Encouraging our customers to consolidate their deliveries for a greener planet.

Throughout this week we will be celebrating Earth Week, culminating with Earth Day on Friday.? Each day colleagues across the Group will be sharing stories of how we are delivering against our purpose of making amazing happen for a better world and our 2030 Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) goals. We kick off with a focus on our goal of advancing sustainability.?

As a critical partner in the global industrial value chain, we have a vital role to play in championing sustainable distribution that has benefits for the environment, our customers and suppliers and our business.??

While we relentlessly pursue delivering for the customer with fast execution, we are constantly seeking ways to do this more sustainably. That’s why we introduced a small order handling charge in our Asia Pacific (APAC) region this year, to encourage customers to consolidate their orders to reduce unnecessary deliveries and save carbon emissions. What’s more, part of the small order charge was donated to two of our partner charities to help communities in need.?

Paul Boyle, Customer Experience Manager, APAC who was responsible for the implementation of a small order charge in the APAC region last year, shares how this is helping to minimise freight, reduce our carbon footprint and benefit communities in need.??

He told us: “I am really proud to work for an organisation committed to people, planet and profit, and one which looks to drive commercial activity that also promotes positive social and environmental change.

“Reducing our carbon footprint is key to helping us develop a sustainable operation, reducing our environmental impacts and tackling climate change. Minimising the number of individual packages being shipped across the globe through our global supply chain is key to achieving this.

“Over the past few years, the organisation has implemented several solutions to positively impact our carbon footprint, for example, moving our product replenishments to our Asia Pacific DCs from air to sea, cutting emissions on these lanes from 60% – but we wanted to do more!?

“This saw us introducing a small order delivery charge for all orders under a certain value across our region last year.? This is encouraging our customers to ‘bundle’ their purchases, thereby minimising their carbon footprint and ours.

“While acknowledging this has financial benefits for our business, we wanted to use part of the funds to drive positive social change. That’s why we’ve made donations to two of our amazing charity partners, ￡25,000 to the Washing Machine Project and $50,000 to Engineers Without Borders Australia to help them to continue to make amazing happen for a better world."?

Nav Sawhney, Founder of The Washing Machine Project, says: “I’m proud to have RS as one of our partners at The Washing Machine Project. Together we are improving the lives of 100,000 people over the next three years through better health, education and economic opportunities.”??

You can find out more about our ESG Goals and Acton plans here.