Our unique contributions are how we make a positive impact on society in the conduct of our business. They include:
- Universal, sustainable access to information
- Advance of science and health
- Protection of society
- Promotion of the rule of law and access to justice
- Fostering communities
LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ (LNRS) products and services align with SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) and SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), among others. Our products and services help protect society by detecting and preventing fraud across a range of business sectors and at US government levels, citizens access vital government benefits, and law enforcement keep communities safe. Our data privacy principles, governance structures and control programmes help ensure data privacy requirements are met and personally identifiable information is protected. We prioritise individuals’ privacy concerns across all jurisdictions where we operate. We work with established privacy advocacy groups, federal and state legislators and other interested parties and always operate within relevant legal, regulatory, ethical and best practice frameworks.
A number of Risk products aim to reduce online fraud and identity theft, helping customers recognise trusted transactions and reduce fraud losses. In the year LexisNexis Financial Crime Digital Intelligence (FCDI) won Best Overall Digital Identity Solution Provider at the FinTech Breakthrough Awards. FCDI is a digital sanctions evasion intelligence tool designed to help businesses balance customer online experience with heightened digital sanctions evasion risk. LexisNexis BehavioSec uses behavioural biometrics, the habits and patterns in the behaviour of device users, to recognise trusted transactions versus fraudulent activity. Working behind digital interactions, the solution ensures genuine users have a frictionless online experience while simultaneously enabling rapid responses to real risks and user anomalies. With the increasing use of digital devices and online transactions, behavioural biometrics is becoming an essential tool for businesses and organisations to build trust and reduce fraud.
The ADAM programme was developed by Risk in 2000 to help the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) find missing children. ADAM technology, which is maintained and enhanced by LNRS employees, quickly distributes missing child alerts to law enforcement, hospitals, businesses and the public in specific geographic search areas. In 2023, ADAM distributed over 1.1m alerts featuring 1,670 missing children which helped NCMEC resolve 1,140 missing child cases.
Elsevier plays an important role in advancing human welfare and economic progress through its science and health information, which spurs innovation and enables critical decision-making. Among others, Elsevier makes a significant contribution to SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) and SDG13 (Climate Action).
In serving the global scientific research community, Elsevier published over 630,000 articles in 2023. To broaden access to its content, Elsevier supports programmes in places where resources are often scarce. Among them is Research4Life, a partnership with UN agencies and over 200 publishers; we provide core and cutting-edge scientific information to researchers in 125 low- and middle-income countries. As a founding partner and leading contributor, Elsevier provides around 21% of the material available in Research4Life, encompassing approximately 5,200 journals and 31,900 e-books.
In 2023, there were over 1.4m Research4Life downloads from ScienceDirect. In 2023, the Elsevier Foundation supported Research4Life’s Country Connectors initiative, heightening awareness and use of Research4Life content, building communities of users through national focal points in Bhutan, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Tanzania. Connectors have created tailored networking, promoting information skills building and empowering users to drive change in their communities.
To ensure that vulnerable young people and minority groups can take control of their health through accessible HIV-related information, counselling and lifesaving care, the Elsevier Foundation continued its partnership with Aidsfonds’ Tanya Marlo project for young people tackling the HIV epidemic in Indonesia, by providing easy access to information and care.
SSRN is Elsevier’s preprint and early-stage research platform. It enables researchers around the world to openly share their work so that it is freely available to others in their field and the wider research community, promoting discussion, collaboration and an exchange of ideas. In 2023, over 1,000 Elsevier journals offered researchers the opportunity to simultaneously submit a paper for publication and also post it as a preprint on SSRN.
LexisNexis Legal & Professional advances SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions) through its products and services that promote the Rule of Law. The LexisNexis Legal & Professional global legal and news database contains 138bn documents and records providing transparency of the law in almost 150 countries and territories, with some 2.2m new legal documents added daily.
Through its content, data and analytics, LexisNexis Legal & Professional supports the four components of the Rule of Law: transparency of law, equality under the law, independent judiciaries and accessible legal remedy.
LexisNexis Legal & Professional partners with the International Bar Association (IBA) on the eyeWitness to Atrocities App, which allows human rights defenders to document and report human rights abuses in a secure and verifiable way so information can be used as admissible evidence in relevant forums. LexisNexis Legal & Professional utilises its data hosting capabilities to provide a secure repository for the information collected. Over 60,000 photos and videos have been captured with the app since 2015. In 2023, eyeWitness was selected as a game-changing digital solution contributing to advancing the SDGs by the United Nations Development Programme in their SDG Digital Acceleration Agenda.
In 2023 the LexisNexis Legal & Professional US Voting Laws and Legislation Center won the Legalweek Leaders in Tech Law award for Justice Technology. The Center is a free resource offering public access to over 40,000 federal and state election and voting laws, including changes to laws over time, as part of an ongoing effort to advance transparency of the law.
LexisNexis Legal & Professional does in-depth research and produces reports on key legal industry developments, including the LexisNexis Legal Aid Deserts report. Access to legal representation is a fundamental element of the Rule of Law, but many have neither the resources to engage a lawyer nor qualify for legal aid. The report mapped resources throughout the UK that can help those without means, particularly in areas such as criminal, family or employment law. In 2023 the LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation (LNROLF) also launched the fourth in its series of reports on 50:50 by 2030 which seeks to achieve gender equity in the legal profession with a focus on Nigeria.
In 2023, the LNROLF began work to launch a judgement writing tool for justices, judges and magistrates across the Ugandan judiciary. The tool will assist in alleviating court delays and will allow judicial officers to access information from the Uganda case management and repository systems and write judgements on templates curated from research from six different global jurisdictions. It will allow judicial officers to access this material within Microsoft Word, working offline and while away from both internet and electricity, a common occurrence in rural areas of the country.
Legal team members volunteered their time and expertise in the year to support a global project to identify laws around the world that discriminate against individuals who have suffered from leprosy. Results were provided by 14 volunteers on 24 countries in partnership with the International Federation of Anti-Leprosy Associations, providing critical knowledge needed to target discriminatory laws through advocacy.
Since 2008, LexisNexis Legal & Professional has partnered with industry leading associations to recognise individuals and organisations for their commitment to the Rule of Law. 2023 award honourees include Filipino lawyer Raphael Pangalangan, recipient of the IBA Outstanding Young Lawyer of the Year Award, jointly established by Legal and the IBA Young Lawyers Committee, to honour young lawyers who have shown excellence in their career to date, commitment to professional and ethical standards, and dedication to the community at large. Winners included Argentinian lawyer Maria Fernanda Mierez, recipient of the IBA Pro Bono Award; French lawyer Céline Bardet, recipient of the Union Internationale des Avocats/ LexisNexis Rule of Law Award; and Guyana lawyer Melinda Janki, recipient of the Commonwealth Law Conference/ LexisNexis Rule of Law Award.
RX events strengthen communities and support the SDGs, including SDG 5 (Gender Equality), SDG 9 (Industry Innovation and Infrastructure), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals). In addition, RX supports SDG 13 (Climate Action) through our Net Zero Events commitments and by using our event platforms to drive industry engagement in a net zero carbon future. RX is committed to using its event platforms to support and drive the SDG agenda by stimulating conversations and collaboration, and educating and influencing the industries it serves.
RX saw a strong return to face-to-face events in 2023 across all geographies. A number of events set all-time attendance records, highlighting the importance participants place on connecting and doing business in person, allowing them to see many customers and suppliers at one time. Increasing numbers of customers took advantage of new RX digital and data analysis tools to source business solutions and suppliers, capture and qualify more leads, and analyse and improve their event performance.
In 2023, as part of its five-year, $1m commitment to racial equity, RX continued to support nine global not-for-profit partners who are working to grow racial equity in RX communities. During the year, RX also announced partnerships with Black Young Professionals Network to advance the careers of black professionals in events; and Women in Exhibitions which aims to empower women in the exhibitions industry and help nurture the next generation of female leaders.
At the 2023 MIPTV television market, RX France presented its fourth annual MIP SDG Award which honours media companies for their contribution to delivering the SDGs. The 2023 award was presented to Silverback for their work supporting UN goals directed at climate action and the conservation of life below water and life on land. RX France is part of the UN SDG Media Compact which seeks to inspire news and entertainment organisations to leverage their resources and talent to amplify and accelerate progress towards achieving the goals.
In 2023, RX’s World Travel Market launched the inaugural Diversity and Inclusion Summit and pledged to ensure that 50% of speakers within the conference programme come from under-represented groups ensuring broad perspectives and knowledge are passed on to WTM attendees.
Arabian Travel Market, hosted in Dubai, presented its new Sustainable Stand Award to Hilton for their work on engaging local suppliers in the creation of the stand and commitment to repurpose materials over the next three years.
RX’s in-cosmetics published its first Global Sustainability Trends Barometer, and a second regional report on sustainability in the APAC region. Both addressed the challenges and opportunities facing the cosmetics and personal care industry in its ongoing journey to reduce its carbon footprint.
MIPIM, the international property show in Cannes, launched a new Road to Zero area, combining 400 sqm of exhibition, networking and conference space, with a focus on groundbreaking methods to decarbonise the real estate industry.
ACROSS RELX
Recognising that across RELX we have products, services, tools and events that advance the UN’s 17 SDGs, we created the free RELX SDG Resource Centre in 2017 to advance awareness, knowledge and implementation of the SDGs. Since 2017, we have made over 1,800 journal articles and book chapters free to access via the RELX SDG Resource Centre which would have otherwise cost nearly £4m to make open access.
We held our annual RELX SDG Inspiration Day during the year with a focus on nature and biodiversity, giving thought leaders, corporate representatives, investors, governments, and NGOs a common platform to discuss challenges and opportunities for collaboration. Keynote speakers included former Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, and ethologist, environmentalist and UN Messenger of Peace, Dr Jane Goodall, DBE.
Since 2011, the RELX Environmental Challenge has been awarded to projects that best demonstrate how they can provide sustainable access to safe water and sanitation where it is presently at risk. In 2023 the awards were presented at Pollutec, an RX France event for innovative solutions in waste management, recycling, circular economy, water and energy. The $50,000 first prize winner was Lombrifiltro by CPlantae, a sanitary engineering firm and social enterprise based in Mexico that has developed and commercialised prefabricated vermifilters for onsite wastewater treatment, providing a solution for communities without access to a sewer system. The $25,000 second prize winner was TU Delft Water For Impact for their development of electroagulation, a method to treat surface water using solar power.