As an organisation with sustainability at its heart, we’ve never been more aware of the growing need to prioritise environmentally-friendly practices and introduce internal strategies that lead us towards a carbon neutral future.
While we’ve been making excellent headway in our own ‘green agenda’, we know that there’s plenty more work to be done to meet our global clean energy targets. Architects, designers, construction workers, and residents each have a vital role to play in protecting our planet.
Which is where EcoVadis comes in…
The Ecovadis rating is one of the most internationally-renowned sustainability tests. Using a scorecard, the ranking measures various indicators such as sustainable objectives, implemented activities, certifications, or controlling measures. Depending on the industry, company size or geographical location, the rating takes into account 21 criteria along the entire value chain — from purchasing and procurement, to human resources management.
In July this year, we put RBA under the microscope to see how our organisation measures up against the EcoVadis criteria.
Overall, we were pleased to see how many positive findings the report uncovered. With a Silver Sustainability Rating of 66/100, we received commendations for our environmental policies on waste, environmental services and advocacy, energy consumption and a standard strategy on a majority of sustainability issues.
We hope this evidences our commitment to introducing green agendas across the whole organisation — ones that each and every RBA colleague can then get behind.
Of course, we’re not ones to rest on our laurels. Which is why we’re aware there is still room for improvement — particularly in the sustainable procurement category, which was our lowest scoring classification at 50/100 which sits in the ‘good’ performance bracket.
This classification details whether a company’s core sustainability values are present throughout the life cycle of their products and/or services.
In our mission to boost our score across the board, we will be looking to futureproof our sustainable procurement and investments — implementing sustainable policies that increase our long-term viability.
Other notable achievements in our EcoVadis scorecard were our attention to diversity, equity and inclusion — evidenced by our multicultural workforce made up of 60 employees (and counting!), 17 nationalities and 12 languages spoken.
With the ranking lasting 12 months, we are looking forward to focusing on enhancing our scores across the board in time to resit the assessment in July 2023. Watch this space to learn of further internal and external measures to protect our planet.
