ESG Report 2022 single pages web - Flipbook - Page 75
The locations of all our offices and supply chain were
considered due to our dependence on our people to
deliver our services. We conducted the analysis across
three time horizons: short term (one to three years),
medium term (three to five years) and long term (five to 10
years). Consistent with TCFD, our assessment covered the
following:
•
Physical risks: resulting from climate change events and
changes in weather. These can be acute (event-driven)
or chronic (long-term shifts)
•
Transition risks: associated with the implications from
the measures taken to reach a low carbon economy.
These can be policy and legal, technology, market and
reputation
•
Opportunities: realised capitalisation of benefits upon
the low carbon market and technological drivers. These
can be from resource efficiencies, energy sources, new
products or services, markets and resilience
We have incorporated these scenarios into our climate
change risk assessment and based on our assessments
so far, no significant risks have been identified from the
scenario planning that we are unable to mitigate. The
risk assessment is reviewed bi-annually. Over time, as
global trends develop, any additional significant risks and
opportunities which are identified will be incorporated into
the scenario planning.
As a provider of services, we believe we are well positioned
to offset potential adverse impacts by adapting our
operations and engaging with our clients and suppliers to
maximise opportunities as we transition to carbon net zero.
We are focused on reducing our global carbon emissions
as quickly as possible. As part of our goals (see page 23),
we are driving emissions out of our business through a
range of initiatives including improving energy efficiencies,
renewable energy, reducing waste, reducing travel where
possible, availability of homeworking and developing a
socially responsible suppliers’ network.
Our research and development investment focuses on
enhancing our service offering. This includes improving the
efficiency of how we deliver our services in which we utilise
technology which in turn reduces the carbon emissions
generated from our services. Investment in research and
development is considered over short, medium, and long
terms (from one to 10+ years).
We manage the risks of climate change as mentioned
previously, with oversight by the Board and Audit
Committee as part of our risk management process. We are
tracking and reporting on our carbon emissions globally.
We are pursuing best practice by engagement with the
United Nations Global Compact initiative, Race to Zero,
seeking to set science-based targets and disclosing against
the TCFD framework.
We are working with our suppliers to ensure that their
carbon management ethos matches our own. This will
expand our influential reach beyond that of just our
company and demonstrates that a consistent and truthful
message is shared with our stakeholders regarding our
own environmental management practices. We are rolling
out our Supplier Code of Conduct to all suppliers and
have developed a Sustainable Procurement Policy – our
engagement will focus on the short to medium term (one to
five years).
As noted earlier, we have seen an increased demand for
companies to show effective management of their climate
change impact, for example, requests from the market, and
existing and upcoming legislation. This supports our efforts
in demonstrating that we are an ethical, responsible, and
trustworthy company. As such we review our operations
regularly to ensure that we operate as efficiently as
possible. This risk is considered over short, medium, and
long terms (one to 10+ years).
Over this next 10 year period, significant investment will
continue to be made by the company in a number of areas
The Group has previously set out plans to reduce its global
office footprint which will significantly reduce of Scope
1, 2 and most importantly Scope 3 emissions that are
associated with operating and travel to/from an office. The
financial impact of this will see the Group achieve savings
on its leased offices, the majority of which are on tenures of
less than three years.
As well, savings from reduced leasing costs, the Group
shall also reduce energy and heating costs. However, with
energy cost and heating costs expected to increase (from
either increased demand for renewable energy sources
or from carbon taxes on traditional energy sources),
any saving here may well be offset. Similarly, the Group
insurance premiums may reduce as the number of offices in
the Group reduces, however insurance premiums may well
rise as a result of increasingly extreme weather events and
rising sea levels.
For those locations where an office is required to continue
effectively serving our clients, the Group will prioritise
offices that possess the highest environmental ratings
possible in that jurisdiction. Any savings made arising
from reducing the Group’s office footprint shall be used to
cover the cost of moving and setting up these new office
locations or indeed making further improvements to our
existing office locations that we are retaining.
At this stage, its is not possible to estimate the full financial
impact of the above, other than to confirm that the costs of
transitioning toward our 55% reduction in carbon by 2030
will be mitigated partly by other initiatives that the Group is
actively implementing.
FRAMEWORKS
RWS — ESG Report 2022
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