Our approach to
corporate responsibility
Corporate responsibility performance begins with the purpose of the company. RELX is a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers, enabling them to make better decisions, get better results and be more productive.
Our purpose is to benefit society by developing products that help researchers advance scientific knowledge; doctors and nurses improve the lives of patients; lawyers promote the rule of law and achieve justice and fair results for their clients; businesses and governments prevent fraud; consumers access financial services and get fair prices; and customers learn about markets and complete transactions.
Our purpose guides our actions beyond the products that we develop. It defines us as a company. Every day across RELX our employees are inspired to undertake initiatives that make unique contributions to society and the communities in which we operate.
Corporate Responsibility starts with the positive impact we have on society through our products and services. Our focus on Corporate Responsibility enhances customer trust and underpins our overall business performance.
We align the objectives we set for our unique contributions, as well as those for the significant areas that affect all companies – Governance, People, Customers, Community, Supply chain and Environment – with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in order to work toward the achievement of these 17 global goals by 2030.
Check out this RELX Unique Contributions podcast episode featuring Márcia Balisciano, Global Head of Corporate Responsibility at RELX, as she discusses the journey that has placed corporate responsibility at the heart of RELX's business strategy:
Investor & other recognition
We set annual and longer-term objectives to ensure we continue to increase the positive impact we have on society through our business and we set meaningful targets and measure progress against them.
As you explore the different sections of this story, you will learn how we achieved our 2025 CR objectives, our 2026 objectives and our 2030 vision.
Our areas of focus are our unique contributions, governance, people, community, customers, supply chain and the environment. You can find the highlights from each focus area below.
OUR Unique Contributions
In the every-day conduct of our business, we make a positive impact on society through our unique contributions;
Protection of Society
Advance of Science and Health
Promotion of the Rule of Law and Access to Justice
Fostering Communities
Universal, sustainable access to information
Highlights
1.8m+
ADAM alerts distributed in 2025, featuring over 2,030 missing children which helped NCMEC resolve over 1,440 missing child cases
942K+
Research4Life downloads from Elsevier’s ScienceDirect in 2025
50+
Universities in 30+ countries participating in Elsevier's 4th Generation University initiative to drive regional innovation
80k+
Photos and videos uploaded to eyewitness to Atrocities since 2015, supporting admissible human rights evidence
16
Legal professionals pursuing U.S. accreditation in 2025 through Afghan Legal Professionals Programme
35%
Reduction in event energy and waste (2018–2024) achieved by RX in support of its Net Zero Carbon Events roadmap
352K+
Unique users of the RELX SDG Resource Centre in 2025
935
New content items added to the RELX SDG Resource Centre in 2025, bringing the total to 6,729
PROTECTION OF SOCIETY
Risk
A number of LexisNexis Risk Solutions products help customers recognise trusted transactions and reduce fraud. LexisNexis ID Compass Platform, for example, reduces digital fraud by combining physical, digital and behavioural identity intelligence to verify and authenticate consumer identities in real time without disruption for businesses or its customers.
ThreatMetrix leverages shared global intelligence from millions of daily consumer interactions to identify signals of high fraud risk while BehavioSec uses behaviour intelligence to differentiate legitimate users from bots and cybercriminals.
In the year, Risk published The Global Fraud and Identity Landscape Report, highlighting how businesses can significantly enhance fraud detection by integrating shared digital identity intelligence and multi-layered security systems to maintain consumer trust.
2025 marked 25 years of the ADAM programme, developed by Risk to help the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) find missing children. The programme uses Risk technology to quickly distribute missing child poster alerts to law enforcement, hospitals, and the public in specific geographic search areas. Risk launched a new interactive dashboard in the year, that enables the public to search missing child posters and filter them by location. ADAM distributed over 1.8malerts featuring over 2,030 missing children which helped NCMEC resolve over 1,440 missing child cases in 2025. Our data privacy principles, governance structures and control programmes enable us to comply with data privacy requirements and protect personally identifiable information.
ADVANCE OF SCIENCE AND HEALTH
Scientific, Technical & Medical
Elsevier published over 795,000 articles in 2025. It is focused on expanding access to content in places where resources are often scarce. Elsevier is a leading contributor and founding partner of Research4Life, a partnership with UN agencies and over 200 publishers through which we provide core and cutting-edge scientific information to researchers in over 125 low- and middle-income countries.
Elsevier provides around 14% of the material available in Research4Life, encompassing approximately 5,500 journals and 35,000 e-books. In 2025, there were over 942,000 total Research4Life downloads from Elsevier’s research platform, ScienceDirect.
Elsevier’s 4th Generation University initiative, developed in partnership with a group of 12 Universities, positions universities as orchestrators of regional innovation, achieving societal and economic impact through partnerships with industry, government, and civil society. More than 50 universities from over 30 countries have joined the 4th Generation University community to date.
Elsevier works to build capacity and equity in research and health for an inclusive and sustainable future. The Elsevier Foundation partnered with the Falling Walls Foundation to sponsor the Women’s Impact Award, which celebrates visionary scientists whose interdisciplinary, and groundbreaking research advances gender equity and creates meaningful impact for women and girls.
PROMOTION OF RULE OF LAW AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE
Legal
LexisNexis Legal and Professional's global legal and news database contains over 207bn documents and records providing transparency of the law in around 180 countries and territories, with some 1.9m new legal documents added daily.
The LexisNexis Trust Center was launched in 2025, a centralised hub designed to provide customers, partners and regulators with clear, accessible information about the company’s security posture, privacy practices, governance frameworks, and compliance commitments. The Trust Center aims to provide customers and partners around the globe with transparency and confidence in our technology.
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’s data hosting capabilities provides a secure repository for the information. Over 80,000 photos and videos have been captured through the app since 2015.
Since 2023 LexisNexis Legal & Professional have provided a bespoke online legal research training course for participants of the Afghan Legal Professionals Programme which provides resettled Afghan legal professionals, particularly women, access to legal education, accreditation, mentoring and training that will allow them to pursue law careers in the United States. In 2025, 16 Afghan legal professionals were pursuing US legal accreditation in Master of Law programmes and preparing for bar examinations.
FOSTERING COMMUNITIESring Communities
Exhibitions
RX helps to foster communities by connecting customers face to face and digitally, allowing them to learn about markets, source products and complete transactions. Participants benefit by making connections and doing business in person, allowing them to see many customers and suppliers at one time. Exhibitions foster collaboration, spark innovation and support progress toward a more inclusive and sustainable global economy.
RX China continued integrating green innovation zones, decarbonisation forums, and AI-powered matchmaking, to support key sectors like smart manufacturing and robotics while anchoring operations in sustainability.
MIPCOM Cannes 2025 featured the sixth edition of the MIP SDG Awards, honouring Secuoya Studios for its commitment to the UN SDGs and for driving measurable progress through content creation and production practices. Presented in partnership with the United Nations, the 2025 awards recognised leadership in advancing sustainability and inclusion across the global media industry.
On World Environment Day 2025 RX published a first Sustainability Report, with assured 2024 data on RX business travel, event energy and event waste emissions. Between 2018 and 2024 RX achieved a 35% reduction in event energy and waste. This effort builds on RX’s Roadmap to Net Zero in 2040, which outlines key milestones in the journey to decarbonisation.
Universal, Sustainable Access to information
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 2,700 journal articles and book chapters free to access via the RELX SDG Resource Centre which would have otherwise cost more than £5.7m to make open access. In 2025, there were more than 352,000 unique users, an increase of 48,500 over 2024. We added 935 new content items to the RELX SDG Resource Centre bringing the total to 6,729, an increase of 16% over the previous year. We published more than ten special issues featuring curated articles, book chapters and other content on critical topics to provide insights for World Water Day, World Food Day, World Alzheimer’s Day and COP30.
We held the annual RELX SDG Inspiration Day during the year with a focus on how philanthropy can bridge funding gaps to advance the SDGs. Thought leaders, corporate representatives, investors, governments, and NGOs discussed challenges and opportunities for collaboration. Keynote speakers included 8th Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, Comic Relief co-founder, Sir Lenny Henry and co-founder of Global Citizen, Michael Sheldrick.
2026 OBJECTIVES
Protection of society
- Deploy financial inclusion models which allow lenders to more easily detect fraud and other high-risk consumer behaviour, in support of SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities)
Advance science and health
- Introduce Elsevier Foundation Lancet Evidence to Impact Awards to translate critical research into practice, building capacity with researchers and health care practitioners in low and middle income countries through Elsevier content and the Research4Life Country Connectors programme, in support of SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) and SDG 13 (Climate Action)
Promote the rule of law and access to justice
- Partnership with Indiana State Bar Association to address shortage of legal representatives in rural and underserved communities in the state; convene first virtual Rule of Law Café conference to bring together stakeholders to highlight key issues, in support of SDG16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions)
Fostering communities
- Pilot RX Sustainability scorecard supported by e-learning, in support of SDG 13 (Climate Action)
Universal, sustainable access to information
- Increase the number of unique users of the RELX SDG Resource Centre by at least 20,000 additional unique users
by 2030
Use our products and expertise to advance the SDGs, among them: SDG 3 (Good Health And Well-Being) SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities) SDG 13 (Climate Action) SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions). Enrich the SDG Resource Centre to ensure essential content, tools and events on the SDGs are freely available to all
Governance
Our purpose, strategy, values and culture deliver the very highest standards of corporate governance and responsibility.
Highlights
99%+
Completion rate of compliance courses within 90 days
13
Our Code of Ethics and Business Conduct is available in 13 languages
431
Code of Conduct Reports Investigated in 2025
99%+
Employees were included in monthly phishing simulation exercises
Our purpose, strategy, values and culture deliver the very highest standards of corporate governance and responsibility.
A strong privacy programme and robust data protection practices are essential to meeting our commitment to responsible stewardship and accountability in handling the personal information entrusted to us.
Doing the Right Thing is more than a phrase at RELX, it embodies principles that represent RELX’s culture of integrity. This includes ensuring respect for one another, incorporating ethics in all our actions; growing our business with integrity; holding ourselves and each other accountable; and taking time to ask questions and report concerns.
Doing the Right Thing is underpinned by clear actions for employees, among them, being honest in our dealings with others, respecting the law, our policies and colleagues; and courageously speaking out for what is right. RELX in turn provides relevant training and resources; enables a culture where people can feel comfortable speaking up and experience no retaliation when they do; and ensures concerns are listened to and acted on in a fair and timely manner.
The RELX Code of Ethics and Business Conduct (the Code) is a foundational document which guides employees, management and our stakeholders in maintaining the integrity and accountability of our corporate and individual behaviour. The Code was most recently updated in 2024 and shared with staff globally by the CEO. It is at the heart of our compliance activities, which encompass clear policies and procedures; risk assessments; training and communication; and robust reporting mechanisms, investigations, monitoring and auditing of internal controls
Data Privacy
Data is integral to the solutions we provide that further our unique contributions as a business, including protecting consumers from the risk of fraud; facilitating secure online transactions; improving access to financial and government benefits; enhancing face-to-face connections at exhibitions; and delivering high quality scientific research and healthcare. Recognising concerns and sensitivities around personal data, our commitment to data privacy remained a critical RELX priority in 2025 and continues to be supported by strong governance, transparency and accountability. Dedicated privacy teams implemented requirements for compliance with personal data protection regulations around the globe. RELX continues to advocate for privacy laws that protect consumers, bolster consumer trust and allow businesses to investin data-driven activities that serve the public interest. RELX companies in the US participating in the Data Privacy Framework programme renewed their self-certification in the year.
We proactively take into account privacy concerns in developing and offering our solutions. Our Privacy Principles guide our approach to the responsible collection and use of personal data and are supplemented by internal privacy policies and guidance that are updated by our privacy offices to respond to new requirements, best practices and expectations.
Our privacy teams undertake activities and training that deepen employee awareness about personal data protection. For Data Privacy Day 2025, we celebrated the winners of the annual RELX Privacy Principles Champions Competition, which recognises the achievements of employees in protecting personal data and implementing our Privacy Principles.
Records of processing activities (ROPAs) internally document our personal data processing activities as part of our accountability and compliance measures. In 2025, RELX privacy teams clarified and consolidated hundreds of ROPAs and updated the ROPA questionnaires and guidance to facilitate completion.
Cyber security
The RELX Information Security Policy establishes comprehensive controls and procedures designed to safeguard the confidentiality, integrity and availability of company information. The policy includes a commitment to ongoing enhancement of information security systems and is supported by a set of interrelated policies and standards addressing essential facets of information protection. In 2025, more than 99% of employees were included in monthly phishing simulation exercises.
During the year, we continued to enhance our security efforts with additional infrastructure monitoring capabilities both internally and through third parties. We completed more than 5,000 security related requests, questionnaires and audits for our customers. In addition, we engaged third parties to perform independent audits on a number of our products and services. More than 60% of the product revenue from our three largest business areas were covered by a third-party audit. In addition, our UK Risk products have been ISO27001 certified.
A responsible taxpayer
Taxation is an important issue for us as well as our stakeholders, including our shareholders, governments, customers, suppliers, employees and the global communities in which we operate. We are transparent about our approach to tax. At relx.com/go/TaxPrinciples we provide details about our tax principles and global tax contribution – broken down by regions and categories – along with our tax risk control framework. There are also case studies showing how RELX has made a positive contribution i n tax-related areas to benefit society as a whole. RELX is a signatory to the B Team’s Responsible Tax Principles. The B Team is a group of business leaders committed to sustainability, equality and accountability. In 2025, RELX Tax was selected as a responsible tax champion in the Responsible Tax Practices project, an initiative of the International Finance Corporation, a member of the World Bank Group, and the B Team, to enhance responsible tax practices in Africa. This groundbreaking initiative brings together responsible tax leaders and their private sector peers to explore the what, why, and how of responsible tax practices. The project was launched with a roundtable in Nairobi in April 2025.
Globally in 2025, RELX paid £638m in corporate taxes, but also paid and collected much more in payroll taxes and indirect taxes.
2026 OBJECTIVES
- Security – Expansion of products and applications covered by independent third-party assessments, aligned with SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions)
- Privacy – Expand role-based privacy training tailored to job function, aligned with SDG 16 (Peace, Justice andStrong Institutions)
- Responsible tax – Continue to advance tax transparency and responsible tax projects in Africa, aligned with SDG 16 (Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions)
By 2030
Continued progressive actions that advance excellence in corporate governance within our business and continue providing information, tools and analytics that promote high standards of corporate governance by our customers
Customers
We deliver information-based analytics and decision tools in a sustainable way to our customers, driving growth for the long term.
Highlights
87%
Customers would recommend working with RELX
8.9m
Leads captured by exhibitors at RX events through Lead Manager App in 2025
600+
Customer accessibility requests resolved in 2025
14.5k
Open research articles from low- and middle-income countries enabled by Elsevier’s Geographical Pricing for Open Access initiative
We deliver information-based analytics and decision tools in a sustainable way to our customers, driving growth for the long term.
Engaging with our customers helps us understand their evolving needs and ensures that our solutions deliver real value. Customer insights drive innovation and strengthen trust at the heart of our partnerships.
Our goal is to improve outcomes for our customers by providing information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers that benefit their daily work.
Listening to our customers allows us to deepen our understanding of their needs and drive improvements. We do this through regular surveys, customer dashboards and feedback mechanisms. With input from customer insight teams across our company, we calculated a RELX-wide customer satisfaction metric showing that in 2025, 87% of customers would recommend working with RELX.
Artificial Intelligence across RELX: advancing customer goals
Across RELX, we work to address customer challenges through digital innovation. In 2025, electronic products and services accounted for 84% of revenue, up from 35% in 2005
Risk - In 2025 Risk launched Medical Insights from LexisNexis Health Intelligence. The new functionality of the Health Intelligence platform standardises and extracts key insights from electronic health records (EHRs), including targeted health data such as vitals, labs and material conditions. This enhancement goes beyond the standard EHR summary to allow US life insurance carriers to more quickly identify key critical risk data within the EHR to improvemortality outcomes, accelerate underwriting decisions, enhance risk assessment and advance rules automation with structured data.
Scientific, Technical & Medical - Elsevier launched ScienceDirect AI which enhances research integrity and efficiency by providing researchers with precise summaries, extracting key findings from millions of peerreviewed articles. To help clinicians with responsible and effective use of generative AI tools, Elsevier launched the Gen AI Academy for Health, an accredited, complementary and self-paced course.
Legal - Legal launched its AI-powered legal assistant, Protégé, in 2025 which enables legal professionals to interact using voice commands, making tasks such as legal research, drafting and case law summarisation faster and more efficient. Features such as strict data privacy standards, secure vaults, visual case timelines and workflow suggestions enhance productivity to help customers make good legal decisions more quickly.
Exhibitions - Digital event technology continued to transform the way RX’s customers connect, learn, and do business, enabling them to create and capture more value while reducing environmental impact. RX’s Lead Manager App provides exhibitors with a quick, easy and reliable way to capture and qualify leads by scanning attendees’ badges with a mobile phone. Complementing this, Colleqt QR Code allows attendees to proactively scan QR codes on exhibitor stands to collect their contact details and product information quickly and sustainably. Their registration data is passed automatically to exhibitors to enhance lead generation. In 2025, exhibitors at RX events collectively captured over 8.9m leads through Lead Manager App.
responsible ai
We created the RELX Responsible AI Principles in 2022 and they are publicly available here. The Principles are accompanied by a RELX position paper on AI and a dedicated address that anyone can use to provide feedback or raise queries: [email protected].
Each business area works to implement the Principles, with dedicated teams responsible for developing policy, processes, tools, resources and training to support teams working with data science, machine learning and AI in embedding the Principles in their day-to-day activities.
We hosted a RELX Responsible AI Summit in the year, with sessions on agentic AI, responsible AI by design and current and pending AI legislation. Insights and questions raised at the summit will be considered by the Responsible AI working group when updating the principles.
We are committed to updating our RELX Responsible AI Principles in recognition of the rapidly changing adoption and use of AI. In 2025 we assembled feedback from organisational stakeholders on suggested changes to the principles and the Responsible AI Working Group met to review this information and propose new language. Work will continue in 2026 to incorporate feedback and update the principles accordingly.
editorial standards
Maintaining the integrity of what RELX publishes is vital to the trust of customers and other stakeholders. Our Editorial Policy , available to all staff (and publicly available here) makes clear our respect for human rights, pluralism of sources, ideas and voices.
Elsevier has dedicated resources and processes to support research integrity. Elsevier’s Research Integrity and Publishing Ethics team supports publishers and editors through their research integrity strategy which focuses on, resolving post-publication ethics cases for publishers and editors, detecting unethical practices during the editorial process to prevent publication and raising awareness within Elsevier and the communities that we serve on best practices. We also believe in editorial independence and keep editorial decision making processes separate from our commercial interests.
Accessibility
We strive to empower all people, including persons with disabilities, by ensuring our products and services are accessible and easy to use by everyone. Our commitment to accessibility is embedded across RELX and advances our Inclusion Policy. We work to ensure we meet the requirements of relevant global accessibility laws including the European Accessibility Act and theAmericans with Disabilities Act.
We maintain an Accessibility Policy that highlights industry standards and tools to embed accessibility into our products and our business operations. We apply best practice from the RELX Accessibility Policy across hundreds of digital products and websites. Our minimum standard for our Websites is the WebContent Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA.
In 2025 Accessibility Teams across Risk, Elsevier and Legal resolved over 600 customer accessibility requests.
2026 OBJECTIVES
Quality – Update RELX Responsible AI Principles to keep pace with evolving technology, aligned with SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth)
Accessibility – Establish and implement accessibility best practices for AI-driven user interfaces and AI-generated content, aligned with SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities)
Customer engagement – Develop an internal AI tool for customer facing colleagues to quickly access corporate responsibility information, aligned withSDG 17 (Partnership for the Goals
By 2030
Continue to expand our customer base across our four business areas through excellence in products and services, active listening and engagement, editorial and quality standards, and accessibility. Continue to be recognised as an advocate for responsible marketplace practices
people & community
We owe our success to RELX’s talented employees, including technologists, researchers, event directors, product managers, data scientists and many others. They are driven by a strong sense of purpose, and they count on us to create a fair, challenging, rewarding and supportive work environment where they can achieve their potential.
Highlights
76%
Of employees used online training platforms in 2025
$14m
Invested in training
~500K
Hours of training delivered
1.5K
Active users on the global mentoring platform
£20m
Market value of cash and in-kind donations
38%
Of employees engaged in volunteering
14k+
Days volunteered in company time
100+
Employee Resource Groups globally
We owe our success to our people. They are driven by a strong sense of purpose, and a supportive work environment where they can achieve their full potential.
RELX has enabled me to grow in my vocation while fostering a culture oftrust and psychological safety. The organisation’s policies have supported both my professional ambitions and personal wellbeing, making me even more committed to showing up at my best, every day.
At the heart of our approach to inclusion, is the belief that everyone should be able to succeed and grow in a business that values them. Inclusion means feeling heard, contributing equally, with equal access to opportunity – regardless of personal characteristics. We encourage and promote inclusion and believe RELX derives competitive advantage from the breadth of backgrounds, diverse perspectives, opinions and differing ways of thinking that our people bring to everything they do.
RELX Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) encourage colleagues to collaborate, advocate and engage communities around topics of mutual interest. ERGs are open to everybody, and help advance a culture of belonging. This is recognised by allowing all employees to take two days paid time-off per year for ERG-sponsored activities. In 2025, employees recorded over 22,300 ERG hours.
Our 2025 series of virtual events helped colleagues understand and embrace the diversity of our global business. The 2025 Belonging virtual conference brought together employees globally to foster a shared commitment to advocacy, learning and building an inclusive workplace.
In 2025, the percentage of people managers who are women remained at 46%, and the number of women in our senior leader population was 31%. At year end, women comprised 40% of the
Board. Our business relies heavily on technologists and we need to attract the best talent to support our business ambitions. We directly employ more than 9,300 technologists, 27% are women. In 2025, we continued to monitor pay competitiveness and pay equity across RELX. Compensation reviews twice a year allow for pay increases to recognise performance and sustain market competitiveness and internal equity.
Health and safety
The importance of employee health and safety is emphasised in the RELX Code of Ethics and Business Conduct and in the RELX Health and Safety Policy available at relx.com. These documents commit us to providing a healthy and safe workplace for all employees and safe products and services for customers. The CEO is responsible for health and safety on behalf of the Board.
RELX is also committed to fostering a psychologically safe and supportive workplace through a comprehensive mental health and wellbeing framework that spans all business areas. The framework is rooted in proactive leadership, diverse support mechanisms, and inclusive programming that addresses the multifaceted wellbeing needs of employees globally. In 2025, we held our first RELX Wellbeing Summit bringing together over 100 HR leads, ERG representatives, and Mental Health First Aiders across 14 countries. The summit highlighted practical tools for workplace wellbeing advocates and focused on connection, care, and rejuvenation for those colleagues that care for others.
2026 OBJECTIVES
Belonging – Continue to engage colleagues globally through our Inspiring Inclusion programme, aligned with SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities)
Wellbeing – Second virtual well-being summit to convene wellness champions across RELX to share best practice and provide new tools to support physical and mental wellbeing, in support of SDG 3 (Good Health and Well-Being)
Pay equity – Continue to assess pay competitiveness and pay equity, aligned with SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth
By 2030
Continued high-performing and satisfied workforce through talent development, inclusion and well-being
Volunteering allows us to unite our collective strength for meaningful change. Nothing is more rewarding than seeing our shared efforts strengthen community bonds and create tangible impact.
Community
RELX Cares, our global community programme, supports employee volunteering and giving that makes a positive impact on society. The mission of RELX Cares is education for disadvantaged young people that advances one or more of our unique contributions as a business, including protection of society and reducing inequalities, advancing science and improving health outcomes, furthering the Rule of Law and access to justice and fostering communities. Employees have up to two days’ paid leave per year for their own community work. A network of 220 RELX Cares Champions ensures the vibrancy of our community engagement.
Each September, we hold RELX Cares Month to celebrate our commitment to our communities around the world. During the Month, over 4,000 colleagues across RELX took part in hundreds of volunteering and fundraising events. These included employees in the UK who recorded audio books for sick children; colleagues from LexisNexis Risk Solutions US who painted skateboards for disadvantaged children; Elsevier India colleagues who mentored young people from an educational charity; LexisNexis Legal & Professional New Zealand who took part in a beach clean-up; and colleagues at RX China who worked with a charity providing horse riding for children with special needs
Giving
Our central donations programme aligns with the RELX Cares mission. Employees serve as sponsors for charities seeking funding, which must in turn indicate how they help further one or more of RELX’s unique contributions. RELX Cares Champions vote on submissions using decision criteria such as value to the beneficiary and opportunities for staff engagement. In 2025, RELX Cares Champions donated £334,242 to 29 charities supporting over 120,000 young people.
We extended our partnership with our global fundraising partner, Save the Children, until 2027. Since 2022, the partnership has raised more than £200,000, including through marathon running, quiz nights and taking part in Save the Children’s Christmas jumper day, and we have pledged to raise at least another £80,000 by 2027. The funds support Save the Children’s work in 90 countries, through emergency response and long-term programmes, the charity has an immediate and lasting impact on the lives of millions of children around the world.
We donated £5m in cash (including through matching gifts), and £15m in products, services and staff time (market-value) in 2025. Some 38% of employees were engaged in volunteering through RELX Cares.
While print is a relatively small portion of our revenue, we continue to minimise the impact of printed product. We donate excess product to charity partners such as Book Aid International and Books for Africa to avoid waste and benefit communities. In 2025, RELX donated over 143,000 books with a value of over $11m to our charity partners. RELX has been a Book Aid International partner for over 30 years. In 2025, we supported them by donating 16,476 new books and providing a grant to open a new Children’s Corner in Bamenda, Cameroon.
This year we celebrated 20 years of the Elsevier Foundation which has donated $18 million in grants to over 100 partners in more than 70 countries around the world to advance inclusive research and health.
In accordance with the B4SI model, we monitor the short- and long-term benefits of the projects with which we are involved. We ask beneficiaries to report on their progress to increase transparency and engagement. In addition, we survey RELX Cares volunteers on the impact the programme has on their work following each volunteer activity. In 2025, we received over 15,400 responses, 89% of respondents said their motivation and pride in RELX had increased as a result of volunteering and 87% said they had experienced a positive
2026 OBJECTIVES
- Employee community engagement – Hold first virtual global RELX Cares Champions Summit to continue advancing flagship RELX Cares programme across the business in support of SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals
- Philanthropic giving – Introduce new technology platform to streamline central giving and to improve impact reporting, in support of SDG 17 (Partnerships for the Goals)
By 2030
Through our unique contributions, and investments with partners, contribute to significant, measurable advancement of education for disadvantaged young people
Supply chain
We provide our customers with ethically sourced products and services and insist our suppliers meet the same high standards.
Highlights
6,586
Signatories to the Supplier Code of Conduct in 2025
140
Independent supplier audits in 2025
954
Key suppliers on SRS database in 2025
16
Our Supplier Code of Conduct is available in 16 languages
Managing an ethical supply chain
By collaborating with suppliers who share our values, we generate greater impact – for our company, our customers, and the communities where we live and work.
RELX has a diverse supply chain with suppliers located in over 150 countries across multiple categories, including technology (e.g. software, cloud, hardware and telecom), indirect (e.g. consulting, marketing, contingent labour and travel), and direct (e.g. data/content and production services, print/paper/bind and distribution).
Our Supplier Code of Conduct (Supplier Code) stipulates our expectations of our suppliers. It incorporates the Ten Principles of the UN Global Compact and encompasses key topics such as involuntary labour, non-discrimination, compensation and working hours, coercion and harassment, data security and environment. We require suppliers to ensure the standards of theCode are applied across their own supply chain. Where local industry standards are higher than applicable legal requirements, we expect suppliers to meet the higher standards.
Non signatories to our supplier code are primarily new to the Socially Responsible Supply Chain (SRS) tracking list, and we work with them, and other non-signatories, to gain agreement to our Supplier Code. In total, at the end of 2025 there were 6,586 signatories to our Supplier Code, or suppliers with an equivalent code, representing an increase of 9% from 6,056 signatories at the close of 2024.
The SRS tracking list includes suppliers with which; we spend more than $1m annually; deem critical; or those located in medium and high-risk countries with which we spend $100,000+ annually for two consecutive years.
The SRS tracking list changes year-on-year based on our business needs and changes in country risk designations; in 2025, there were 954 suppliers, of which 769 (81%) are signatories to our Supplier Code or have equivalent standards in place. The tracking list includes 111 suppliers in high-risk countries and 694 in medium risk countries,
We assess risk using our Supplier Risk Tool which contains 11 indicators, including human trafficking information from US State Department and the Environmental Performance Index (Yale University and Columbia University in collaboration with the World Economic Forum). Using the tool, in 2025, we assessed risk covering over 90% of global spend
We engage specialist supply chain auditors to evaluate compliance with the Supplier Code, and in 2025 there were 140 external audits; 69 onsite and 71 desktop. During 2025, onsite audit locations included Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, Hungary, India, Italy, Mauritius, Mexico, Pakistan, Philippines, Singapore, South Africa, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, and United States. Incidence of noncompliance identified during an audit leads to a timeline requiring either immediate remediation or from 30-90 days remediation based on the finding.
During 2025, we held RELX Supplier sessions focused on avoiding modern slavery, promoting living wages and setting science-based carbon reduction targets.
Promoting human rights through the Supplier Code
In accordance with the UK’s Modern Slavery Act 2015, our Supplier Code explicitly prohibits suppliers from participating in any form of human trafficking or related activity. In 2025, we updated our RELX Modern Slavery Act Statement (MSA) outlining how we are working to prevent human trafficking and modern slavery in our direct operations and throughout our supply chain. The Supplier Code stipulates that, where required by law, suppliers will have employment contracts signed with all employees and require mechanisms for reporting grievances. It additionally contains a provision on involuntary labour that states unequivocally that suppliers cannot directly or indirectly use, participate in, or benefit from, involuntary workers and human trafficking-related activities. Suppliers have access to Modern Slavery Awareness training through our audit provider. In addition, suppliers audited in the year were asked to undergo further training on freely chosen employment and living wages. We use a UK Government definition of modern slavery, particularly ‘the trafficking of people, forced labour, servitude and slavery.’ In 2025 we did not receive any reports from employees or suppliers via the Integrity Line that related to modern slavery.
The Supplier Code states that failure to comply may result in termination of the business relationship between RELX and the supplier, it also protects reporting persons from retaliation
2026 OBJECTIVES
Responsible Supply Chain – Increase number of suppliers that are Code signatories; continue using audits to ensure continuous improvement in supplier performance and compliance, in support of SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth)
By 2030
Reduce supply chain risks related to human rights, labour, the environment and anti-bribery by ensuring adherence to our Supplier Code of Conduct through training, auditing and remediation; drive supply chain innovation, quality and efficiencies through a strong, diverse network of suppliers.
CASE STUDY
ALIGNING WITH GOOD PARTNERS
With the strength of our global team and the support of our partners, we are committed to reducing our environmental impact, advancing employee well-being, and upholding the highest standards of ethical governance.
RELX supplier, Aptara Inc., headquartered in Chantilly, Virginia, with major operations in Noida, India, is a global content solutions provider which integrates robust Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) principles into its long-term business strategy. Backed by parent company iEnergizer and a global workforce of more than 25,000 employees, Aptara delivers end-to-end content lifecycle solutions while maintaining a strong focus on sustainability, social responsibility, and ethical governance. Aptara’s ESG priorities are reducing environmental impact, supporting employee well-being, and upholding transparent, responsible business practices. Key environmental objectives include lowering carbon emissions through energy-efficient infrastructure, transitioning to renewable energy sources, minimising waste, reducing water consumption, promoting circular-economy practices, and reporting progress through globally recognised frameworks.
An ESG Core Committee, with defined roles and performance indicators, guides programme implementation and oversight. The Committee ensures integration of ESG criteria across supplier engagements, transparent communication of initiatives, and systematic assessment of ESG-related risks. Aptara’s responsible procurement approach prioritises suppliers that demonstrate environmental compliance, sustainable sourcing, emissions reduction commitments, relevant certifications, efficient packaging standards, and strong data-security practices.
Key environmental initiatives include upgrading generator systems to dual-fuel technology, adopting Retrofit Emission Control Devices, promoting electric-vehicle usage, converting all facilities to LED lighting, expanding campus green cover, and conducting community tree planting initiatives. Aptara also reduces paper consumption and ensures proper waste segregation, municipal disposal, and certified e-waste management, while maintaining full compliance with Pollution Control Board requirements and completing regular air-quality assessments.
Aptara’s social programmes emphasise employee health, well-being, and safety. The company provides comprehensive medical facilities, conducts regular health camps and awareness sessions, and maintains rigorous workplace safety governance supported by emergency-response systems and evacuation drills. Ongoing sustainability projects include solar-energy adoption, plastic-free campuses, and rainwater harvesting systems.
Aptara reports annually through leading global disclosure platforms, benchmarks its ESG performance against recognised rating systems, and continuously advances its ESG programme to ensure measurable improvement.
Environment
We work to reduce our environmental footprint, while developing products
and services that bring stakeholders together to address critical global
environmental issues and provide essential insights.
Highlights
87%
Reduction in Scope 1 and Scope 2 (location-based) emissions since 2010
96%
Of waste diverted from landfil
100%
Of paper graded as known and responsible sources
$1.2m+
Awarded to support clean water and sanitation innovation since 2011
We work to reduce our environmental footprint, while developing products and services that bring stakeholders together to address critical global environmental issues and provide essential insights.
With the changing climate we are seeing the impact of increased flash flooding, shifts in subsidence and changes in wildfire patterns. Our products provide customers with crucial data and tools to understand the associated risks for property to enable them to offer sufficient levels of cover.
The CEO is responsible to the Board for environmental performance, and the CFO is our most senior environmental advocate. The CEOs of our business areas are responsible for complying with relevant environmental policy, legislation and regulations. The Global Head of Corporate Responsibility engages with the Board on environmental issues, and we work with Environmental Champions and dedicated engineering, design and real estate specialists to improve efficiency wherever possible in our portfolio.
We measure and report greenhouse gas emissions, implement decarbonisation strategies for emissions reductions and address residual emissions with high quality carbon removals, with the aim to achieve net zero across all carbon scopes by 2040.
In creating and delivering our products and services we have an impact on the environment through carbon emissions, energy and water usage. But where we can make the biggest difference is in our portfolio of environmental research, products and services, which further knowledge, promote best practice and inspire meaningful action.
A positive environmental impact through our products and services
Our products and services, which provide stakeholders globally with data that informs debate, supports decision-making and advances environmental research, represent our most significant environmental impact.
Risk provides essential data to enable the insurance market to remain resilient in response to a rapidly changing climate. To address increased risks of flooding and subsidence, Risk offers address-level risk scores, available at the point of quote and visually through its Map View solution. Providing detailed, timely risk data on a property-by-property basis supports insurers underwriting decisions and benefits consumers in making informed decisions about their policies and property choices.
Scientific, Technical & Medical - In the year, Elsevier contributed to the development and launch of an industry-wide, digital journal carbon calculator to assess the impact of journal publications using a common methodology. Elsevier is deploying the tool for a pilot project with the Royal Danish Library to assist them with carbon reporting of journal publications.
Legal - LexisNexis Practical Guidance (LPG) strengthens market understanding of environmental law and policy. Bespoke trackers cover environmental law topics in legislation, cases, consultations, and UK/EU divergence. LPG monitors and reports on major developments and events in the year such as COP30 to ensure information remains current and actionable. ESG and sustainability resources expanded in the year on climate change, environmental policy, and due diligence.
RX’s portfolio of energy events including World Future Energy Summit, All Energy and Pollutec help to accelerate the clean energy transition. In 2025, RX’s Functional Fabric Fair Summer Edition featured over 150 sustainably certified suppliers, reflecting growing industry demand for responsible sourcing. Aluminium China brought together over 490 exhibitors in the
year with themed zones focused on recycling and sustainable packaging solutions.
environmental performance
We focus on delivering continuous improvement in our environmental performance and achieved the environmental objectives we set for 2025. We reduced our on-site energy consumption by 38% over 2024, with a reduction of 34% in our Scope 1 and Scope 2 (location-based) emissions. Scope 3 (flights) emissions increased by 24% over 2024 as business travel returns towards expected levels, but is 41% below 2019 emissions.
We reduced water consumption by 17% and continued to purchase 100% sustainable production paper. Our carbon reduction targets are validated by the Science Based Targets Initiative as aligned with the 1.5°C criteria.
Our environmental management system was re-certified to ISO14001 in the year, demonstrating our commitment to responsible environmental management across our global operations.
As a signatory to the Climate Pledge, we are part of a community of more than 630 organisations working to address climate change by measuring and reporting greenhouse gas emissions and implementing decarbonisation strategies to achieve significant emissions reductions. Since 2010, we have reduced our Scope 1 and 2 location-based carbon emissions by 87%. We set an internal carbon price which our business areas must pay for the carbon they emit. In 2025, it was $50 per ton of CO2.
Energy consumption at our offices, representing 62% of the total on-site energy, decreased in 2025 due to continued office space consolidation. Energy from our owned data centres, constituting 38% of our total on-site energy consumption, decreased as we continued to move activity to the cloud. The purpose-built modern data centres of cloud providers have significantly lower emissions due to their large scale and measures such as the use of renewable energy. We are a member of RE100, a global initiative bringing together businesses committed to 100% renewable electricity.
RELX ENvironmental challenge
2025 marked the fifteenth year of the RELX Environmental Challenge, which provides grants for projects that best demonstrate how they can provide sustainable access to safe water and sanitation where itis presently at risk. A $50,000 prize is granted to the first-place entry and a $25,000 prize for the second-place entry.
Projects must have clear practical applicability, address identified need and advance related issues such as health, education, or human rights. The first prize winner this year was Folia Water for their paper-based water filter with silver antimicrobial technology, designed to deliver safe drinking water for low-income Bangladeshi communities. The second prize winner was Rice University for Solar Thermal Resonant Energy Exchange Desalination (STREED), a fully decentralised, membrane-free, solar thermal desalination solution, which addresses critical water scarcity and brine waste management issues.
Since 2011, the Challenge has awarded more than US$1.2 million in prize funding to more than 30 projects across 25+ countries, helping to advance SDG6: Clean water and sanitation. In 2026, the Challenge will award two prizes of US$75,000 each, a clean water/sanitation prize and the new ocean prize - recognising the critical role that healthy oceans play in clean water systems, sanitation, human health and reducing climate change. Read more about RELX Environmental Challenge innovators and the measurable impact of their solutions.
2026 OBJECTIVES
Environmental responsibility – Launch new RELX Environmental Challenge Oceans Category, in support of SDG 14 (Life Below Water)
Carbon reduction – Launch climate training for colleagues across business areas and introduce new engagement opportunities, in support of SDG 13 (Climate Action)
By 2030
Further environmental knowledge and insight globally through our products and services and conduct our business with the lowest environmental impact possible
RELX is a global provider of information-based analytics and decision tools for professional and business customers.
We help scientists make new discoveries, doctors and nurses improve the lives of patients and lawyers win cases. We prevent online fraud and money laundering, and help insurance companies evaluate and predict risk. Our events enable customers to learn about markets, source products and complete transactions. In short, we enable our customers to make better decisions, get better results and be more productive.
