Efforts to “green up” its operations have earned a Bingley-based publishing company international recognition.

Emerald Group Publishing Limited has become one of the first publishing businesses in the region to gain an internationally-recognised environmental certification for its commitment to manage its environmental impact.

The company, the world’s leading publisher of management research, gained recognition after implementing a new environmental management system.

The certification is the result of four employees on the company’s employee development programme, the Emerald Academy, being given an environmental project to complete.

The team – Rachel Brown, Kelly Dutton, Rachel Mannett and Andrew Smith – explored how it could benefit Emerald further and decided to work towards the ISO 14001:2004 certificate.