Reducing News Corp.'s 'Footprint'

By: Mark Fitzgerald News Corp. is entering the final stretch to fulfill Chairman/ CEO Rupert Murdoch's promise to make the global media company the first to become "carbon neutral" by 2010. And those in charge of tracing and then reducing the vast company's "carbon footprint" of carbon dioxide emissions are finding news-papers leave the biggest footprints.

"Newspapers do tend to be one of the more energy-intensive businesses," says Hugh Strange, who shares with Rachel Webber the title of director/energy initiatives for News Corp.

Consider News Limited, the subsidiary composed only of Australian news-papers. The group accounted for 26% of News Corp.'s entire carbon footprint in 2007, the last fiscal year that has been measured. News Corp.'s detailed audit measures the greenhouse-gas emissions the business generates through its use of electricity, fuels for heat and delivery vehicles, air travel and other energy-consuming activities. All told, News Corp.'s 750-plus locations in 54 countries produced a carbon footprint of 637,234 metric tons of CO. That's up 2% from the year before, but considered an accomplishment in view of the company's growth and acquisitions.

The New York Post actually reduced its footprint by 6% in the last fiscal year. "A lot of that came from its building management systems, including the extensive lighting changes they did," says Webber. Electricity emissions dropped 7% and steam emissions by 31%, according to its audit. The Post is looking at retrofitting its delivery fleet with devices to reduce fuel consumption.

"It's a matter of doing the very important, but boring, things that come from energy audits across our properties, like putting variable-speed drives on presses," Webber says. The energy audits have identified "millions" in cost savings, she adds.

News Corp. is also trying to shrink the carbon footprint of its supply chain, such as its newsprint ? which is not included in its audited footprint, because the company has no control over its actual manufacture.

And it's trying to get readers on board the green train as well. Last January, for instance, the tabloid Sun in Britain gave away 4.5 million energy-saving light bulbs through coupons in a Saturday edition ? the single largest order for the bulbs in the nation's history.

The carbon-neutrality initiative is reaching to every part of Murdoch's empire, as a recent press release suggests. Headlined "'American Idol': Working Towards a More Sustainable Production," the release listed what the TV show is doing to fight climate change, including re-using some stage sets and using solar power for the air conditioning used to cool the show's finale party.