Finance and Investments
Key to our commitment to apply environmental, social and corporate governance principles (ESG) across all of our activity is our approach to financial management and investments.
Following a review of our existing investments at the July 2021 meeting of the RPS Assembly, we have redistributed our portfolio by investing in a new sustainable green fund.
The funds in our long-standing investments fully integrate the principles of ESG. For example, they actively exclude harmful activities, such as coal-mining and tobacco. They are made with a firm that is a signatory to all the major ESG codes, and a founding signatory to Climate Action 100+, an investor-led initiative to ensure the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters take necessary action on climate change.
The firm is also rated A/A+ by the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment rating framework.
Recycling & Waste
We’re proud to be a ‘zero waste to landfill’ organisation, and all our offices have waste bins to segregate waste and to prevent cross-contamination.
Once disposed of:
- All recyclable waste is recycled
- General waste is converted to green energy that helps to power local communities
- Food waste undergoes anaerobic digestion to produce energy and fertiliser.
Use of plastics and paper
In 2021, the PJ became online-only, saving the equivalent of over 15 million pages of paper every year (that's 1,600 12-metre tall trees).
Pharmaceutical Press is increasingly moving more products online. For products that are still printed, we're actively looking to work with printing companies which follow environmentally friendly printing processes and are signatories of the Healthy Printing Charter 2020.
RPS staff have reduced the use of plastics in our offices. Single use kitchen items (plastic cups, cutlery, etc.) have been completely discontinued, and all staff given reusable water bottles.
We’re also working hard to reduce paper usage, and as of 2020, all RPS policies and board papers are only hosted on our website.
Our paper usage is extremely low. No new paper orders have been made in over two years, and any future orders will be for recycled paper products.
Energy Use
We’re currently renewing our energy providers on new green tariffs, and aim to convert to 100% renewable energy across our offices in Cardiff, Edinburgh, and London. Solar panels have been installed on the roof of our London office and are making a contribution to the production of renewable energy.
We're reducing water consumption by focusing on leak detection, as well as introducing water restriction nozzles and exploring other new technologies.
Reducing Travel
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic we had already invested in video conferencing facilities across all our sites, reducing the need for staff and our members to travel unnecessarily.
Coming out of the pandemic, we will continue to utilise video conferencing platforms to minimise travel, and where domestic travel is necessary, encourage staff to use trains where possible.
Support is also available for staff to commute to and from work in the most environmentally friendly ways possible. We offer rail season ticket loans and have a Ride2Work scheme. Staff shower facilities are available on all sites to facilitate healthier ways of travelling to the offices.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Our long-standing Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategy is led by our staff. This has mainly focused on local charity initiatives, but we hope to expand this to include environmental projects and initiatives.