Sustainability at Russell Reynolds Associates

At a Glance    Message from Our CEO    Values & Leadership    Sustainability at RRA    Within Our Firm    With Our Colleagues    In Our Communities    With Our Clients    Policies & Reporting    Indices    About the Report    SBTi Approval

As leadership advisors, we’re uniquely positioned to help our clients build a better future. We can contribute to a global community of leaders ready to meet the challenges of our world by living out our purpose: to improve the way the world is led. To do this, we support and collaborate with leaders who understand the importance of addressing climate change, contributing to social progress, and instilling ethical governance in all organizations. Of course, leading by example in each of these areas is essential to our work.

Sustainability Approach

The first step in defining our sustainability strategy focused on identifying our most relevant and impactful sustainability topics and mapping them to opportunities for positive change. Our path forward prioritizes sustainability issues in alignment with our stakeholders’ needs and expectations.

Our four areas of impact are:

Within Our Firm

We strive to manage our firm with ethics that enable trust and to promote a shared sense of responsibility for the wellbeing of people and the planet.

With Our Colleagues

We value the diverse perspectives that our colleagues bring to our work. We know that we can only sustain diversity when we promote fairness and equity in every dimension of our work life. We encourage curiosity, continual learning, and entrepreneurial, innovative ways of working that deliver exceptional results for our clients.

In Our Communities

Maintaining strong ties to the communities where we live and work is a key pillar of RRA’s positive impact. Through financial support, volunteering, and partnerships, we give back and connect to our local communities.

With Our Clients

Our leadership advisory practices introduce sustainability principles into all dimensions of our work. We’re proud to embed sustainable leadership into our client advisory through distinct practice areas.

Material Sustainability Topics

Our firm’s leadership research shows that the most effective leaders are committed to listening. We put this thinking into practice by starting the formalization of our sustainability strategy by listening to the concerns and suggestions of our internal and external stakeholders through a collaborative, research-based approach.

To start, we ran a thorough, four-part materiality assessment, spanning from Q4 2020 through Q1 2021. This process allowed us to hear from our stakeholders about the environmental, social, and governance issues material to our business and to prioritize our opportunities for impact. Our materiality assessment process included:

• Research and Benchmarking
• Stakeholder Engagement
• Synthesis and Analysis
• Validation

This assessment provided us with a deeper understanding of the internal operations, current priorities, and areas of most importance to our internal and external stakeholders.

The following matrix identifies and prioritizes the firm’s most significant ESG impact topics based on our assessment findings. We’re committed to reporting our stakeholder engagement activities as our sustainability approach evolves.

RRA Sustainability Materiality Matrix

Listening to the Interests of Our Colleagues

As a professional services firm, employee engagement is critical to our success. We facilitate a global, annual culture survey to give RRA leadership a chance to hear from our colleagues on the issues that are most important to their wellbeing and engagement with the firm. We use our proprietary method—a program we also use with our clients—to survey an array of topics, including issues that relate directly to our sustainability journey, as well as those related to our material issues of diversity, equity, and inclusion, as well as our firm culture and career development programs.

RRA Sustainability Commitments

Our sustainability commitments remind us that sustainability is a shared responsibility. Each of us can contribute to these goals through our everyday actions. Our commitments also help us embed sustainability into our business strategy. We’ll focus on finding new ways to foster transparency and accountability, support our employees, partner with our clients, and give back to the communities where we live and work. Leading by example means that we’ll share what we learn from our journey. We’ll continue to report progress against these commitments—and add new goals along the way.

Within Our Firm

• Set a near-term, science-based GHG emissions reduction target and long term Net Zero emissions goal, to be verified by the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi) in 2023
• Launch our supplier engagement program by engaging with five largest suppliers on environmental data and policies by the end of 2023
• Develop action plan for reducing environmental impact of business travel by the end of 2023, with at least three opportunities identified
• Develop and implement an RRA Green Office Design Policy by the end of 2023, which will outline expectations for office site selection, leasing, design, and vendor partners
• 100% energy usage from renewable sources by 2025 (either by renewable tariffs or RE100 compliant EACs)
• 100% diversion of e-waste from landfill by 2025, prioritizing reuse

With Our Colleagues

• Each of our 47 offices will establish time-bound goals aligned with local DE&I program aspirations

In Our Communities

• Between 2023 and 2030, commit 100,000 working hours of volunteer service to community-based programs