RWS AR 23 Final Single pages - Flipbook - Page 56
Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (continued)
c. Resilience of the strategy, taking into consideration di昀昀erent climate-related
scenarios, including a 2°C or lower scenario
RWS conducts three di昀昀erent scenario analyses to assess
climate-related risks and opportunities in the short-,
medium-, and long-term. RWS uses RPCPs as adopted by
the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
The three climate scenarios used include:
•
Low emission scenario (RCP 1.9) – this modelling
pathway is used to predict measures needed to keep
global temperature increases below 1.5°C.
•
Medium emission scenario (RCP 2.6) – this pathway
predicts the keeping global temperature increases
below 2°C.
•
High emission scenario (RCP 8.5) – this pathway is
more widely known as a ‘business as usual’ or worstcase scenario. Without mitigation e昀昀orts, global
temperatures are predicted to increase an average
of 3.7°C.
Assumptions used for the scenario analysis include
relevant weather 昀氀uctuations, carbon tax levels, extreme
weather impacts on businesses and supply chains. The
assessments span the identi昀椀ed climate-related physical
risks, transition risks, and opportunities. See the ‘Strategy’
section for further detail on these identi昀椀ed risks and
opportunities.
A qualitative scenario analysis was also undertaken
to analyse the impacts of climate change on revenue;
assumptions for the qualitative scenarios include various
increases in energy costs due to climate change.
RWS incorporates each of the scenario analyses in
its climate change risk assessments, which is used to
drive the overall business strategy. These risks are
assessed annually, and any additional signi昀椀cant risks
and opportunities identi昀椀ed will be incorporated into the
scenario planning to in昀氀uence the overall strategy and
昀椀nancial planning.
For FY23, it was determined that all climate-related
risks that have been assessed are able to be mitigated.
For example, after identifying a transitional risk
surrounding technology, a decision was made to
upgrade IT infrastructure through a Group-wide digital
transformation programme, requiring an overhaul of
existing equipment and software.
56
RWS Holdings plc — Annual Report 2023
STRATEGIC REPORT
Similar to FY22, it was not possible to estimate a single
昀椀gure for the full 昀椀nancial impact of all identi昀椀ed climate
change risks and opportunities. However, RWS is
con昀椀dent that the costs of meeting its sustainability and
climate change goals will be at least partly mitigated by its
climate-related initiatives and associated bene昀椀ts. Some
of the initiatives undertaken in FY23 include:
1. Reducing operating costs and energy consumption
where possible – as RWS promotes an agile working
style for its colleagues, some sites were identi昀椀ed
as being larger than required. To limit unnecessary
energy consumption and carbon emissions, o昀케ces
in Indore (India), Rosario (Argentina), and Bydgoszcz
(Poland), were downsized and the o昀케ce in London (UK)
was consolidated in 2023. The Indore o昀케ce was moved
to a ‘green’ building, which will aid with reductions in
energy consumption.
2. Investment in R&D to improve the RWS IT system –
RWS continues to review technological advancements
and use the most energy e昀케cient and latest
technology available, which supports the attainment of
its sustainability and climate change goals.
3. Enhanced engagement with its value chain – RWS is
rolling out a new onboarding questionnaire which will
enable RWS to score and rank suppliers based on the
robustness of their climate change management and
carbon emissions. RWS also utilises the Watershed
platform which pulls data from CDP to identify which
suppliers have validated science-based targets; and
EcoVadis to engage with the circa 80% of suppliers and
track details on their climate-change management.
This approach is tailored to each supplier based on
size, where more climate change information is being
requested from larger suppliers. This will enable
RWS to target the larger carbon emitting suppliers
and encourage them to reduce their climate change
impact.
4. Improving the accuracy of its carbon footprint – in
FY22, improvements to data collection and GHG
emissions were implemented, including across both
operations and supply chain. RWS also committed to
setting carbon reduction targets which are aligned
with the SBTi. The new targets were submitted to the
SBTi in December for validation and will be published
once validated.
