Royal Mail Group - Touching Lives, Connecting People

Touching Lives

Connecting People

Corporate Responsibility Action at Royal Mail Group

Royal Mail Group – in touch

Safety

Health

Equality and Fairness

Social Action

Sustainability

We have reduced accidents by a third and improved attendance by 25%

We have reduced sickness absence from 7% to 5% – equivalent to an extra 3600 full-time employees back in work

We have employed over 100 people through REMPLOY, with a commitment to employ a further 100 people

We have the UK's largest payroll giving scheme, which has generated over £35 million for good causes

100% of our electricity needs are obtained from renewable sources

Barnardo’s is Royal Mail Group’s charity partner. Cover (clockwise from top): Christopher Williams, Liam Leddy, Sindi Selmani, Siobhan Saliba and Sarah Kigozi – Young Carers from the Indigo Project, Barnardo’s

Every day, Royal Mail Group touches the lives of millions of people.

60 million people We aim to be in touch with people’s aspirations; in touch with their lives; in touch with their needs.

We are visibly and daily at the heart of every single community across the UK. We are the business that helps people connect.

As we are at the heart of their communities, people expect us to be there when they need us. And we believe we should respond. Because we don’t just connect people – we are connected to the issues that matter to them.

Two examples. Our colleagues voted for Barnado’s as our major supported partner.

And we also believe we have a unique opportunity to help our customers become more sustainable and more competitive as we move towards carbon neutrality in 2015.

We are immensely proud of the contribution and impact our colleagues make in the community every day. We want to continue being a business that makes that kind of positive impact on everyone whose lives we touch - customers, employees, everyone we work with. And a positive impact on society will have a positive impact on us as a business.

Big Five

We have big ambitions We want to be the leading organisation in corporate responsibility in the UK. We want to: 1 Demonstrate equality and fairness throughout our workplace 2 Ensure unrivalled standards of safety in our workplace 3 Provide first-class support to improve and maintain the health of our colleagues 4 Make a positive social impact on colleagues, communities, customers and suppliers 5 Become carbon neutral by 2015 and help our customers do business in an environmentally sustainable and competitive way

These are challenging ambitions. But we are deeply rooted in Britain’s communities – they are the right things for us to do.

Business – with a social purpose Being a leader in corporate responsibility is not separate from being a world-class logistics and postal service business. It is central to it. This has been the case for the 350 years of Royal Mail’s history.

Building a leadership role in corporate responsibility enables us to distinguish ourselves in a competitive marketplace. But it also gives us tremendous opportunities to help our corporate customers achieve their own sustainability targets.

And, with a growing presence in the financial services sector, we can also lead the way in offering our customers the green and ethical products they want to help change their own lifestyles.

We are absolutely convinced that involvement in corporate responsibility is key to our longterm growth and bottom-line results. And that the best way to realise our vision is to fully integrate corporate responsibility into our strategic management process.

Touching the top Our ambition to become the leading organisation in corporate responsibility is a priority of our Chief Executive and every one of our Managing Directors.

They understand the importance of inspiring a culture of continuous improvement in the business, and know that this is the only way to ensure that every one of our 184,000 colleagues and 60 million customers understands and shares our commitment to keeping in touch.

Our commitments • We will lead from the top – the Big Five commitments will have demonstrable leadership from the CSR board chaired by the CEO and championed by the MDs of our business units (Post Office, Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide) • Royal Mail Group will set the targets and provide specialist support in each of the five areas • Each of our business units will produce a five year action plan to deliver on the targets • We will make a positive impact on colleagues, communities, customers and suppliers • Together, all the outcome measures from the business units will be brought together and reported

Royal Mail Group operates through three brands in the UK – Post Office, Royal Mail and Parcelforce Worldwide. Each of these brands has its own corporate responsibility resource and initiatives within our overall Group framework, which they report against the Business in the Community index of activities – Environment, Community, Workplace, and Marketplace.

Post Office The Post Office is a commercial business that also has social role. With over 12000 branches, we are an integral part of communities across the UK, serving customers over the counter, by phone and on-line every day.

Our approach to corporate responsibility is one that is proactive and integrated into the way we do business.

• Environment: Between April 2004 and November 2007, we delivered a reduction in our supply chain emissions of 48.6%.

• Community: We have a corporate commitment to young people in the UK, demonstrated by the selection of Barnardo’s as our Charitable Partner and our sponsorship of activities including Young Letter Writers Competition, Children in Need and Children’s Champions. We will continue to promote and support volunteering, fund-raising and charitable giving amongst our employees.

• Workplace: All colleagues now benefit from tailored healthcare benefits as part of their total reward package. We will continue to make Post Office a great place to work.

• Marketplace: We are committed to making things fairer, easier and better for our customers. This year we will introduce the Carbon Neutral Parcel on the high street, and will look to use marketing opportunities to promote our corporate commitment to youth issues.

Royal Mail Royal Mail is a commercial business that provides postal services within a regulated framework. We are an integral part of the communities in which we operate, and we know this unique position gives us a duty to act responsibly in every way. Our approach to Corporate Social Responsibility is hardwired into the delivery of our business objectives. This will enable us to develop our business in a sustainable way, supporting our customers’ aspirations, and maximising the benefits to the wider communities in which we operate.

• Environment: We have already conducted trials of alternative fuel vehicles, as well as piloting a building energy management programme. Over the next five years, we will work with the Department for Transport to further develop our low carbon vehicle options, as well as building sustainability into our corporate real estate.

• Community: Our partnership with Remploy has helped 100 people with disabilities into permanent jobs. Over the next year, we will extend the scheme to other areas, and open up further opportunities for our people to participate in community projects, and improve the links between volunteering and skills development throughout the business.

• Workplace: We have reduced reportable accidents by nearly 50%, and are providing safety culture workshops and tools for safety management to our employees. In future, we will take further steps to strengthen our safety culture, as well as offering improved access to health screening and advice.

• Marketplace: We already provide our customers with assistance on sustainable mailings. Over the next five years, we are committed to using our unique position in the community and the market to meet the increasing demand for environmentally sustainable products and services.

Parcelforce Worldwide Parcelforce Worldwide aims to be the UK’s most trusted high value express carrier. For us, being most trusted means embracing responsible business practice in four areas.

• Environment: We have set ourselves the challenge of reducing our carbonfootprint by 50% over the next 5 years. We will do this through increased efficiency in the consumption of fuel, energy, water and management of waste.

• Community: All our senior leaders are engaged in activities contributing to local communities and broader society, with a specific focus on education and health. Over 40 teams across the UK participated in our Community Team Challenge day in 2008. We are aiming to improve on this in future years by involving over half our workforce in community activities.

• Workplace: We aim to achieve the highest attendance-rate in the parcels industry, and to give our employees the chance to develop themselves in the workplace. We want to improve our ‘I enjoy working here’ measure by 2% each year for each of the next five years, and to reduce accidents by 10% year on year over the next three years, through an emphasis on safety management and training.

• Marketplace: Parcelforce Worldwide was the first company in the express parcels market to offer customers the option of carbon-free deliveries.

Forty percent of on-line retail customers have chosen to send their parcels this way.

Reporting We want to be accountable for our corporate responsibility activity to all our stakeholders.

We will report annually using the Business in the Community index of activities in four impact areas, and against our Big Five ambitions.

Corporate Responsibility

Workplace

Health and Safety

BITC impact areas

Equality and Fairness

Community

Environment

Marketplace

Social Action

Sustainability

Marketplace and Customers

Royal Mail Group Big Five ambitions

Big Five: our targets Equality and Fairness Demonstrate equality and fairness throughout our workplace

Health Ensure unrivalled standards of health in our workplace

Safety Ensure unrivalled standards of safety in our workplace

Social Action Make a positive social impact on colleagues, communities customers and suppliers

Sustainability Become carbon neutral by 2015 and help our customers do business in an environmentally sustainable and competitive way

Current performance Currently we employ 0.61% of the UK working population, and are accountable for roughly 0.6% of all UK discrimination tribunal cases – we currently equate to the UK benchmark rate.

Currently 4.4% of our staff are on sickness absence.

Our Lost Time Accident rate per 100,000 hours worked is currently 1.72.

Currently, 2163 colleagues have participated in volunteering activities in paid working time.

We have reduced our carbon dioxide emissions by 6.6 tonnes per million pounds of revenue over the last two years.

5-year targets

Long-term/stretch targets

We aim to have an absolute reduction in the rate of discrimination claims by 10% – whilst ensuring our rate is at least 10% below the benchmark UK rate.

We aim to have an absolute reduction in the rate of discrimination claims by 20% – whilst ensuring our rate is at least 10% below the benchmark UK rate.

Reduce sickness absence to below 3.75% (equivalent to a 10% year on year improvement).

We want our absence rate to be in the top quartile of best performing businesses.

Improve our accident rate to below 1.0 Lost Time Accident per 100,000 hours worked (equivalent to at least 10% year on year continuous improvement).

Each of our businesses will lead their sector in safety performance.

We aim to engage 25% of our colleagues in fundraising and volunteering.

We want 35% of our workforce to be involved in our social action programme.

To reduce our CO2 emissions per million pounds of revenue by 25% from our benchmarking level of 129.6 tonnes.

To become carbon neutral.

Ethical procurement Royal Mail Group engages with over 10,000 suppliers per year, spending a total of £2.3 billion. We are committed to building ethical standards into every element of our supply chain, and using our leverage in the marketplace to amplify our commitment to sustainable and responsible business practices. We will • Promote continual improvement in our supply chain through the deployment of the Royal Mail Responsible Procurement Policy • Require all new suppliers to confirm their compliance via a CSR declaration • Work with business stakeholders to define appropriate standards and verify compliance for new and existing suppliers • Encourage suppliers to sign up to the Suppliers Ethical Data Exchange to report their performance against our standards

Our Group We employ nearly 185,000 people in the UK

Some of our awards

Every day we deliver almost 83 million items to 27 million addresses

Each week we serve 24 million customers at 12,000 Post office branches

Every year we handle some 360 million parcels

• Winner – Best use of payroll giving award, Institute of Fundraising Awards 2008 • Winner – Corporate Social Responsibility category, 2008 World Mail Awards • Winner – Best payroll giving award, Pay Magazine Awards 2007 • Silver Jubilee Big Tick – Royal Mail Education Programme, BITC Awards for Excellence 2007 • Winner – Transport, Storage and Distribution Industry Sector, ROSPA Awards 2006

Keeping in touch

© Copyright Royal Mail Group 2008 All rights reserved

We will be open about our failures as well as proud of our successes.

We are open to feedback and comments and will be ready to discuss how we can improve with all our stakeholders.

If you want to discuss our corporate responsibility impact, please contact us at: CSR, Royal Mail, Unit 6 Ancells Court, Rye Close, Fleet, GU51 2UY Telephone: 01252 806610 Email: steve.boorman@royalmail.com Web: www.royalmailgroup.com We know we are trusted by our customers and maintaining that trust means honest and straightforward communication.

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