make a tangible and positive difference.
This contributes to the UN's SDG 4 – Quality Education – and also helps our partners address each of the 17 SDGs that are particularly relevant to them.
Knowing what each specialist market is trying to achieve is the key to curating and creating content that helps people address the challenges they face. Our customers implicitly (and sometimes explicitly) look to our brands and businesses to help find the knowledge that can solve some of their most pressing challenges – from attracting investment and dealing with disruption through to tackling climate change. That's why some of our most important work involves building and maintaining relationships beyond the simple delivery of content.
7,100+ new books published 2017: 7,100+
2016: 6,100+
120,000 e-books to search and download
170 countries sold into 2017: 165 2016: 165
21.90p total 2018
dividend (up 7.1%)
3.7%+ underlying growth Revenue 2017 £1.8bn 2018 £2.4bn
2016
| 2018 | £732m | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | £546m | ||
| 2016 | £377m |
£1.3bn
In 2016's Sustainability Report, Mark Gordon, Head of Pharma Product Management in our Informa Intelligence Division, told us about his team's collaboration with Professor Andrew W. Lo of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ("MIT"). The aim was to leverage Informa's data and MIT's specialist expertise to help find transformational ways of financing the development of new medicines. We invited Professor Lo to update us on progress:
"When I first met Mark Gordon I was a newcomer to healthcare – my background as an economist was in designing mathematical models for investment strategies and risk analysis. But several family members had been recently diagnosed with cancer and, as I learned about how cancer drugs were developed and funded, I was shocked that the existing system didn't make more use of recent developments in financial risk management. Many promising drug candidates were sitting on shelves gathering dust because they lacked the funding to finish trials. Here was something an economist could help with, something that could make a real difference to a lot of people.
Risk is often one of the main reasons new drugs don't get developed. It can cost over \$2bn and take up to 10 years to get a new drug approved. Only a fraction of potential new therapies succeed, and only those that get funded all the way – about 5% in oncology over the past 20 years. Because the risk is so high, investors just aren't able to fund some projects that could yield life-saving therapies. My hunch was, if we could provide more accurate measures of the risk involved, we might be able to give investors more confidence in this sector.
Using Informa's data sets of over 150,000 clinical trials across more than 15,000 compounds, that's just what we've done.
Our collaboration with Informa started as Project ALPHA (Analytics for Life-sciences Professionals and Healthcare Advocates), which uses a new approach to estimate probabilities of success using vast amounts of clinical trial data. This had never been done on such a large scale before, and we believe that the size of the data set we're using yields some of the most accurate estimates available.
What's more amazing is Informa's commitment to allowing us to make the results publicly available at no cost. At projectalpha.mit.edu we're providing quarterly updates to these estimates, and it seems like the industry has started using these numbers. It's a bold and savvy business move by Informa, which can anticipate a growing number of investors wanting to subscribe for more detailed analytics.
Using the same data set, we're currently applying machinelearning techniques to construct more refined models for predicting the outcomes of clinical trials. We'll be publishing an article on this work in 2019, along with open-source software that will allow all stakeholders in the biomedical ecosystem to apply these tools to their own projects.
Our research programme is aimed at improving estimates of the commercial viability of drug and device development projects. Our work will, ultimately, allow investors to better spread their risks across a larger number of investments and attract new funders.
The bottom line for us is more positive outcomes for patients. Everyone on our team knows someone dealing with cancer, Alzheimer's, or other life-threatening diseases that might be saved by a new drug that's currently under development. This is what motivates us.
High quality, cutting edge and peer reviewed research is what scientific discoveries, commercial research and development and future scholarship are based on. This is "Content" at its most direct.
Taylor & Francis, our Academic Publishing business, commissions, curates, produces and publishes scholarly research and reference-led content in specialist subject areas that advances research and enables knowledge to be discovered and shared.
We invest in maintaining and enhancing the technology that makes current and historic content discoverable and usable today; oversee the submission, independent review and production process; maintain and promote research brands; and work closely with authors, editors and researchers to support their work.
Taylor & Francis has long offered the choice to publish open access, where authors (or more typically, their funders) pay for the cost of publishing their research. The work is then offered free for anyone to read, enabling knowledge to be widely shared and accessed.
Open Access research continues to grow and we have steadily been building our content and capabilities. This model continues to be a feature of the academic publishing market, particularly in Europe, and we have been steadily building our open access content and capabilities. This includes converting journals to open access and adding new journals and teams.
In 2017, the addition of Dove Medical Press brought more than 90 high quality, fully open access journals into the Division and added to our portfolio in specialist subject areas such as diabetes, cancer, geriatrics, nanomedicine, neurology and psychiatry.
We've also brought expertise and resources to streamline Dove's processes. In 2018 this enabled Dove to handle a 50%+ increase in submissions and a 25% increase in accepted papers while keeping peer review and production times stable. This helps us publish and distribute more high quality, trustworthy content out to more people, faster.
"Dove has an unwavering focus on author service, as well as deep and productive relationships in China. In addition to their portfolio of journals, working with the team has been a rich source of learning for us."
Deborah Kahn Publishing Director
| 2018 | 16,928 | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 11,073 | ||
| 2016 | 7,602 |
| 2018 | +4.2m sqm | |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | +1.8m sqm | |
| 2016 | +1.4m sqm | |
| 77% of our books are available as ebooks 2017 – 74% 2016 – 73% |
35% proportion of accepted academic articles from developing countries 2017 – 35% 2016 – 36% |
In our two previous Sustainability Reports, we've talked about how the content we help curate and create is enabling others to address big global challenges, many of which are integral to the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.
We believe that every event, book, journal, database or other product can act as a catalyst for progress. Previous reports focused on how our content helps solve issues in healthcare, farming, technology and construction.
This year, given the renewed interest in environmental issues, we've included examples of where our Content is helping the shift to more responsible environmental behaviour.
Greenbuild is the largest show in the world where people interested in green building come together. As the premier face-to-face experience for sustainability in the built environment, it's the place where passionate professionals in architecture, construction, engineering, planning and interior design come to find thoughtful and ethical solutions which promote wellness and resilience in construction and urban development.
Produced in partnership with the US Green Building Council, the event is four unique days of education with over 200 sessions, more than 350 innovative companies in the expo hall and dynamic networking opportunities throughout the week. Participants return to the field armed with the education and discoveries to make decisions, influence their audiences and inspire dialogue that drives the green building movement forwards.
The success of the show comes from the community behind Greenbuild – from show partners, vendors and exhibitors to attendees, volunteers and speakers. They are one of the most engaged, fun, invested groups of people who make sustainability more than just a trade show. It's a lifestyle they are passionate about living.
Plastic has received a lot of attention from the public, industry and media in recent years. From my experience working on our Plástico Brasil show, the annual international plastics and rubber fair, I believe plastic is an incredibly important substance. I also think there are better ways of managing waste plastic – and that's exactly what we have been promoting at the event.
Each year, hundreds of brands and thousands of people gather at our show to explore the future of the industry. Leading by example, this year we worked with exhibitors to demonstrate equipment used to recycle the plastic waste generated at the show. We created online content about how to eliminate waste and better understand the plastic market and government policies. Launched at the show, these are now available 365 days a year.
A dedicated area of the show floor offered the latest recycling machines and processes, and we established the "Parque de Ideias", an area shared by industry partners, NGOs and local universities which are promoting new solutions.
Sharon Zittle, Senior Operations Manager, Informa Markets, Boulder Pride and inspiration aren't words typically associated with waste management, but they perfectly capture the work we do at WasteExpo.
Each year over 14,000 people from the global waste management industry gather with more than 600 exhibitors. I believe our show has, over its 50-year history, ushered in more significant innovations in the industry than any other event, helping society deal with different kinds of waste in a more economical and responsible way. And the future looks even more promising. From big data to big trucks to bio-converters, WasteExpo is the place to be for the unveiling of new products and services.
But beyond those innovations, bringing the whole industry together once a year also helps people develop their skills by participating in more than 60 educational sessions. This year we'll be covering topics such as recycling, waste-to-energy, food recovery, safety and fleet management. I'm also proud of WasteExpo's new sustainability approach to our own event, which in turn encourages our convention facilities partners to improve their sustainability efforts so that all shows at that venue can benefit.
"WasteExpo is great at bringing together multiple segments of the industry under one roof. It's a great place to make new connections, explore new technologies, and forge new alliances."
Suze Vance Business Programs Manager, Recycling Perks
Gerardo Barajas, Portfolio Director, Informa Markets, Mexico City MIREC and AIREC are two of the largest renewable energy shows in Mexico and Argentina. UBM recently acquired both events, recognising a growing market which focuses on the development of renewable energy.
We help people navigate the complexities of financing, investment and regulatory landscapes, sometimes in quite challenging economic circumstances. Our content is key – we focus on attracting the highest calibre speakers available so that we can maintain a reputation for bringing the important decision-makers together in one place. We provide attendees with a space for education and also debate, where people can be honest about the challenges.
By better understanding agendas, and helping others to understand the landscape, we believe we're helping more renewable energy plants get built. Some people who install renewable energy systems in Mexico, supplied with innovative finance models, have never had electricity before! We're proud to be supporting the Latin American energy revolution – our events are helping to drive the sustainability agenda, supporting the development of government policy, highlighting key opportunities and encouraging investment.
"MIREC is an excellent forum with high level participants who share experience and views on how to best address the significant renewable energy opportunities that Mexico's programme offers."
Roberto de Diego Arozamena CEO, Abdul Latif Jameel Energy
Our publications and events provide platforms for people from many different backgrounds to express their views, share innovations and create understanding – an ever more important goal in today's climate. Here are three of those stories, focusing on just a small subset of the issues of diversity.
The Women in Leadership Forum is a networking and community building event, bringing together female and male executives from across the global pharmaceutical industry (an industry in which women are still under-represented at senior levels).
The Forum was launched at CPhI Worldwide in 2014 and has grown to include successful events in North America, India and China. Attendees have the chance to meet colleagues from across the world, share experiences and develop strategies for bringing diversity and equal opportunities into organisations.
Previous events focused on creating a work–life balance, establishing a framework for mentorship, and ensuring women have the support they need to progress into leadership roles. The key takeaway from the 2018 Forum in Madrid was that companies and individuals need to start thinking and acting on a human level to help attract, and most importantly retain, talent from many different backgrounds.
We received great feedback from the event again this year, and hope it will continue to grow, stimulating debate and bringing diverse voices into our markets.
FundForum is the world's number one global investment management event. I'm proud to say that this year saw the highest ever number of women attending, and the highest number of influential women and rising stars on the podium.
In an industry that's typically male-dominated, one quarter of our attendees were women and we worked hard to ensure that a wide range of voices were heard. Three out of four keynote speakers were women, as were almost 30% of speakers as a whole. We also hosted our first ever Diversity Project workshop with support from Dame Helena Morrissey, the Project's Chairman.
And to make sure that the future is even more representative, our Rising Stars programme, which highlights young innovators as speakers, was 50% female. Whilst there's a distance to go for full gender parity in finance, we think this year was a great step in the right direction.
"For our products to remain relevant for the next generation of customers, we must push diversity hard at every turn, changing established thinking."
25%
Record number of
women attending
FundForum
At Interior Design Show Toronto we're nurturing a design ecosystem that offers ways for customers to connect with their industry at every level of their design careers. And focusing on emerging designers is one of the strongest ways we can bring diversity and innovation to the show, which in turn creates excitement and engagement within our audience.
Some 15 years ago we created our Studio North and Prototype areas in the event to give young, emerging designers space on the show floor. Each year we curate these areas to allow over 50 young graduates or start-up design firms a chance to showcase their work to the North American design community. Typically, the design on display ranges from accessories, furniture and lighting to textiles, wall coverings and surface design.
As well as covering part of the cost, we organise a panel (consisting of international media and one well-established designer) to critique the work on display. The winners of "Best Studio North Collection" and "Best Prototype" get complimentary entry to the following year's event, and previous exhibitors have gone on to take larger areas elsewhere in the show floor as their business has become more established.
Time and again we are told by our trade and consumer audiences alike that these areas are favourites. They are hugely varied and you get to see design work that is innovative and experimental. And the participants thank us for creating a space where they can display their work to an audience that genuinely appreciates their design journey.
"A unique chance for designers to network, expand ideas and reveal their latest bodies of work to the hugely diverse and high profile IDS audience."
Nina Azzarello Senior Editor, designboom
"The real magic of the event was the interaction with peers and industry experts."
Jeremy Labelle Prototype Winner from IDS18
Our Customers make up many specialist networks and industries around the globe, and they come to us for much more than knowledge and information. We offer them a place, whether physical or virtual, to connect with others and find professional development, new solutions and inspiration.
More than simply curating or creating content for our customers, our brands bring people together – experts, buyers, sellers, authors, partners, associations, communities – around a common topic, challenge or even passion. That sense of connection creates loyalty, which can only be good for our business. Done well, it also puts us at the heart of a community as a valued partner.
With the expansion of our Group, with more customers, we have even more opportunities to connect through events and conferences and all the engagement around them.
Our customers recognise that our brands give them access to communities where they can learn more about each other, and the topics they're interested in. We're always looking for more and better ways to foster that learning, and to help them solve the challenges they face. As our audience grows, we are providing ever more diverse and inclusive ways of doing this.
From exhibitor speed dating and attendee yoga classes to author workshops and music concerts, we are delivering to meet higher expectations from Customers who want more experiential, more diverse ways of connecting and learning.
If we can get this right, we turn our customers into advocates who invite others to join them in our communities, be that in person or virtually.
Now that more of our business is events and conferences, more customers than ever are interacting with Informa and each other in real life. This builds on what all of our divisions do in terms of connecting people, be that through our consulting work in Informa Intelligence, author education classes in Taylor & Francis or other increasingly diverse ways of building relationships. We're also continuing to invest in online platforms whose power to enable customers to make better and more meaningful connections is undimmed.
Company subscription to our intelligence products
| 2018 | +5.5m | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | +2m | ||
| 2016 +1.3m |
|||
1/3
of people said they "strongly agree" that the event should be run in a responsible, sustainable way
5.5m+ people attended our events
4/5 of our customers, across more than 270 events, tell us that it matters to them that running the event responsibly and sustainably is important to them
Here at Informa's New Hope Network, we're creating a community for the healthy lifestyle products industry – offering content, events, data, research and consultative services to help grow businesses and bring more health to more people.
In 2018, the story of one budding entrepreneur, Chef GW Chew, founder of Something Better Foods, captured so much of the "why" behind what we do each day to serve consumer brands. Chef Chew won the 2018 Pitch Slam at our show in Baltimore, Natural Products Expo East. His mission is to change lives "one chew at a time" by bringing healthy plant-based alternatives to under-served communities.
The Pitch Slam, hosted at Natural Products Expo each year, provides the opportunity to elevate mission-driven and innovative brands – connecting them with the exposure and resources they need to succeed. This creates a space for early stage brands to put their business ideas to a team of experts and a big audience at the show, and the chance to win a top prize of \$40,000 in New Hope services, including a free booth the following year.
Typically, we see 50–100+ applications per show, which gives us a unique view of the incredible "innovation for good" that is happening in the market. Each entrepreneur sends us a 60-second video explaining how they're creating change in the world and why their brand would benefit from being a part of the Pitch Slam. It's one of my favourite parts – it's so inspiring to see the human stories at the heart of our industry.
Panels of expert judges select the grand prize winner and our mentors offer helpful feedback for all the budding entrepreneurs. For example, Jake Deleon at Origin Almond, a 2018 entrant, said "receiving the invaluable feedback from the mentor and selection committee helped to inspire and guide me and my team to improve our proposition and make ourselves better as a company overall."
Which brings me back to Chef Chew. After winning our 2018 Pitch Slam and taking advantage of his prize package, he joined us at our Esca Bona event in Austin, Texas as one of our FIX "Pitch for Progress" participants, where he pitched for help in finding the right mission-based, patient capital to help him grow his company. One month later, he pitched at our Nutrition Capital Network ("NCN") event to our community of NCN investors. Through these experiences, we were able to make lots of introductions and, by the time this is published, Something Better Foods should have secured its first funding round.
I feel so much gratitude when participants like Chef Chew get up on stage and say "Thanks to New Hope, and thanks to the team at Natural Products Expo", acknowledging the role we've had in their brand's story, right from the start. This feels like servant leadership and I'm seeing truly deep relationships come from it – it honestly feels like a family, and I haven't seen that before in any other business.
Black Hat USA is the world's leading information security event, where we bring together nearly 19,000 security professionals for the latest research, trends and best practices that help keep information secure.
The show's programming is made up of "tracks", mainly focusing on specific technologies, but in 2018 Black Hat introduced a "Community track" in response to growing recognition that there is a huge opportunity to address some of the more hidden issues that affect people working in the information security ("InfoSec") community.
We wanted to provide a forum for sharing ideas and discussing the human side of the industry. But we also wanted to stay true to our roots – creating a conference programme that is driven by the community. So, as in our other tracks, we invited members of our InfoSec community to submit papers on their latest work.
The response was tremendous – we received almost 70 proposals. They were all considered by our Review Board, a group of 50–60 of the industry's most credible and distinguished security professionals and thought leaders, who selected topics based on their uniqueness, the expertise of the speaker, as well as the relevance and need for increased discussion of these topics in the sector. The selected talks for 2018 were as follows:
Many of these topics opened discussions on tackling some of the taboos in the industry and they resonated positively with our attendees, with three talks scoring in our top 20. In 2019, Black Hat will continue to implement community talks around pressing InfoSec issues, with the help of our Review Board, who are eager to help shape this important programme for our audience.
As part of our Developing Countries Working Group, which exists to explore ways we can support those countries, this year we rebooted the Special Terms for Authors & Researchers (better known as STAR). This initiative provides researchers in low-income countries with free access to leading journals. STAR aims to build relationships with these researchers as current or prospective authors. We see it as one part of an individual's journey with us, while supporting the research community around access in the face of financial, technological or other challenges.
In 2018 we doubled-down on our commitment to STAR by enabling easier enrolment and instant access, and expanding the number of eligible countries. Once researchers have signed up, we enable access to top research in their areas of interest and advice on getting published. We grant free access to up to 50 Taylor & Francis online articles per year (and more if they run out of credits).
These efforts have already started paying off – we saw 665 new registrants in 2018 (2017: 432; 2016: 105) and hope to beat that number in 2019. Yaw Owusu-Agymeman, a STAR researcher who works on increasing support for adult learners in the telecoms and energy sectors in Ghana, mirrors many comments we hear: "STAR has helped me update my references with new knowledge from other researchers."
We're thrilled to have seen real enthusiasm for the initiative, not just from researchers and authors, but from journal editors and societies. We're excited about the future of STAR as part of our commitment to Publishers for Development alongside other initiatives like www.Research4Life.org and www.INASP.org.uk. We are continuing to try to promote the widest possible distribution of journals across developing countries.
STAR has eligible researchers in
countries across Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean and South East Asia
STAR users 665 2018
Spider-Man, Superman, witches, wizards and white walkers – superheroes, magical beings and villains alike – all gather at our 12 FanExpo shows around Canada and the US. What looked at first glance like the set of Hollywood's latest blockbuster was actually the newest FanExpo event to join Informa's business.
For those who aren't familiar with our work, FanExpo is a celebration of fandom for lovers of anime, sci-fi, horror, gaming, comics and more. What began as a really niche community – we estimate just 1,500 people attended the first FanExpo 25 years ago – has become one of North America's most influential group of events to bring together pop culture fandom. Today, we take over the biggest exhibition centres in major cities across Canada and the US, and we get anything from 15,000 to 140,000 attendees over each weekend. More than half a million fans come through our doors every year. We're proud of these numbers, of course, but FanExpo HQ's great power is so much more than just these mind-boggling attendance numbers.
We know that for many fans, our events are the most important date in their calendar. Increasingly, we're seeing digital conversations take place in anticipation of the shows as many attendees use the occasion to cement friendships (which have formed or are maintained online) in real life. This makes for an amazingly special social occasion and creates an exceptional community that we believe wouldn't thrive as well if we didn't do our jobs right.
On the opening morning, the lines stretch around the block as people queue for once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to meet the stars of their universe. I hope this goes some way to conveying the electricity you can feel in the frantic five minutes before the doors open. The culmination of months of planning, the hurry of hundreds of exhibitors making finishing touches to their booths, the last-minute logistical problems that bring out the team's truly superhuman powers as they finesse every last little detail!
Everything we do goes towards creating the ultimate experience for the fans: making a safe, inclusive space for people to gather and celebrate together. As our evolving purpose statement says, this is a place to discover, celebrate and belong.
The shopping and the stars are important draws, and we're always looking to make it easier for fans to get to exactly what they want as easily as possible (for example, grouping all the comic stalls in one area). But we also leave room for surprise and delight in a space where strangers can have spontaneous conversations and discover related genres. And we are seeing more multi-genre fans emerge from their experience at our events, who can in turn get more from the show's range of features.
In 2019 we're developing an Ambassador affiliate programme to reward and encourage the most vocal fans to spread the word about our events and, of course, our content. We want to better leverage fan-generated content, and keep creating our own content that draws more people to attend. Most importantly of all, we're working to better communicate the special nature of the fan experience at our events – not just what you'll see, or who you'll meet, but how you'll feel. That's the power we want to harness, and the responsibility we feel towards our fans.
"It's a misconception that costumes are mandatory. The most committed fans spend months planning and creating the most incredible outfits. For some this is about creativity and self-expression. Some are simply having fun. I'll be there in 2019 wearing my plaid shirt, as usual. But if someone loves dressing up as a character, FanExpo is one of the few places where it is not only accepted, but actively celebrated! It's a chance for people who care deeply about their craft and their fandom to become part of the show, and be celebrated as heroes within the community they belong to."
In 2018, our fashion exhibitions business began a collaboration with the Conscious Fashion Campaign and the United Nations (UN) Office for Partnership in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The initiative, launched at COTERIE in September, aims to harness the power of retailers, media and celebrities to recognise fashion brands that are working to end poverty, protect the planet and practise sustainability – also known as "conscious consumerism".
Called Conscious Collections, 16 brands were celebrated for their efforts. These ranged from creating economic growth for female weavers in India and using zero-waste practices across the entire production process, to creating a network of artisans in Africa who make jewellery from reclaimed materials.
We are one of the leading event organisers in the fashion world, which gives us a unique perspective on where future trends are moving. We aim to work with our partners to reflect the trends in the industry but also recognise opportunities for the industry to act as a moral compass with the responsibility to promote sustainability. That's why, in a world increasingly concerned about the environmental impact of fashion, we are celebrating those partners who are doing it differently. By leveraging our ability to highlight great solutions to our audiences and propel the mission of the Conscious Fashion Campaign, we are part of creating a positive legacy for the fashion industry and the world at large.
Over the last couple of years, we have been thinking a lot about how we could ensure our events contributed to society. We noticed that customers from several companies were thinking about the same challenge: they were doing various charitable activities but always contributing to the same organisations and they didn't know if they could be having a bigger impact with a different partner.
We realised that we had a unique opportunity to use our strengths to bring together corporates and NGOs. In October 2018, we opened the first ever KIND Malaysia event providing free exhibition space and exhibiting support to not-for-profits. The idea was to create a space where people can come and discover the right partner for them, whether they were a charity, a business or possible volunteer. We opened the event to the whole market and invited NGOs from the region to apply, being selective on the final 57 NGOs which exhibited in 11 different categories, ranging from supporting children and the elderly to disaster relief, health, women and education.
What was really amazing was the camaraderie created by the show. Not only did the NGOs contribute their energies to programming seminars across the two days – everyone from our supply partners to government got involved and offered their services or support as well. For example, the venue was donated by our venue partner and our brochure designer offered their services pro bono. What's more, nearly half of our colleagues in the office volunteered their time. It was a great opportunity for some team members to get experience of being on the event floor. It just goes to show that sometimes the community just needs someone to take the first step.
"If we help our Customers be better in their roles, and help them solve the big challenges the industry faces, they are more likely to become an ambassador for our brands and sell on our behalf."
We were thrilled to have Mr Prem Rawat, Global Ambassador of Peace, as our keynote speaker and our guest of honour was Datuk Isham Ishak, Secretary General at the Ministry of International Trade and Industry.
Following the resounding success, word of KIND Malaysia has reached some high places. We have just signed a memorandum of understanding which states that the whole National Scouts movement will support KIND Malaysia in future (which is even more significant when you know that the Head of the National Scouts is also the King of Malaysia!).
We've also evaluated the event to enable us to make a bigger impact in the most efficient way possible. This has led us to introduce KIND pavilions in some of our existing exhibitions in 2019. This will broaden the audience and put NGOs in places that many of our customers are already visiting, as well as adding another dimension to those events. Finally, it will continue building our public image as more than just a commercial partner – we're giving back to society and our markets too.
Data privacy was all over the news in 2018. The public, governments and businesses have sent clear signals that more needs to be done to protect personal data. A significant step forward in Europe, and it was indeed a landmark for data protection, came with the introduction of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in May.
Data is part of everything we do at Informa, and over the last two years we've significantly ramped up our investment in systems, processes and expertise to keep customer, colleague and partner data secure. GDPR introduced a range of compliance and policy implications for companies like ours, and I became part of the Group Compliance team working alongside newly established Privacy Managers in all the Divisions to develop our response.
In particular, my role was to lead Informa's GDPR programme, providing support and guidance right across the business. This programme has enabled us to do the following:
In 2019, our team will continue to build on the strong foundations laid by the GDPR programme with a global privacy framework and strategy. I'm confident that we're in a good position to navigate the increasing number of data protection and cyber regulations being introduced around the world.
With more than five million people coming to Informa's events every year, it's vital that we understand how we can better meet their expectations and create value for them. We know that what our audience needs changes according to their market, culture, history and simply over time, and we're increasingly tracking these consistently through our Explori customer feedback platform.
In 2017, Informa's sustainability team asked us if audience expectations were changing around the sustainability and impact of our shows. Together, we wanted to test whether this affected the satisfaction scores and, perhaps, even our customers' likelihood of recommending our show to others (the Net Promoter Score). We also set out to capture data more consistently across our shows to allow us to measure the impact on the host cities (see page 26).
We know from the results that 80% of our audience tell us that it matters to them if we're running the event responsibly and sustainably. More than 30% strongly agreed with this statement and it's clearly becoming a hygiene factor at events – a minimum expectation we must meet but perhaps also a chance to differentiate ourselves. In 2019, we'll begin measuring how well we're meeting those expectations, as well as expanding measurement further into our other events.
But, most importantly, we also tested how well we're supporting our customers to be better at their jobs. This is a proxy for how well we're helping them solve industry challenges and making a difference through our content and customers. More than two-thirds of people agreed that our events make them more able to do this and high scores in this correlate extremely highly with a higher overall experience and Net Promoter Score.
Put simply, if we help our customers to be better in their roles, and help them solve the big challenges that the industry faces, they are more likely to become an ambassador for our brands and sell on our behalf. It's a win-win-win for everyone.
273 conferences and confex audiences have now responded to our surveys
4/5 of our customers, across more than 270 events, tell us that it matters to them that running the event responsibly and sustainably is important to them
1/3 of people said they "strongly agree" that the event should be run in a responsible, sustainable way
Our Communities include all those with a connection to Informa, direct or indirect. We want to ensure we consider our impacts on the host cities, for both our offices and our events, as well as on community groups, our suppliers and others. The expanded Group operates in a broader and more diverse range of countries than in the past, particularly in the Asian regions. This gives us the opportunity to learn and share more between our different geographies, bringing good practices to areas that can benefit.
Informa has many suppliers: printers, web hosts, venues, construction contractors, caterers, data analysts and more all work with us to deliver our services. As one of the largest procurers of some of our key services, particularly around events, we have the opportunity to encourage our supply chain to adopt more responsible practices.
Our Business Partner Code of Conduct, supported by our Modern Slavery Programme and specialist policies, sets the basic standards for our supply chain. But we're also bringing together industry groups to look at how we can work together to improve standards, from sustainable carpets and the use of plastics at our events, to how the media influences the public. In particular, with our growth into new regions, we are working to share lessons learned in delivering more sustainable events into other geographies.
We know we can make a positive difference in our customer communities, but we also want to support the communities our colleagues are part of. Donations of cash but, more impactfully, of "in kind" services as well as providing volunteering time and access, help us demonstrate to colleagues and other stakeholders that we want to support causes that matter to them.
From volunteering and charity work to measuring the impact we have on the cities that host our offices and operations, it's important that we understand the needs of these communities that we belong to and find ways to create value to each party.
Every colleague gets paid time off to volunteer each year and colleagues are positively encouraged to take this time, either as a team or individual, to help a cause they care about. It's a good thing to do for its own sake, but it also pays dividends for the Company, in terms of team building, skills development and better engagement. This report outlines a few of our programmes to help donate our content and customer connections to our Communities where it can be valuable to them. We also raise money for local charities through our annual Walk the World programme and our shows collectively induce millions of pounds to be raised and donated to charities.
% of colleagues volunteering
| People | ||
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 15% 1,729 |
|
| 2017 | 9% | 689 |
| 2016 | 6% | 372 |
Company donations 1
Company donations (cash)
Volunteer programme costs (incl. % staff time) Donations in kind2
1 2016 and 2017 updated to reflect new calculations but covers Informa only.
2 Includes all known donations. Significant jump is due to addition of UBM which records data more consistently.
Many of our brands have worked closely with charities for years, but we've seen increasing returns when relationships become partnerships with clear, shared goals that use the unique skills of everyone involved. Altogether, our shows raise millions of pounds for charity each year – however, we believe we can make a greater contribution if we align the skills and resources in our communities with the aims of the charities and groups we work with. Here are three stories from this year:
At Food Ingredients Europe ("FIE"), we pay close attention to the issues that matter to our exhibitors and attendees, and we work to provide content, education, dialogue and innovation to help address the societal challenges facing this industry.
Food scarcity is one of those issues and that's one reason we've chosen to partner with The Hunger Project, an international not-for-profit organisation committed to ending world hunger in line with the UN's SDG 2 (Zero Hunger). Its programmes throughout Africa, South Asia and Latin America use a unique and holistic approach which empowers people living in rural villages to become the agents of their own development, making sustainable progress towards overcoming hunger and poverty.
We've been able to raise awareness for this important cause by providing The Hunger Project with a stand, speaking slots and signage at our events, and giving in-kind our marketing and sales skills. For example, we built its website and conducted sales calls to help the Project form partnerships with our exhibitors.
This has enabled The Hunger Project to grow its outreach and network across the food and beverage industry. It's also been great for our people to share their skills with an organisation which can benefit so tangibly from them, and it's helped us demonstrate to our markets that we care about the same issues as them.
At Live Design International ("LDI"), we bring together 14,000 people who work in the design, technology and production of live audience experiences, from theatre productions and art installations to mega concerts. They are responsible for the world's most impressive and immersive productions and they come to LDI to discover the latest techniques and equipment in the business.
We've supported charities at the show for decades but this year we wanted to think differently about how we go beyond simple fundraising and instead link the show's purpose of "inspiring the art of live design" to bring our audience and a charity together.
Immersive sensory spaces can be used as a form of therapy for children with autism, but many charities and families struggle to access the necessary equipment. Our exhibitors have many of the products, and our attendees have many of the skills, that can help provide those experiences that benefit these children.
So, this year, LDI welcomed parents and children from Families for Effective Autism Treatment of southern Nevada, where LDI is held. The families were invited to explore the LDI show floor, checking out the lighting and video displays at various booths, culminating in an immersive, interactive sensory booth featuring various lighting and audio-visual set-ups provided by one of our partners.
It's a small start, but I'm thrilled that other exhibitors were intrigued by the event and welcomed it onto the show floor. We've already had a number express interest in being involved next year.
"This initiative uses the skills and experience of LDI's audience to gives back to the Las Vegas community that hosts LDI each year but also exposes future generations to the joy and artistry of our entertainment design world."
All Informa colleagues get paid volunteer days and everyone is encouraged to take part in volunteering that provides team-building or uses their professional skills to add value to community groups.
In total, 15% of our colleagues volunteered in 2018, and some offices saw much higher participation rates this year than last. In Amsterdam for instance, 86% of colleagues in the office volunteered a total of 735 hours in 2018.
For the second year running, the office organised a volunteer week, aiming to get everyone involved in some kind of activity. By giving people ideas for different activities and styles, we hoped to encourage more people to use more of their volunteering days.
People chose between 10 different charities which support a wide range of groups across the city, including the elderly, homeless people, people with addictions, disabled people or those in debt.
Our volunteering is also boosted by the support we offer to charities that partner with us for various shows and events. For example, we held a workshop with the International Medical Corps, the official charity partner of the Pharma portfolio, to explore ways we can help to grow and support the partnership.
I think these kinds of projects in particular demonstrate how our people can develop their skills, and use them to benefit community groups, whilst taking advantage of a great benefit that Informa offers.
In a recent study, the Events Industry Council ("EIC") calculated the global value of conferences, trade shows and meetings in 2017 was worth more than US\$1 trillion, as well as directly supporting more than 10 million jobs. Moreover, the jobs and economic value created indirectly, or 'induced', was more than 2.5 times that amount.
Studies like this reinforce our own work to measure the value we create when a city hosts an event and we've been working with city organisations, academics and consultants to find a better way for Informa to measure our impacts. This includes measuring the impact of:
We've now tested this approach with three pilot shows: GreenBuild, AfricaCom and ExpoEast and used a mix of data from the public, our own surveys and other research studies. The current framework focuses on attendees and the cities in which events are held. In the long-term, we believe this work will help us build stronger local partnerships in our host cities.
As expected, we've seen that different shows create value for their host cities in different ways, depending on their size and the purpose of the show but that they always create economic value, jobs and connections. These also appear to substantially outweigh any environmental harm. The work has also helped us identify better ways of gathering the data needed for this work so we can more efficiently and accurately measure our impact across lots of shows.
In 2019, we will refine this initial work, aiming to create a tool that allows other shows to easily get involved and expand this out.
\$27m New business \$24m Continuing Professional Development (CPD) \$2m Networking \$1m
| \$1m | |
|---|---|
| Venue carbon emissions Venue waste |
\$0.9m \$0.1m |
2018 was a year of building on and improving the processes of managing HSS risk, including ongoing training for operations teams and providing training for key partners, such as our contracts and venue in Egypt.
For more, see informa.com/hss
With new colleagues and new jurisdictions to support, the combination means both opportunities and challenges for our team. We've been updating our Code of Conduct (CoC) programme to reflect the needs of the combined Group, while continuing to provide compliance training to new joiners and running focused workshops for colleagues in India, the US and Hong Kong.
Since the combination, we have also reviewed the combined Group's Human Rights-related risks, to understand how best to focus our programme to support our ongoing commitment to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
For more, see informa.com/humanrights
Paying tax is an important part of our contribution to the societies in which we operate. Our taxes help governments provide vital services and instrastructure, which we in turn rely on to run our business successfully.
The Group's total tax contribution was £317m which includes £139m of taxes borne by the group and £178m of taxes collected on behalf of governments.
contractors attended a HSS training course in Egypt this year
1,000 people have received modern slavery training
Nearly
95% of Informa colleagues had completed CoC training before
the antibribery and corruption training
the acquisition
£317m taxes paid in 2018
17.9% is our effective tax rate 2017: 21.2% 2016: 18.1%
Our Colleagues make Informa what it is – it's that simple. They're the engine that drives our work and growth, the source of our innovation, and the guardians of our relationships. Our culture is one whole made up of many different businesses, divisions and offices across the world. We want to do all we can to support and nurture that diversity, and the people who are behind Informa's success.
At Informa we want to create a workplace where people can thrive. A place where colleagues have the freedom to do things better, where they can put their whole selves into what they do and see how it fits into the big picture.
Scores in our regular Pulse surveys of colleagues' engagement and satisfaction have been improving year-on-year. We're particularly pleased with our results at the end of 2018 which come during a time of organisational change. We have regular conversations with our people about what they think of working at Informa – and we're determined to keep listening, acting on what we hear, and investing in our workplaces to improve things.
We want to have an inclusive culture that makes everyone feel welcome and allows them to be who they are, with local office and team cultures that feel distinct, but a part of the Informa whole. The appointment of a senior leader in each large office as a Pastoral Lead also helps set the tone and formalises the responsibility for the broader office culture within senior management roles.
Diversity starts with recruitment – and we've introduced unconscious bias training to help us bring the right people into the business, whatever their background or personal style. One of the most popular items on our intranet last year was a series of profiles on female leaders. We also support and encourage several grass roots diversity, LGBTQ+ and wellbeing programmes, and we are exploring how to support and expand these into next year. We're also reviewing benefits to ensure they're fair and reflect people's individual needs.
Developing people is hugely important to Informa, and we will be continuing to invest in developing talent.
Personal development is often just that – personal. Colleagues can access this development in a variety of ways, from on-thejob learning and formal training, to programmes that support healthy and productive ways of working. Some of this will come from tailored programmes for the specialist jobs we have, supported by Company-wide initiatives such as emerging leader programmes and graduate development. In 2019, all colleagues will have access to the Company intranet, Portal, and have access to all the same resources and training. In the interim period, we have ensured that all vacancies for roles are posted on both Company intranets to provide more opportunity for career advancement within all parts of the business. We're also rolling out Company-wide training on expectations we have for everyone, such as our Code of Conduct, to ensure everyone meets certain core behaviours.
| Headcount | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Average number of |
2016 | 2017 | 2018 |
| colleagues | 6,394 | 7,525 | 11,197 |
| during: |
Investment in formal training programmes
| 2018 | £3.0m |
|---|---|
| 2017 | £2.5m |
| 2016 | £2.3m |
| Colleague turnover |
| 2018 | 16% | 26% |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 16% | 24% |
| 2016 | 16% | 24% |
| Voluntary turnover | Turnover for all businesses |
Average sickness absence per colleague (days)
| 2018 | 3.01 | |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 2.2 | |
| 2016 | 2.3 | |
For more information on our gender pay gap reporting, go to informa.com/gpg
21.5% (2017: 23.3%)
1 Increase is due to greater coverage of our colleagues and more accurate reporting processes. We are comfortable this does not represent a significant spike in general sickness absence although a small number of long term sickness absences have affected the average.
Walk the World ("WTW") entered its third year in 2018 and it really is amazing to see how it has flourished. It is testament to the team who promote, organise and manage the WTW programme and also to all our Informa colleagues around the world for adopting it and making it so special. Last year more than half of all colleagues took part – over 4,000 – up from 2,000 just two years ago. This meant that almost every office was represented and, together, we managed to walk the total length of the equator!
WTW has now become a highlight of Informa's year. As a colleague-driven initiative, it gives everyone in our business, all around the world, a chance to come together as part of a team, as part of an office, as part of a business and as part of the Informa Group. Each walk is unique to the local office culture and ambition, and it's exactly these distinct differences within the common ambition that is what makes Walk the World feel like a natural part of our business.
We have a small team here at Informa Group to help co-ordinate the event, but it's really created and delivered by hundreds of passionate colleagues all over the world: our WTW champions. Each of them chooses to help to bring their colleagues together and raise money for a local cause selected by the office.
We're now seeing some offices with more than 80% of colleagues participating, and a few actually reached 100%, with some also inviting along groups of customers, partners and suppliers. It's great to see the programme take on a life of its own, with individual initiatives at various offices ranging from silent auctions and charitable volunteering to Informa's latest WTW song, written and performed by our Taylor & Francis office in New Delhi!
We have big plans for WTW in 2019, with several thousand new UBM colleagues joining the business and a growing number of offices preparing to invite external partners.
For more information, see walktheworld.informa.com
4,000 walkers and more than 55%
of our business
88% felt prouder to work for the business
2017: 28,800km, 2016: 17,200km
2017: 3,500 2016: 2,000
"The walk has had a transformational impact on me and my feelings of connection and identity with Informa."
87% felt more connected to their team
£170k raised for local offices' causes through a
combination of colleague and company donations
71% of walkers met new people from the business
Eleanor Phillips was appointed as Informa's Group HR Director to support the expanded Group. We began the conversation asking Eleanor what were the two things that encouraged her to take on her new role.
Two? That's hard. Beyond the role itself, the great thing about working at Informa is the strength of our heritage and the cultures of new organisations joining the expanded Group. The language and actions from the outset supported the combination of the two companies, taking the best from both. It's not always the easiest path to take but so often it's the cleverest. There is still a way to go but I think we're doing this well and our Culture is the better for it. Secondly, I enjoyed the last four years working for a company that had a real soul. I have found the same here. We make things work, build trusting relationships and have a natural belief in each other. There is an authenticity in who we are and what we do.
Financially, the results are starting to tell a story but ultimate success is so much more than this. Just over six months after completion, the organisation feels like it is knitting in to one. Colleagues should be proud of their heritage but are increasingly identifying with Informa. Our colleague engagement survey, completed at the end of the year, showed colleague teams joining into the expanded Group are some of the most engaged. That speaks to the thoughtfulness given to how we combined as two companies, finding the right balance between people and process.
Simply, for the HR team and me to play our part in providing an environment where colleagues can be both themselves and their very best. We have the scale and depth of talent now to be able to grow from within and some great examples like our graduate and apprentice programmes of where we have successfully done this. Scaling solutions and services that support the development of colleagues at Informa will be important, whilst recognising and supporting the fact that we are all different, with different wants and needs.
of colleagues believe strongly in the goals and objectives of the business (May 2018*: 82%)
say that their work gives them a personal sense of accomplishment (May 2018: 79%)
colleague engagement score across a range of questions (May 2018: 77%)
(From January 2019 Pulse survey)
* measuring Informa colleagues only
We now have
4
women (28%) on our Executive Management Team, up from zero a few years ago
Responsible businesses are increasingly being recognised as more successful in retaining talent. Diverse businesses are often seen as more creative and more sustainable, especially when the pressure is on. In a business environment where recruiting great people is key to our success, we believe in finding those great people from a wide variety of places. We want to maintain a culture where they can thrive, be engaged and develop in their careers. Here are just a few of their stories.
Before I was offered the job with Informa, I'd never had the chance to travel outside of the Kingdom of Lesotho and South Africa. Although I'd always wanted to work in journal production, when I first started in the business, it was almost overwhelming, but the team was hugely supportive and helped me realise I had greater potential than I ever realised.
I feel really lucky to work here… I've always been a big dreamer and my dreams have only gotten bigger!
I "officially" came out in my early 20s. I wanted an environment that let me know that I can come into the office without fear or concern that who I am would be held against me and my professional advancement. It gives a freedom that's a little hard to describe unless you've been denied it. By helping people understand things like the LGBTQ+ agenda, or those living with a lifelong condition like HIV, I think we can break down the walls of "I don't understand, therefore I fear" and create a healthy work environment where everyone can be successful. That keeps me working here.
After I adopted my son, and my life kept changing, my team and the business continued to make space for me to balance work and family commitments. I can't imagine working anywhere else. I love the people I work with, the work that I do, and the value I feel as an employee.
Informa has given me flexibility to study for my MPhil, including an extraordinary three-month sabbatical for me to attend a study placement at the University California. I've also been able to author two books whilst working here, one of which was nominated for the Tata Literature Live! Book of the Year Award 2017.
Informa instils a restless passion that drives me every single day. I love making the books we do. The work culture at Informa is precious – most of my colleagues and teams from different departments have grown with an organisation that nurtures freedom, courage, excellence and creativity.
I've worked at Informa for 19 years after starting as a temp in several different departments and gradually getting promoted. Informa has given me the freedom to succeed, which has really helped the Company stand out. There's always a trusted relationship between my team and management and it's allowed us all to evolve along with the Company. Informa is a people business and we have the time to help and develop those people.
Every candidate I have interviewed for any position within my publishing team has always said the same thing: "I want this job because I love books and I enjoy writing." For me, it wasn't the books; it was the people writing them. I have spent half of my life working here – that's a long time, and not everyone gets the opportunity to do what they love doing for so long.
There's been a growing level of scrutiny on the environmental performance of companies for many years, but 2018 in particular saw a step change as the public and governments began to talk more about issues as diverse as climate change and extinction, plastic use and meat production.
headcount). In general, running an event, at the moment, has a
Climate change is happening. As a business, we are committed to reducing our contribution to climate change and managing the risks from any emergency consequences of the climate change already happening.
In 2018, we were among the first companies to use the Science Based Target Initiative ("SBTi"), a methodology to calculate how much we need to reduce our carbon emissions by in order to do our part in keeping temperature rises below 1.5ºC, the level of global temperature rise that the UN believes helps society prevent the more significant risks posed from climate change. We're also identifying and making investments in our properties to support this.
The expanded sustainability team now includes a highly skilled and industry-leading sustainable events team. This is key, as much of the resource usage caused by Informa is within the construction and delivery of our events. We are now merging the approaches of both businesses into the Informa Sustainable Event Management Standard ("ISEMS").
We're also finding ways to produce books and journals, amongst other products, more efficiently. This includes reaching nearly 100% sustainably sourced paper and finding better solutions for our waste, such as diverting books from the pulping process.
The articles throughout this section give more detail on how we're doing this across the Divisions.
Every year, our department has the unenviable task of disposing of books that have been on our shelves for many years and are unlikely to find a future buyer. These numbers have been trending downwards but, at first glance, it looks like we've stayed about the same for two years. However, it would be a mistake to judge the year by its cover – the closure of our Kentucky warehouse meant that we had an unusually large quantity of books to dispose of, which led us to establish a very exciting new relationship with the UK-based Book Aid International.
Book Aid helps millions of people across the world access books, especially in areas where they are in short supply, and we thought this was a great use for our surplus books.
Our partnership began with a "big bold test" to see how many books marked for pulping (a method of recycling paper) could be simply diverted en masse to Book Aid. So, in October 2018, around 14,000 books were shipped across the Atlantic, and more than 80% of them were accepted by Book Aid.
Of course, we're always keeping an eye on how to make things more efficient and, following that initial success, we've introduced a selection process on our side. In December 2018 our UK team identified 53,000 books to be delivered to Book Aid in the first quarter of 2019.
As people who are innately passionate about books, consigning them to be pulped is a gruelling task. And so the idea of donating them to Book Aid and getting knowledge out to less peaceful and secure parts of the world where it has the power to change lives – that's just amazing.
So, how are we reducing the number of books we pulp each year?
That said, having a small number of excess books remains a fact of life for any publisher – which is why partnerships with charities like Book Aid are so rewarding.
| Books sent for pulping ('000) | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | 519 352 tonnes | ||
| 2017 | 694 445 tonnes | ||
| 2016 | 591 401 tonnes |
We at Informa need to make sure that we do our part in slowing and stopping climate change. Not only because it's the right thing to do and it can save costs, but because climate change could put a large part of our business at risk.
During 2018, I led a project to measure Informa's overall impact on
from wildfires in California and drought in South Africa to storms
being disrupted. As a global business, the overall risk to the looking at the location and timing of events, as well as
Based Targets making, we have, along with 500 other leading Initiative (SBTi), a partnership between the UN, WWF, World Resources Institute and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). 2030 to keep the global temperature rise below 1.5°C.
baseline for the whole of the Informa business (including UBM) them in 2019. Whilst they are ambitious, we believe they are
| Scope 1 | Scope 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Heating fuels – 1,616 | Electricity use – 9,227 | ||||
| Refrigerants – 930 | |||||
| Company vehicles – 853 | |||||
| Generator fuels – 923 | |||||
| Scope 3 | |||||
| Running exhibitions – 171,000 | |||||
| Procured goods – 153,000 |
Business travel – 39,000
Printing and shipping of books – 17,000
Our direct fuel and electricity – 14,000
Others – 13,000
Employee commuting – 11,000
Online products' energy usage – 11,000
A GREAT EVENT
A GREAT EVENT
WELCOME
LEVEL 1
H20
HOTEL
14
The numbers on this page show estimates of the carbon footprint for a typical event based on a sample of more than 50 events but it is important to recognise there is a large variation by event.
We are using them to guide our decision making and to help stakeholders understand the relative impact of our events. The graphic above shows it split by control, and to the right we've shown the overall impact.
Ambitions
• Find a sustainable solution to disposable exhibition carpet as part of an industry-wide collaboration
• Freeman, one of our largest contractors in the US, seeks to reuse carpet up to 10 times. • Some UBM shows have trialled carpet-free aisles.
• In Dubai, carpet is recovered and used in schools or
• Almost all our European carpet is recycled after events.
99% Size of impact (% Control 2)
Attendee travel
Ambitions
• To engage our attendees with sustainable travel options and to offset the carbon emissions of their travel to the event as a part of registration
Examples
• Shows like CPhI WorldWide and Natural Products Expo offer attendees the option of offsetting the carbon
from their travel to the event. • We are exploring ways that we can make this part of the standard registration process.
• Decorex International offered a free coffee to
attendees who used public transport to the event.
31%
Size of impact (% Control 3)
• Help our attendees make informed sustainable choices when selecting their accommodation
• GreenBuild audits all of its recommended hotels to help them identify areas they can improve their sustainability. They back this up with education sessions for the host hotels. Offsetting is part of the show's 'green legacy' in the host city.
• We are working with our main hotel consultants to find ways of highlighting the most sustainable hotel choices to our attendees.
9%
Size of impact (% Control 3)
Exhibitor logistics
Ambitions
• Encourage exhibitors to use the most sustainable logistics option and work with our key logistics companies to improve efficiency of shipping
• We encourage exhibitors to use show contractors where possible, making it easier to consolidate shipping and provide materials/equipment locally, reducing long haul shipping.
• By introducing a time slot booking system for event trucks, Vitafoods Europe greatly reduced local congestion and the resulting air pollution.
• Source catering locally and sustainably, without single-use plastic packaging
Examples • Attendees tell us they want healthier, locally sourced food at events. Broadband World Forum invited a local microbrewery to set up on the show floor and our Remode fashion show increased its meat-free options.
• For all signage to be made from sustainable materials and to be recycled after use Examples
38 INFORMA PLC THE ROLE WE PLAY 2018
Lucille Ryan, Sustainability Manager, EMEA Informa Group, London
organisers in the world, particularly in the B2B space, correspondingly large. We know from attendee surveys
leading approach to running the most sustainable hundreds of conferences. But the combination of skills
In 2018, our work on Science Based Targets (SBTs – see page 36) has given us new insights into the biggest sources of carbon emissions from a typical B2B event. This isn't the only measure of an event's impact, but it's a good indicator of the areas we should focus on. One clear challenge is that we can't solve all these problems acting alone. We need to work in partnership with our attendees, exhibitors, venues, contractors and competitors to find ways to achieve the systemic change that's needed. Encouragingly, we're seeing more and more of these stakeholders wanting to collaborate with us to make our industry more sustainable.
We've divided the various sources of carbon emissions into categories, and grouped them into three levels of 'control', based on our ability to directly influence the cause of the impact on the environment:
These are activities where we have substantial control over decisions such as the choice of materials or where to turn things on/off.
These are causes of environmental impact where we can substantially influence choices, but the operational aspects and day-to-day decisions are made by other organisations such as our suppliers.
These are causes of environmental impact where we can substantially influence choices, but the operational aspects and day-to-day decisions are made by other organisations such as our suppliers.
Our work has shown us that Control 1 and Control 2 activities account for less than 10% of a 'typical' responsibility to address. Given the size of the Control 3 impacts, we are also working to find practical ways we can influence the impact there.
It's a different story for waste. Most of the waste arising from an event comes from Control 1 and Control 2, particularly disposable exhibitor stands, single use feature areas and items such as carpet, packaging and consumer materials. We are therefore focusing a lot of our efforts on managing and reducing these impacts.
Informa and UBM both had existing systems for managing the sustainability of an event. In 2018 we began bringing these systems together and updating them. ISEMS, the Informa Sustainable Event Management System, will launch in 2019 with four levels of engagement across all our events.
A set of Sustainable Event Fundamentals, which every event will work towards.
All events will have access to toolkits and self assessment score cards to guide them on going further and help them identify key areas for improvement.
32 50 events every year will work with the Group sustainability team to create a Sustainable Improvement Plan ("SIP").
Shows that graduate from the SIP will be our Sustainability Leaders with high scores in our sustainability audits. Those that are doing something truly unique will be considered our Pioneers.
We'll share more in our 2019 report.
07 In 2018, 12 of our events were certified to IS20121 meaning that external auditors have reviewed the management systems of the events to confirm they have clear, robust approaches to sustainability. Our plan is for several more of our largest shows to follow suit by the end of 2020 as part of our measured expansion of this programme to shows that would benefit most from it.
80%
of our audiences want the event to be run responsibly
GreenBuild won the "Most Commendable Green Initiatives" award at the Trade Show Executive Gold 100 Awards Gala
UBM's Furniture China show now runs an "Excellent Green Building Reward" scheme that rewards the exhibitor stands with the best aesthetics and eco-friendly construction
Our Surfaces Expo show in Las Vegas donated
22
27 truck loads of materials from exhibitors last year, saving money and waste
CosmoProf Asia reduced the stand heights to
metres (from 6 metres a few years ago) to make it safer and save lots of materials. This was recognised in UFI, the event industry association's, Sustainable Development award in 2018
With the Group's expansion, 2018 was a transformational year for sustainability, building on the new structure we established in 2016 and the foundations for progress we laid in 2017. Together, we are in a position that would have taken either business several more years to reach on its own.
14 What's behind the step change? Both companies were already recognised as leaders in our industry for sustainability. Informa gained DJSI membership in 2018 and recognition for our sustainable products and partnerships, while UBM has received multiple awards for CDP performance and its environmental management of events.
What's more, both businesses have clearly made sustainability a differentiator for events and other products. UBM's approach to environmentally responsible and community-minded shows is market leading. Informa has invested in sustainability across five pillars, as you've read in this report.
In short, we have brought together the best of both, enabling us to become more holistically sustainable, responsible and impactful – from individual products and brands through to our collective impact as a Group.
2019 will be a year of combination and acceleration, taking the best of both worlds from the two businesses and then adding to it: updated policies, new approaches to sustainable events and more ambition around how we improve the positive impacts from our operations. We are already seeing more and more colleagues thinking about how products and partnerships can better support their markets to solve big challenges like the SDGs.
We believe that, by helping address the significant challenges that a sector is facing, we are becoming more highly valued partners and, in many cases, helping to solve the challenges the world is facing. This has a clear link with higher Net Promoter Scores and long-term success, and you can expect to see more of this in 2019 and beyond.
With the investment in 2018, the Group sustainability team has expanded and we have created a new, dedicated Sustainable Events Team based in strategic locations around the globe.
The Group team focuses on sustainability in its broadest sense – across all Divisions, linking with key functions such as compliance, corporate governance, HR, strategy and communications to encourage more responsible behaviour.
HOTEL The Sustainable Events Team is a central group that works with the individual show/event teams to find more sustainable ways of operating. This can include cost savings, new revenue opportunities, creating strong partnerships with stakeholders, and communicating better on the impacts of our events. In particular, the team will be sharing examples of good practice from around the business so others can learn.
These teams are supported by a range of policies including Informa's Code of Conduct, our Business Partner Code of Conduct and a range of specialist policies, such as Informa's Paper and Timber Sourcing Policy. We'll be creating a combined environment policy in 2019.
In 2017, we set some mid-term targets to help us focus on improvements while we developed a new sustainability framework. This will include long-term targets running to 2030.
| Issue | Goal | Status | Progress in 2018 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Governance | Sustainability framework |
By 2019, we'll have an expanded framework for sustainability across the business and will have launched it to all our colleagues. This will be integrated with our purpose and business strategy. More than two-thirds of colleagues will be familiar with it. |
We are currently developing a new sustainability framework based on upcoming materiality assessments and the SDGs. |
|
| Dow Jones Sustainability Indices ("DJSI") performance |
Enhance our absolute score by focusing on opportunities to progress in constituent parts of the index, and work towards DJSI World inclusion by 2020. |
We exceeded this goal, increasing our DJSI score from 61 to 68 in 2018. This moved us from the 88th to the 96th percentile and puts us firmly in the DJSI Global and European leadership indices. |
||
| Content | Sector collaboration |
By 2020, we'll participate in at least two sector collaborations on understanding and improving the impact of our sector. |
In August 2018, Informa worked with Freeman and UFI, an association of the exhibitions industry, to convene more than 20 global organisations. Together we discussed how to transform the events industry in ways we couldn't achieve alone. There are now four working groups under the umbrella of SEBIG (Sustainable Events Big Industry Goals). We will report more on this in 2019. |
|
| Sustainable Development Goals ("SDG") engagement |
By 2020, we'll identify five new projects that engage our customers within a specific vertical around the SDGs and create value in helping address the goals. |
Page 4 outlines our progress on embedding the SDGs. We initiated four projects specifically because of the SDGs and we have several products that are working to increase their contribution to the SDGs. |
||
| Key Performance Indicators ("KPI") development |
By 2020, we'll have a set of KPIs that help us to better understand the role of our content and communities in creating broader stakeholder value. |
We have added several measures related to our Science Based Targets ("SBTs"), and we will be identifying other KPIs as a result of the new sustainability framework. |
||
| Community | City impact | By 2020, we'll have partnered with five cities to improve the local impact of our events. |
Three events have completed phase 2 of the city impact calculator, alongside at least five other events that have conducted their own impact assessments. We will continue this into phase 3 of the project in 2019, aiming to complete this work with even more events. See page 26. |
|
| Measuring impact on people |
By 2020, we'll have introduced a programme of common measurement of the impact we create through content/community for all attendees at our events. |
We've added questions to some of our post-show surveys to test approaches to measuring our impacts on our Customers and cities. |
||
| Meaningful charity partnerships |
By 2020, we'll have a way of measuring our contribution to charities across the Group and our 10 biggest shows will have a charity partner. |
More than 50 of our shows now have a charity partner that aligns with their industry, and many are contributing profile, skills and networking as well as fundraising. |
||
| Colleagues | Gender balance |
Each year, we'll make continuous progress on female representation in our Senior Leadership Group. |
Our new Executive Management Team is now 29% female (2017: 11%). Our wider leadership group is also 30% female (2017: 27%). The results of our Gender Pay Gap reporting have also improved. |
|
| Colleague wellbeing |
By the end of 2019, we'll have launched a Company wide colleague campaign to support physical and mental wellbeing. |
We paused our Group-wide programme during the period of integration, although localised events are still ongoing. We are currently considering the best way to support wellbeing across the Group. |
||
| Colleague participation |
Participation in Walk the World will be more than 60% a year, every year, and more than 20% of our colleagues will develop their skills through volunteering by 2020. |
Participation in Walk the World 2018 was 55% and we aim to reach over 60% in 2019. Our full year, combined volunteering rate for 2018 was 15% (2017: Informa 9%, UBM 15%). |
||
| Environment | Our contribution to climate change |
By 2020, we'll have cut our carbon footprint by another 10% per head and at least five of our top 10 offices will have invested in energy efficiency measures. |
Science-based targets have been set for the combined business, and energy efficiency programmes are expanding. Our carbon intensity has resumed its downward trajectory from 1.41kg CO2e per colleague in 2015 to 1.28kg CO2e per colleague in 2018. |
|
| Responsible sourcing |
By 2020, more than 95% of our paper usage will be from sustainably certified sources, with the rest responsibly sourced. |
97% of paper used across Informa was sustainably or responsibly sourced and we are working to increase this further. |
||
| Progress | Stalled/missed | Need accelerating On track |
Ahead |
Sustainability is a collective responsibility – so join the debate by sending your thoughts to [email protected]
The paper used in this report is produced with FSC® mixed sources pulp which is partially recyclable, biodegradable, pH neutral, heavy metal absence and acid-free. It's manufactured in a mill which complies with the international environmental ISO 14001 standard.
Our registered office address is: 5 Howick Place London, SW1P 1WG t: +44 (0)20 7017 5000 www.informa.com/sustainability
For more information on our sustainability programme, or if you'd like to get involved, contact [email protected]
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