RS South Africa has announced RS Group’s Better World claims-based framework, enabling customers to select verified sustainable product alternatives. This provides suppliers with a standardised framework to accelerate the development and manufacture of more sustainable and responsible products. As part of the new framework, the group is extending its Better World product range by 10 000 products and 50 suppliers, increasing the total to 30 000 products from over 90 suppliers. More than 1000 of the new products support energy and carbon reduction, or renewable energy generation across customer facilities.
The company launched the Better World product range in March 2023 to enable the world’s engineers, innovators, and problem solvers to make more sustainable and responsible product choices, where each product is supported by robust evidence and verifications. It comes in response to an increasing need from customers within process industries and manufacturing to purchase greener products that help improve operational efficiency and drive ambitious sustainability goals. The CIPS and RS Indirect Procurement Report 2024 showed ‘sustainable and ethical procurement’ as a top business pressure for UK procurement professionals, with 71% considering ESG as important when selecting products or services, and 80% saying they would pay a premium for sustainable products.
With customers finding sustainable purchasing confusing and limited, the new Better World product framework was developed with, and verified by, external sustainability consultants. It ensures clear and robust categorisation of product sustainability claims, and is aligned to developing green claims legislation, including adhering to the industry-standard ISO 14021. The framework covers the key areas of the product lifecycle and claims are now classed into three main categories:
• Made more sustainably: products produced using more sustainable materials or manufacturing processes.
• Sustainable solutions: products that help customers run their business more sustainably, from reducing energy and emissions to protecting health and safety.
• Support circularity: products with an increased lifespan that can be reused, repaired or recycled to reduce waste.
Danny Hobson, head of Product & Supplier Sustainability at RS Group comments: “Our customers want to buy greener products to support their sustainability goals, but they find it difficult when there is such a limited selection. This framework has been developed to not only provide more simplicity and transparency for purchasing decisions, but also to ensure peace of mind that our green claims are genuine, comply with the latest regulatory guidelines, and are backed by evidence. We have an important role to play across the value chain to encourage customers and suppliers to adopt greener choices, and the announcement ensures we are working collaboratively to design and build as sustainably as possible.”
RS Group’s Better World product framework sets a clear standard and precedent for sustainable products for the industry. The company is committed to partnering with suppliers and customers to advance a more sustainable and circular value chain. It also marks a significant step in its 2030 ESG action plan to offer customers 100 000 Better World products.
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