Sustainability and compliance

Responsible conduct shapes our business practices

Commitment

As an innovative and reliable partner in the book industry, we are dedicated to books as a cultural asset and engage in cultural diversity, fairness and integrity. Compliance with legal requirements and corporate responsibility are an integral part of our business practices.

We align our internal processes and our cooperation with business partners with these principles. We continuously strive to improve our business activities as well as our products, services and supply chains in line with our commitment.

Organisation

Our compliance and sustainability management system puts our commitment into practice through clear structures, preventive measures, guidelines, as well as appropriate tools and initiatives.

As part of our compliance management system, we promote integrity, minimise legal risks and thereby lay the foundations for cooperative relationships. The Compliance Team focuses in particular on compliance risk management, monitoring new legal requirements, corporate guidelines, advisory, training and awareness-raising, supervising the in-house whistleblowing system, and relevant reporting.

The Sustainability Team manages the areas of environmental and climate protection, social standards and governance. Within the Sustainability Team, we develop measures and initiatives together with the departments and monitor their implementation, coordinate strategy processes and targets with management bodies, and are responsible for the associated data management for the Libri Group. As a central point of contact, we provide advice and support to management and departments and engage in dialogue with business partners and within the industry through exchange formats and cooperation projects.

Libri Photovoltaik Bad Hersfeld

Energy & Climate

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity. We therefore regard climate protection as an important corporate responsibility. We address the impact of our business activities on the climate and the financial climate risks, collect data and develop appropriate measures to address our material impacts, risks and opportunities.

Our highlights:

  • Data: Since 2021, we have prepared an internal greenhouse gas inventory every year in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol; since the financial year 2024, this has also included Scope 3 emissions. In this way, we determine the status of greenhouse gas emissions in our own operations and along the value chain.
  • Processes: With energy management certified in accordance with ISO 50001 (certificate dated 28 May 2025, valid until 27 May 2028), Libri GmbH continuously optimises its efficiency and thereby contributes to meeting the requirements of the Energy Efficiency Act.
  • Actions: : With our photovoltaic system at the Bad Hersfeld site, we covered more than 20 per cent of our total electricity consumption there in each year, on average over the years 2023 to 2025, we contractually source 100% of the electricity at the Libri sites in Hamburg and Bad Hersfeld from renewable sources (Guarantee of Origin for 2026–2028 [in German]), and we are already using electric lorries on some of the long-distance transport routes organised by us (view press release [in German]).
Libri Print on Demand

Impulses for the Industry

A key component of our activities is Libri Print-on-Demand. With the unique combination of the latest digital printing technology and state-of-the-art book trade logistics, we enable millions of German- and foreign-language book titles to be immediately and permanently available to readers internationally — according to demand. Compared with print runs, the production and delivery of book titles on demand can reduce unsold overproduction and the associated energy-intensive storage, as well as transport routes and returns from the book trade and e-commerce. Our commitment to the future of the book.

Portrait von Jörg Paul, Geschäftsleitung (COO) bei Libri

On the path to transforming the book industry, Libri sees itself as a reliable partner for publishers and the book trade. We provide impetus through long-standing training formats such as Libri.Campus and engage within the industry, including in the Sustainability Interest Group of the German Publishers and Booksellers Association.

Jörg Paul | Site Manager at Bad Hersfeld and Co-Spokesperson of the Sustainability Interest Group
BOOXpress

In the policy statement on our human rights strategy, we express in particular our commitment to, and expectations regarding, compliance with human rights and environmental standards, and describe the procedure we use to monitor this in our own operations and among our suppliers.

 

Sustainability in the Supply Chain

We take our social and societal responsibility very seriously. Particularly in our role as a connector in the bookselling industry, we work with a variety of suppliers and service providers. We expect them, just as we expect ourselves, to act in accordance with applicable local legal requirements and recognised international standards and regulations. This includes, in particular, respect for human rights and environmental standards.

The Libri Supplier Code of Conduct provides a common basis for responsible, lawful and integrous cooperation with our suppliers and service providers. It describes the key requirements for our shared business conduct and is based on the applicable legal provisions and recognised international standards.

Further information about our whistleblowing system can be found in the Rules of Procedure for the Whistleblowing System in our download section or in the FAQ on the whistleblowing system website.

 

Whistleblower System

In the event that misconduct occurs at Libri or at a company affiliated with Libri, we have implemented a whistleblowing system through which relevant reports concerning such misconduct can be submitted, anonymously if desired.

We encourage all persons connected with Libri in any way — whether, for example, as an employee of Libri or as a customer of a company in the upstream supply chain — to bring to our attention any matters in which violations of applicable law, including human-rights-related and environmental violations, or internal policies have occurred, are imminent or are suspected.

Our whistleblowing system is not intended for reports that do not relate to compliance violations.