Supporting the UN SDGs

4.7

By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including through education for sustainable development and lifestyles

Our aligned 2022/23 actions

• Partnering with around 4,400 educational institutions to offer educational product and service solutions
• Our global education programme includes:
  • STEM learning through OkDo
  • Educational products and services through Grass Roots
  • Developing sustainable engineers and innovators through DesignSpark
• Our education programme has been rolled out to 10 countries to date – and by 2023/24 our aim is to reach 15 countries in total

• 5.5 Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision making
• 5.c Adopt and strengthen sound policies for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women

Our aligned 2022/23 actions

5.5

• Building a workplace that reflects the diverse customers and communities we serve – working towards 40% of our leaders being women and 25% being ethnically diverse
• In 2022/23, 30% of our senior leaders were women and 11% were ethnically diverse
• Our gender representation across all levels in the organisation sits at a near 50/50 split and 44% of the Board, including our Chair, are female

5.c

• Developing more women into senior positions to build a pipeline of future talent, through business partnering with talent teams in the regions and challenging recruiters to provide more diverse long and shortlists
• Successfully piloting a new Remarkable Leadership programme, which enables female leaders to transform their mindset and take bold, daring action
• Being featured in the FTSE Women’s Review for a second consecutive year
• Signing the Menopause Workplace Pledge and Endometriosis Friendly Employer scheme
• Celebrating International Women’s Day with events held across the Group

• 8.4 Improve progressively, through 2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavour to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation
• 8.7 Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking

Our aligned 2022/23 actions

8.4

• Employee engagement score improved to 78 points, a 3-point increase from 2021/22
• Providing additional benefits in the UK to support under-represented groups and combined benefits plans for our colleagues in the US
• Providing ad hoc cost of living support payments to our people
• Introducing the RS YAY! Award, a share plan that enables colleagues across the globe the potential to own up to 100 shares in RS Group plc

8.7

• Committing to uphold, protect and advance the human rights of all the people across our business and global supply chain
• Risk-screening all suppliers on our existing database against global government-issued lists
• Mandating a supplier questionnaire containing key ESG requirements as part of our pre-qualification process as well as re-qualification at agreed intervals
• Making 143 inspections of RS PRO Asia suppliers since May 2019, covering 90% of RS PRO suppliers operating in higher-risk sourcing countries
• Holding an EMEA Supplier ESG Forum in February 2023, where we launched our ESG Supplier Handbook and set out three key asks linked to our global ESG goals with 10 key actions

• 9.1 Develop quality, reliable, sustainable and resilient infrastructure
• 9.2 Promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation
• 9.4 By 2030, upgrade infrastructure to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies

Our aligned 2022/23 actions

9.1, 9.2, 9.4

• Reducing our direct emissions by 58% since 2019/20
• Investing in our infrastructure to upgrade ageing systems and decarbonise our buildings
• Reducing the Group’s energy consumption by 12% and energy intensity by 20% in 2022/23 through automation, metering and controls – including switching to low-energy lighting, setting temperature limits and introducing environmental management dashboards to help sites manage their environmental performance locally
• Developing new products that use lower impact materials, such as Better World products, and offering our customers solutions to reduce energy consumption and decarbonise their facilities
• Optimising our supply chains to lower our emissions which has resulted in a 28% reduction in our product transportation emissions since 2019/20

• 12.2 By 2030, achieve the sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources
• 12.5 By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse
• 12.6 Encourage companies, to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle

Our aligned 2022/23 actions

12.2

• Reducing packaging intensity by 19% from 2021/22 – supported by the continued roll out of reusable eco-totes and pallets for product movements between our sites in Europe
• Making 42% of our total packaging from materials with at least 50% recycled content

12.5

• Increasing the proportion of total waste recycled by 1 percentage point to 76% (although this is down by 3 percentage points from the baseline year of 2019/20)
• Making waste an area of specific focus for our DC management teams in 2023/24 to achieve our goal of recycling more than 95% of our waste by 2030 and achieving zero waste to landfill

12.6

• Committing to support our customers and suppliers to tackle climate change and achieve net zero by 2050
• Offering an increasing range of sustainable product and service solutions
• Committing to engage 67% of our suppliers by spend to set science-based targets by 2025 (by 2022/23, 25% of suppliers by spend had done so)

• 13.1 Strengthen resilience and adaptive capacity to climate-related hazards
• 13.2 Integrate climate change measures into policies, strategies and planning

Our aligned 2022/23 actions

13.1, 13.2

• Committing to being net zero in direct operations by 2030 and across the value chain by 2050
• Setting science-based targets covering our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, which include a commitment to reduce our direct emissions by 75% by 2030, from 2019/20
• Launching a Group energy management policy which mandates green electricity procurement 
• Evolving our TCFD climate scenario financial modelling and analysis
• Enhancing our Scope 3 emissions reporting and having two of our most material Scope 3 categories externally assured
• Achieving an A (an improvement from A-) in our CDP supplier engagement score in 2023, demonstrating how we are implementing best practice in leading our suppliers to take climate action