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 2025/26 actions

• Our global youth and education programme includes:
  • STEM outreach initiatives aimed to increase inclusion and support underrepresented groups to pursue careers in engineering and technology 
  • RS Student Project Fund and Formula Student Build Fund to provide opportunities to apply technical knowledge and prepare them for future careers
  • Developing sustainable engineers and innovators through DesignSpark
  • Preparing students to enter the workforce through employability sessions, training, and networking 

• 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 2025/26 actions

5.5

• Ensuring our team is reflective of the customers, suppliers and communities we serve and create an inclusive and engaging environment, where everyone is proud and excited to come to work and can perform at their best, develop, and thrive
• In 2025/26, 38% of our senior leaders were women and 13% were ethnically diverse
• Our gender representation across all levels in the organisation sits at a near 50/50 split and 55% of the Board, including our Chair, are female

5.c

• Developing more women into senior positions to build a pipeline of future talent and partnering with talent teams in the each region to broaden recruitment efforts and attract the best talent for open roles
• Continuing networking and mentorship programmes for emerging talent
• Introducing Menopause Champions to champion our Group Menopause Policy, offering guidance to help colleagues feel informed, supported, and connected 
• Ranking joint second in the FTSE Women's Review
• Celebrating International Women's Day with events held across the group
• Supporting our Employee Resource Group (ERG) for women, non-binary people and male allies who are creating room to talk and connect, raising suggestions to senior leaders and inspiring the Group to further action

• 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 2025/26 actions

8.4

• Our employee engagement score is 75 and we continue to work with employees to strengthen engagement through regular interaction, including a Group-wide engagement survey every 18 months and regular tracking through Pulse surveys
• Enabling peer-to-peer recognition through our global recognition programme, Spotlight
• Providing market competitive rewards, including performance related bonuses for all employees and long-term incentive plans for senior leaders, supported by market-based benefits

8.7

• Committing to uphold, protect and advance the human rights of all the people across our business and global supply chain
• Mandating a supplier questionnaire containing key ESG requirements as part of our pre-qualification process as well as re-qualification at agreed intervals
• Risk screening all existing suppliers against global government lists 
• Conducting in-depth ethics and compliance checks on RS PRO suppliers with 37 audits of higher-risk suppliers
• Maintaining regular supplier interactions such as supplier events, quarterly business reviews and supplier ESG communications to encourage suppliers to take sustainability actions
• Introducing the EcoVadis Vitals tool to offer a free, streamlined initial risk rating for suppliers early in their ESG journeys

• 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 2025/26 actions

9.1, 9.2, 9.4

• Reducing our direct emissions by 10% in 2025/26 year-on-year¹
• Reducing the Group’s energy consumption and energy intensity through 23 energy efficiency projects across our site network, including electrification of heating and water, insulation improvements, rapid roller doors, LED lighting, and biogas use
• 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 34% reduction in our Scope 3 transport emissions since 2019/20²

¹Progress includes emissions from acquisitions within all reporting years from 2019/20 to 2025/26, excluding BPX Group which will be
added to current and historic years in 2026/27.

² Tonnes of CO2e due to transport emissions per tonne of product sold.

• 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 2025/26 actions

12.2

• Reducing packaging intensity by 33% from 2019/20 – supported by the increase of recycled content in paper mailbags, the use of brown paper bags, and thermal labelling to reduce paper-backed labels
• Making our packaging more sustainable: 90% of our total packaging is made with at least 50% recycled content; 95% of packaging is reusable or recyclable 

12.5

• Increasing the proportion of total waste recycled by 4 percentage points to 88% 
• Engaging with colleagues from across the business to discuss landfill performance and targeted solutions, aiming to improve resource recovery and reduce costs
• Using our Waste Management Standard to reinforce our commitment to responsible and lawful waste handling, with a stronger focus on reuse and recycling across all operations

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 all of our strategic suppliers by spend to set science-based targets (by 2025/26, 74% of strategic 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 2025/26 actions

13.1, 13.2

• Committing to being net zero in direct operations by 2030 and across the value chain by 2050
• Two SBTi-validated science-based targets covering our Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions, which include a commitment to achieve a reduction in direct emissions by 75% and a 51.6% reduction in Scope 3 emissions per £ million value added by 2029/30 from 2019/20
• Evolving our TCFD climate scenario financial modelling and analysis
• Achieving the CDP A List, demonstrating how we are implementing best practice in leading our suppliers to take climate action
• Maintaining a robust energy management system across the majority of distribution sites to manage risk, track ongoing performance, and identify opportunities to target further emissions reductions
• Certifying 30 sites – covering 49% of our operations by revenue and 58% by floor area – to ISO 14001 environmental management certifications