The International Publishers Association (IPA) and others partnered to release a reading list of books appropriate for children ages 6- to 12, with a monthly focus on Sustainable Development Goals.

[10][11][12][13] The first month's reading list focused on SDG 1: No Poverty, and included both newer works such as A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams and older public domain titles such as The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain.

[15][16][11] Local chapters of the SDG Book Club formed in Norway, Indonesia, Brazil, Africa, Portugal, and Germany, working with librarians, teachers, and parents.

[1][24] The UN asks signatories to the SDG Publishers Compact to commit to 10 action points, in support of reaching the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by 2030.

[40] The SDG Publishers Compact Fellows[41][42] are an action group established by the UN's Higher Education Sustainability Initiative (HESI).

[43][8] HESI is an open partnership involving the higher education community and UN entities such as UN DESA, UN-Habitat, UNEP, UNESCO, and UNU.

[44][45][46] HESI sought input from sustainability experts, practitioners, and academics to form a working group of multiple stakeholders to consider ways in which the publishing industry could support the SDGs.

[50] Their action lists and tip sheets suggest ways in which authors, editors, researchers, students, publishers, librarians and others can carry out the 10 commitments and implement the 17 SDGs.

Workstreams focus on:[8][43] Publishing associations are taking a wide variety of actions in support of the SDGs including establishing internal policies; forming leadership groups for organizational sustainability; developing written manifestos, principles, best practices, initiatives, tools and repositories for members to use; organizing conferences and sessions; introducing awards to recognize and encourage important contributions and model initiatives; preparing and presenting information relevant to the SDGs to a wide variety of audiences; and teaching skills for better connecting with practitioners, policymakers and the public.

[6] The inaugural award was given to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) for its SDG Pathfinder, an open-access digital discovery tool for finding content and data relating to the SDGs.

[91] Cabells and Saint Joseph’s University’s Haub School of Business have launched the SDG Impact Intensity system for academic journal rating.

[92][43][93][94] The underlying SDG-Intense Evaluation framework (SDGIE) can be applied to a wide range of textual data sets and is suggested as a benchmark structure for standardizing AI approaches to the SDGs.

[95][92] An SDG Impact Intensity pilot study including fifty well-known business and management journals selected by the Financial Times (the FT50) found that journals that were traditionally ranked highly in business and marketing ranked poorly when rated in SDG-related areas such as sustainability, environmental management, public policy and ethics.

BCP gathers information relating to types of trees, sourcing from forests, pulp and paper mill operations, publication-related chemicals and materials such as ink, varnish, and adhesives; labor standards; and environmental impacts.

BCP carries out fibre analysis of paper from such countries and checks the conservation status of pulp type and tree species against the IUCN Red List and CITES when grading products.

Paper manufacturers, print suppliers, and book and journal publishers can use this information when making supply chain buying decisions.

[100][101] As of 2022, BCP's Design Guide for the publishing industry includes data on emissions factors for key publishing-related materials and processes.

Task Force 3 focuses on sustainable operations for all sizes of publishing companies, from micro-enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to large corporations.

[38][111] Discussions of changes in institutional practice at the ALPSP University Press Redux conference in 2022 included how to create a carbon neutral supply chain, and environmental implications of business-related travel.

[114][115] A researcher from Institution of Engineering and Technology has reported that in his department, commuting had a higher impact on carbon emissions than server usage and business flying combined.

[116] Both Routledge[101] and Taylor & Francis have achieved CarbonNeutral® publication certification for their print books and journals, under the Natural Capital Partners' CarbonNeutral Protocol.

[117] In another example of a change in institutional practice in support of sustainability, Taylor & Francis have chosen to decrease environmental impact by replacing plastic with responsibly sourced paper packaging for mailing of journals.

[121][68] Springer Nature Group has appointed a Climate Action Officer, set short-term carbon targets and introduced compulsory sustainable business training for all employees.

In addition, Wiley uses paper from sustainable sources and minimizes transportation by locating print production close to delivery areas.

Studies show that both men and women tend to display same-gender preference, a pattern that should be considered when rethinking editorial practices since it will likely persist once parity is achieved.

[148] IOS Press has also reviewed the regional balance of its journal editors and is moving to expand its editorial boards to better represent researchers from all parts of the world.

[165] In support of diversity and inclusion,[166] the Lowitja Institute is working with Elsevier to launch a new international peer-reviewed online open access journal for First Nations research.

[139][167] To drive progress, it is important for scientists and communicators to better prepare and present information relevant to the SDGs to a wide variety of audiences, including policymakers, practitioners, advocacy organizations, journalists, patients and other members of the general public.

[172][173][174] The Open Pharma initiative has developed best practice recommendations for writing plain language summaries for publication in peer-reviewed medical journals.

[64] Development of "beyond the article" communications skills such as writing policy briefs,[64][179][180] creating podcasts to present research in an accessible format,[64][181] and scientific blogging are also encouraged.