Visitors to the world’s largest electronics trade fair can take part in the challenge – simply by walking
LONDON, UK, 15 November 2022 – RS Group plc (LSE: RS1), a global omni-channel provider of product and service solutions, today launched the ‘Big Step Challenge’ at electronica 2022, the world’s leading trade fair for electronics, to help create awareness about The Washing Machine Project and to involve visitors at the show, who can participate in the challenge – simply by walking. This year’s electronica fair is taking place from 15–18 November 2022 in Munich, Germany; RS will be present at the exhibition in Hall C2, Stand 179.
RS Group is an official partner of The Washing Machine Project Foundation, which is a charity committed to finding innovative engineering solutions to help refugees. The charity’s invention is the ‘Divya’ – an off-grid washing machine that aims to alleviate the backbreaking task of handwashing clothes, which can take up to 20 hours a week and disproportionately affects the livelihood and wellbeing of women and children. The Divya washing machine typically saves 50% of the water used, as well as 75% of the time taken in handwashing clothes.
Big Step Challenge
There are approximately 27.1 million refugees worldwide and the goal of RS Group’s ‘Big Step Challenge’ is to ask electronica 2022 attendees to collectively walk 27.1 million steps – approximately 19,500km – to represent every man, woman and child that has been forced to flee their homes and find safety in a foreign land. And, as most visitors planning to attend the show will already know, electronica is an exhibition on a huge scale, covering 160,000 square metres.
All visitors need to do is to download the official electronica app, which will anonymously count – for those who agree to participate in the challenge – the total number of steps taken by attendees across the four days of the show. If visitors wish to help more and further support the cause, they can also donate at www.justgiving.com/fundraising/rselectronica.
“The mission of The Washing Machine Project resonates greatly with RS in its ambition of helping to inspire a more sustainable world through education and innovative engineering solutions that can improve lives,” said Isabella Mascarenhas, VP, Grass Roots Education & Social Impact at RS Group. “We hope the ‘Big Step Challenge’ at this year’s electronica show will further build up awareness both of this important project, more widely the huge challenges faced by refugees worldwide and how we can help.”
About The Washing Machine Project
In 2021, the RS Group partnered with The Washing Machine Project Foundation, which is dedicated to innovating solutions for low-income and displaced persons around the world. The project was set up in 2018 by British engineer Nav Sawhney, who developed the Divya affordable off-grid manual-crank washing machine, which is the only machine of its kind to be developed for humanitarian purposes and requires no electricity for operation. Designed to be made from reusable off-the-shelf components and to be easily maintainable, the Divya can be operated and fixed anywhere. Following trials, 150 machines are now deployed in Iraq and Jordan, and by 2023 the plan is to have at least 7500 machines available to disadvantaged families and communities around the world, improving the lives of approximately 100,000 people.
RS Group
RS Group plc is a leading global omni-channel industrial product and service solutions provider to customers who are involved in designing, building and maintaining industrial equipment and operations, safely and sustainably. We stock more than 700,000 industrial and electronic products, sourced from over 2,500 leading suppliers, and provide a wide range of product and service solutions to over 1.2 million customers. With operations in 32 countries, we trade through multiple channels and ship over 60,000 parcels a day.
We support customers across the product life cycle, whether via innovation and technical support at the design phase, improving time to market and productivity at the build phase, or reducing purchasing costs and optimising inventory in the maintenance phase. We offer our customers tailored product and service propositions that are essential for the successful operation of their businesses and help them save time and money.
RS Group plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange with stock ticker RS1 and in the year ended 31 March 2022 reported revenue of £2,554 million.