Rachel has played a played a pivotal role in spearheading initiatives that aim to integrate sustainability and the SDGs, with a focus on climate action, both within her own organization and across the broader publishing sector.

Within Elsevier, Rachel overseas Elsevier’s Climate Action program that seeks to integrate and prioritize sustainability, whilst fostering a sustainability mindset. Since 2017, Elsevier has achieved a 74% reduction in direct emissions and over a 50% reduction in business air travel. Additionally, Rachel’s strategic vision have led to insightful reports such as “The Power of Data to Advance the SDGs”  and a proof of concept for Gen AI tools to provide scientific summaries for policy makers.

Rachel’s expertise extends beyond the confines of her corporate role, as she actively engages with industry leaders, and stakeholders to advocate for sustainable practices on a broader scale. She was 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 is also the co-founder of the Publishing 2030 Accelerator designed to test early-stage ideas around climate action. In a short 18 months, Rachel and her team delivered a methodology to assess the carbon impact of print books, a carbon label prototype and a whitepaper that examined the tradeoffs between profitability and sustainability.

Rachel represents Elsevier on several industry sustainability committees and is currently chair of the STM Social Responsibility Committee and UK Book Industry Communications (BIC) Green Supply Chain committee. In these roles, the committees have delivered innovative industry resources such as the SDG roadmap that provides academic publishers with practical resources and inspirational case studies to get started on their sustainability journey.