Environmental Sustainability Strategy 2025-2030

The Royal Society is committed to using its profile, reach and convening power to pursue an environmentally sustainable future, whilst at the same time reducing the environmental footprint of its own activities and building resilience to the impacts of environmental change on the people, infrastructure and activities related to its operations.

To help achieve this, the Royal Society launched its Environmental Sustainability Strategy (PDF) in May 2025, following an initial assessment of the greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity footprint associated with its operations, for the baseline year of 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024.

The strategy sets out the priorities of the Society to:

• reduce the impact of its operations,
• adapt to risks, and
• champion scientific contributions for societal transformation.

Each of these priorities will be addressed through the three cross-cutting lenses of climate, biodiversity, and resource use.

The strategy sets out the current understanding of the environmental impacts associated with the Society’s operations and the ambitions to reduce these. It also outlines the governance and next steps for delivery over the period 2025-2030, across 7 impact areas:

• energy and waste
• investments
• research funding
• purchasing and procurement
• digital and IT
• business travel
• food and beverages