Our products and services help provide essential insights and bring stakeholders together to address critical environmental issues globally, while we continue to reduce our own environmental footprint.
A positive environmental impact; Spreading environmental knowledge
We provide essential environmental insights through our products and services which inform debate, aid decision makers globally and encourage research and development on environmental issues.
Risk
Cirium advanced the EmeraldSky methodology which delivers accurate flight emissions data that accounts for variables like aircraft age, engine type, flight stage, and load factor, along with satellite-tracked movements. This provides an independent measure of carbon emissions for the aviation industry.
Scientific, Technical & Medical
The Lancet published their 2024 Countdown on health and climate change which monitors the evolving health profile of climate change and provides an independent assessment of the delivery of commitments made by governments worldwide under the Paris Agreement. The content, either open access or free to read, covers 53 indicators, drawing on the expertise of 122 scientists and health practitioners across 57 collaborating organisations worldwide.
Legal
Legal introduced the England and Wales Environment Tracker 2024, which tracks and summarises new and upcoming legislation and consultations linked to climate action and emissions reduction in England and Wales.
Exhibitions
The 2024 editions of RX’s ISC West and ISC East took steps to tackle event waste, partnering with MeetGreen to stream and sort waste, increase recycling and compost waste. They also produced a Sustainability Guide for exhibitors to educate them on sustainability initiatives.
Across RELX
The CEO is responsible to the Board for environmental performance; the CEOs of our business areas are responsible for complying with environmental policy, legislation and regulations and the CFO is our most senior environmental advocate. Our Global Head of Corporate Responsibility engages with the Board on environmental issues and we work with Environmental Champions and dedicated engineering, design and real estate specialists to improve efficiency wherever possible in our portfolio.
In 2024, we continued our support of the Climate Pledge, aiming to achieve net zero across all carbon scopes by 2040 at the latest.
We have committed to measure and report greenhouse gas emissions, implement decarbonisation strategies for emissions reductions and address residual emissions with high quality carbon removals. Details of our net zero transition road map are available on page 220.
We were a Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) Supporter until it was disbanded and have expanded our TCFD disclosure (see page 236). We remain signatories of We Are Still In, a network of more than 3,900 businesses, universities, cities, states and other organisations, committed to combatting climate change.
In creating and delivering our products and services we have an impact on the environment through carbon emissions, energy and water usage. But more important is our portfolio of environmental research, products and services, which spread environmental knowledge, good practice and action.
* From reporting locations only, excluding estimated data
Actual environmental data covers approximately 85% of occupied floor space based on electricity reporting. When we are unable to obtain reliable data, for example from small serviced offices, we estimate energy consumption and water usage on actual data from our portfolio. In this way, our reported data covers all operations, for which we have operational control for the calendar year.
Scope 2 (location-based) emissions are calculated using grid average carbon emissions factors for all electricity sources.
Scope 2 (market-based) emissions are calculated using supplier-specific carbon emissions factors (where available) for renewable energy purchases.
* From reporting locations, excluding estimated data.
** Percentage of paper graded as known and responsible sources by the Book Chain Project or certified by FSC/PEFC. Includes less than 0.1% of paper not yet graded or certified.
Performance
Our focus is on delivering continuous improvement in our environmental performance year-on-year. In 2024, we reduced our energy consumption by 19% compared to 2023, with this resulting in a reduction of 20% in our Scope 1 and Scope 2 (location-based) emissions.
We also reduced our water consumption by 5% and continued to purchase 100% sustainable production paper.
We have achieved all environmental targets we set for 2025, as shown in the table to the left. In the year, the Science Based Targets Initiative validated our new carbon reduction target as aligned with the 1.5°C criteria. New targets for 2030, including the new science-based Scope 1 and 2 emissions reduction target, are listed in the table, below left, and supported by two targets to accelerate reductions in Scope 3 emissions:
- Reduce absolute Scope 3 emissions from purchased goods and services (incorporating capital goods), business travel and employee commuting by 30% in 2030 against a 2018 base year
- 60% of suppliers by spend covering purchased goods and services, fuel and energy related activities, upstream transportation and distribution and business travel will have science-based targets by 2027
We continue to report on our indirect Scope 3 emissions as indicated below.
Climate change
Our Climate Change Statement supports the scientific community’s opinion that human activity is contributing to climate change; we support the Paris Agreement’s intention to limit climate change to 1.5°C.
The RELX Climate Change Statement is available at www.relx.com/cr-downloads.
As a signatory to the Climate Pledge, we are committed to becoming net zero by 2040 at the latest. The main tenets of the initiative, a community of more than 500 organisations working to address climate change, is measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and implementing decarbonisation strategies for significant emissions reductions.
Since 2010, we have reduced our Scope 1 and 2 location-based carbon emissions by 80%. In 2024, as stated, our new carbon target gained verification by the Science Based Targets Initiative aligned with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris Climate Agreement.
It will require us to continue reducing greenhouse gas emissions and maintain our internal carbon pricing scheme, among other measures.
Our Net Zero transition plan can be found on page 220.
Water
The majority of our sites use water from municipal supply and are in developed countries with a high capability for water adaptation and mitigation.
Our water usage decreased 5% between 2023 and 2024 due to ongoing office space consolidation.
We engage with internal water experts who produce waterrelated content for our customers. In 2024, we provided customers 24 peer-reviewed journals in water science and technology, including Water Research.
Energy
As RELX predominantly occupies leased locations with few opportunities for onsite generation, we rely on green tariffs and renewable energy certificates (RECs) to purchase renewables equal to 100% of our global electricity consumption. In 2024, we purchased Green-e certified wind RECs.
Energy consumption at our offices, representing around 50% of the total, decreased in 2024 due to ongoing office space consolidation. Energy from our owned data centres, representing around 40% of the total, decreased as we continue to move activity to the cloud.
We are a member of RE100, a global initiative bringing together businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity.
Waste
Total waste generated across all locations decreased by 8% in 2024, primarily due to changes in how our office space is utilised.
Of waste generated across all locations, we estimate 71% was recycled and 93% diverted from landfill through recycling, composting and energy generation from waste. Of the waste produced at our reporting locations, excluding estimated data, 75% was recycled. In 2024, waste sent to landfill from reporting locations, excluding estimated data, decreased by 3% due to careful management of project waste streams and the ongoing office space utilisation projects.
Where reliable measurements are not available, we calculate waste based on weight sampling and by counting waste containers leaving our premises. Although local municipalities most often carry out sorting and recycling, we report all waste as going to landfill unless we have robust evidence. For this reason, performance against our waste target is linked to our reporting locations.
We work to reduce packaging waste from our physical products.
In the UK, we provide information on packaging waste in line with the UK government’s Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 2007. As a member of the Biffpack compliance scheme, we report the amount of obligated packaging (as defined in the Packaging Waste Regulations) we generate through selling, pack and fill and importation of our products.
Paper
The quantity of production paper purchased in 2024 decreased by 16% over 2023 and by 71% since 2010 as we deliver more of our products online, reflecting a circular economy approach to conducting our business.
During 2024, we updated the RELX Paper Policy to highlight our commitment to avoiding deforestation and other environmental impacts through the purchase of sustainably sourced papers.
100% of RELX production papers were graded as known and responsible sources or certified to FSC or PEFC. We continue to reduce waste and the environmental impact of producing our products through measures such as smaller print runs, digital over litho printing, print on demand and lighter papers where possible.
We are a founding member of the Book Chain Project’s paper module (PREPS) and helped create the PREPS database which identifies the pulps and forest sources of papers. Each paper is given stars according to sustainability criteria: one (unknown or unwanted material), three (known and responsible), or five (recycled, Forest Stewardship Council or Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification certified).
The RELX Sustainable Production Paper Policy commits us to purchase only sustainable papers – graded three or five in Bookchain, or certified to FSC or PEFC.
In 2024, we used approximately 95 tonnes of office paper.
To reduce paper use at sites with higher consumption levels, we have set specific targets.
Impacts in our value chain
Scope 3
In 2024, we continued to advance our understanding of our Scope 3 emissions beyond business flights, identifying key areas, refining our methodology and our engagement with suppliers. We used the RELX CO2 Hub, an internal analytics platform, to help quantify our Scope 3 emissions.
We have estimated supplier emissions through an improved methodology by collecting data on key suppliers to derive carbon intensity factors. The factors are then extrapolated by spend category to cover our full supply chain. We estimated that our share of the Scope 1 and Scope 2 carbon emissions of our suppliers, excluding business travel, cloud computing services (see below), distribution and events (see below), is approximately 50,000 tCO2e per annum.
While RELX continues to undertake energy efficiency projects at its own data centres, some of the energy and carbon reductions at these facilities have been achieved by moving content to third-party cloud services. With emissions data provided by our primary Infrastructure as a Service (laaS) cloud providers, we estimated 2024 market-based carbon emissions associated with all cloud computing services provided to RELX to be 244 tCO2e.
Using location-specific emissions factors and office attendance data, we estimated emissions from home working in the year to be around 12,000 tCO2e.
Through RELX’s Environmental Standards programme, locations are encouraged to develop a local travel plan. Actions from travel plans include publishing information on public transport links, promoting commuter loan schemes and encouraging carpooling.
Using daily refreshed office attendance data, we estimated emissions in 2024 to be around 5,900 tCO2e.
RX has partnered with peers on Net Zero Carbon Events.
Launched at COP26, the initiative aims to develop methodologies to quantify and reduce emissions associated with the events industry. While attendance at one of our events can replace the need for multiple business trips, we are gathering emissions data associated with an event’s value chain.
We dispose of defunct hardware and other electronic waste according to local regulations and recycle only if equipment cannot be reused. We partner with Camara Education to donate equipment to provide access to computers for students in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia. Equipment is refurbished for use or sold with proceeds going to set up computer labs, train teachers and provide locally relevant educational content. Any equipment that cannot be refurbished is appropriately recycled.
RELX Environmental Challenge
2024 marked the fourteenth year of the RELX Environmental Challenge, a competitive grant-making scheme focused on providing improved and sustainable access to water and sanitation where it is presently at risk.
Since 2011, the RELX Environmental Challenge has been awarded to projects that best demonstrate how they can provide sustainable access to safe water or sanitation.
A $50,000 prize is granted to the first place entry and a $25,000 prize for the second place entry. The winners also receive free access for one year to ScienceDirect, Elsevier’s database of full text, scientific information. Projects must have clear practical applicability, address identified need and advance related issues such as health, education, or human rights.
The 2024 first prize winner was LivingWaters Systems, a low cost, portable, rainwater harvesting guttering system designed to support its own weight without being physically attached to its host housing unit, therefore making it suitable for use on any home with a pitched roof, including refugee tents and less durable informal structures.
The second prize winner was Permalution, a start up company harnessing fog and clouds with its innovative technology, collecting between 150-400 litres of water per day per unit.