Halfway to 2030: What is Needed to Get the SDGs on Track? at London Book Fair

In 2023 we are halfway to 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals are off track. However, we still have 7 ½ years to go and can still achieve them if we accelerate progress. So where are we at today and why? How are publishers uniquely placed to help, and what can we do? This short session will explore some of the challenges and opportunities, with a focus on the concrete actions that can be implemented by the publishing industry.

Chair:

Sherri Aldis, Director, United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe, United Nations
Sherri Aldis is the Director of the United Nations Regional Information Centre for Western Europe in the Department of Global Communications since February 2022. From 2015 to 2022 she was Chief of United Nations Publications at UN headquarters in New York, overseeing its publishing activities and strategic partnerships with the publishing industry and academia. Before joining the United Nations, Ms Aldis had an extensive career in international publishing and marketing. She is Canadian, and fluent in English and French. She has a Masters of Business Administration from Université Paris Dauphine and the IAE of the Sorbonne and has lived in the UK, Canada, France, Tunisia, USA and now Belgium

Panelists:

Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief, Publishing Perspectives
Porter Anderson BA, MA, MFA, is Editor-in-Chief of Publishing Perspectives, the daily news medium of Frankfurter Buchmesse for the world publishing industry. Anderson is a veteran newsman with Warner Bros. Discovery’s CNN, CNN.com, and CNN International–as well as the Village Voice, the Dallas Times Herald, The Bookseller and others. He was named London Book Fair’s International Trade Press Journalist in the 2019 International Excellence Awards. In addition to his career in news, Anderson has worked as a diplomat with the United Nations, posted to the Rome headquarters of the World Food Programme. He has also served as Executive Media Producer of INDEX: Design to Improve life, the Danish award for humanitarian design under the patronage of HRH Frederik, Prince of Denmark. Anderson is a frequent speaker on the international publishing stage, in trade shows and book-fair settings in Asia, Europe, Africa, North America, and the Middle East.

Louis Coiffait-Gunn, Director of Policy and Public Affairs, Publishers Association
Passionate about helping improve policy with evidence and expertise. His career includes working with publishers, governments, universities, multinationals, professional associations, the media, and think tanks. Outside the day job he’s a governor at a university and a school.

Rachel Martin, Global Director of Sustainability, Elsevier
Rachel Martin is the Global Director of Sustainability at Elsevier, where she is driving transformational change in the priority areas of sustainability and SDGs, with a focus on climate action. In 2020, this resulted in the launch of the Elsevier report “The Power of Data to Advance the SDGs” and the launch of Elsevier’s Climate Action program which she oversees. Since joining Elsevier in 2010, she has held various communications positions with a focus on policy and advocacy. Additionally, she has worked as a strategic communication advisor on industry initiatives such as CHORUS, CLOCKKS and the Accessible Books Consortium. Rachel is also part of the team that launched the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals Publishers Compact and the SDG Book Club that has included supporting local chapters in Africa, Portugal, Brazil, Germany and in the Netherlands. Rachel represents Elsevier on several industry sustainability committees and is currently chair of the UK Book Industry Communications (BIC) Green Supply Chain committee. In 2022, Rachel is also the co-founder of the Publishing 2030 Accelerator working on a carbon label prototype.