Overview

(extracted from the Annual Report for y/e 28 February 2024)

Corporate social responsibility is fundamental to corporate sustainability. Considering and managing the impact our business has on society and the environment - the framework in which we operate - and fulfilling our responsibilities to our stakeholders, is integral to promoting Bloomsbury's long-term success. Our approach is informed by our purpose and our values.

The sustainability issues we have identified as being most important to our business are highlighted below and are reflected in our strategic priorities as set out on pages 16 to 17 of the 2024 Annual Report. Our materiality assessment informs our focus on these topics and underpins our focus on these issues in our CSR and sustainability reporting. In the following pages we detail our social purpose, engagement with our key stakeholders (pages 40 to 47 of the 2024 Annual Report), provide detail on Bloomsbury’s culture and colleagues (pages 48 to 52 of the 2024 Annual Report), report our progress in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (pages 53 to 56 of the 2024 Annual Report), and our work on assessing and reducing our impact on the environment (pages 60 to 81 of the 2024 Annual Report).

The most important sustainability issues we have identified for our business and our stakeholders through the materiality assessment conducted in 2021/2022, as described in the 2022 Annual Report, are:

• Content and Communities

  - Creating social impact through content
  - Promoting a reading culture and education

• Authors

  - Providing excellent levels of author care and promoting their success

• Colleagues

  - Talent attraction and retention
  - DE&I

• Sustainability in our supply chains

  Working with our suppliers towards reducing the environmental impact of our business

Building resilience to climate change

Our social purpose: content and communities

At the heart of our business is a strong social purpose - to inform, educate and entertain, to inspire a love for reading, to promote literacy, and to help build a reading culture. Bloomsbury’s core business of publishing books is therefore in itself a societal good with numerous social benefits.

Bloomsbury is dedicated to increasing literacy and access to books for those from disadvantaged backgrounds, supports the cultivation of these crucial skills and the emotional and psychological benefits which reading brings. Our charity

contributions and partnerships are detailed on pages 57 to 59 of the 2024 Annual Report to read more about our community engagement and support for such organisations.

Our diversified publishing means Bloomsbury is uniquely placed to make a positive impact across all sectors of society and to promote a love for reading and literacy, which are known to underpin wellbeing and success. We support learning and help to advance equity through education by way of our extensive portfolio of educational and academic resources for teachers and students. The social impact of our publishing has grown over the last decade, where our books have set agendas and helped drive societal change.

Our Bloomsbury Academic titles, written and edited by a diverse, inclusive group of researchers, journalists and practitioners, help to explore answers to the biggest questions facing our world today and support specific UN Sustainable Development Goals (“UN SDGs”) as set forth in the UN 2030 Agenda (go to UN Sustainable Development Goals to read more about our SDG-aligned titles). From education to climate change, equality to healthcare, these books help drive a uniquely focused, global effort to make our world a better place, and our future commissioning activities will be informed by alignment with the UN SDGs.

We understand the importance of ensuring that the books we publish are reflective of the society in which we operate and we are focused on increasing the diversity of both our workforce and our author base to achieve this.

Linking sustainability to our policies and risk management processes

Our approach to sustainability and broader business governance is underpinned by a set of policies, including our Environmental Policy, DE&I Policy, Anti-Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Policy and Anti-Bribery and Corruption Policy (available on our websites).

As part of our Company-wide risk management framework to identify and manage business risks, we consider sustainability- related risks, including climate change, the social impact of our publishing, and our ability to attract and retain talent.

Read more about our risk management process and principal risks from page 82 of the 2024 Annual Report.