Acting responsibly, driving progress

Author: Joyce Lorigan

Chief Marketing Officer, Global Head of Corporate Affairs and member of the Springer Nature Executive Team

In 2025, we celebrated 10 years of Springer Nature. It was an opportunity to reflect not only on a decade of growth, but also on what it really means to be a responsible business.

Responsibility goes beyond strategy; it is something our colleagues live every day. Our short video (https://youtu.be/N4_W6yXMaqc) brings those voices together, sharing in their own words what being a responsible business means to them and how it influences their work.

For us, true responsibility is about more than delivering a strong performance. It’s about recognising our role in society and ensuring our growth supports both the communities we work with and the planet. At a time when science is more and more in the public spotlight, that sense of purpose matters more than ever.

Publishing

Nearly two-thirds of people worldwide say they struggle to identify trustworthy media (Edelman Trust Barometer 2025). As misinformation becomes harder to identify, ensuring confidence in our content is essential. As publishers, we are custodians of the scholarly record, and trust sits at the heart of that role. We build it through editorial integrity and independence, transparent decision-making, and long-term accountability to the communities we serve.

This commitment is reflected in the feedback from the people who work with us every day: more than 80% of our authors and reviewers rated their experience with Springer Nature as good or excellent. These results matter because they reflect consistency and integrity over time, not short-term gains.

Our commitment to responsible publishing is reflected through our contribution to the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Since 2015, we have published more than 1.4 million SDG-related articles and book chapters. By 2025, this research had been cited over 23 million times, that’s around 2.3 million citations a year, demonstrating how evidence underpins policy, funding and public debate.

Today, 62% of our SDG-related research was published open access in 2025. Openness does not mean compromise. Editorial independence, rigorous peer review and robust integrity checks remain unchanged, and acceptance rates continue to tighten, reflecting our commitment to quality as volumes grow.

Planet

Responsibility also means acknowledging our environmental impact and acting with transparency and ambition. As a publisher of climate and environmental research, we believe it is essential to align our own operations with the science we publish.

We have committed to achieving net zero emissions by 2040, with targets validated by the Science Based Targets initiative. Since 2019, we have reduced overall emissions by around 50% and are making good progress against our targets.

This progress reflects practical action across our operations and supply chain, including shifting from print to digital where possible, increasing our use of cleaner energy, and working closely with partners to reduce impact. Responsibility requires clear goals, transparent reporting and steady, measurable progress.

People

Just as importantly, responsibility means creating an inclusive and supportive workplace. We invest in learning, wellbeing and flexible ways of working because engaged people are fundamental to long-term success. Hundreds of colleagues are active in our 10 employee networks, which promote dialogue and understanding across a wide range of topics and help create a vibrant, inclusive working environment. For the third year running we have been recognised as a leading employer in Germany, USA and the UK.

We are committed to supporting the communities we work with, in part through a partnership-led programme of giving. From 2022–2025 we provided €3.5 million in funding to initiatives that expand access to research, education and support trusted science communication, amongst others. As part of our ten-year celebrations in 2025, 34 of our global locations came together to volunteer and donate to causes that matter locally. More than €110,000 was donated to staff-chosen organisations, supporting work in areas including health, education and food security. This was a powerful reminder that a responsible business is defined not only by what we deliver, but by how we give back. 

As we show in our 2025 Annual Report, responsibility is fundamental to our business and strategy. Over the past decade, we have expanded open research, strengthened integrity systems, and built platforms designed for transparency and resilience, helping to reinforce trust and confidence in our role as a publisher with the communities we work with. That is the responsibility trusted publishers carry, and one I am proud Springer Nature will continue to uphold in the decades ahead.

All data referenced in this blog is from our 2025 Annual Report, unless otherwise stated.