Social Responsibility and Sustainability
RPS is committed to ensuring that it conducts its business in a responsible and sustainable way. Taking care of our clients, suppliers, employees, the wider community and the environment and conducting operations with a high standard of business integrity are all essential to the success of our business.

The Group requires its entire staff to adopt high standards of behaviour in their daily professional conduct or when travelling on business. Employees are required to be sympathetic to the cultures of and comply with the laws and regulations of the countries in which they operate, also giving due regard to the safety, the well being and the human rights of all project personnel and relevant local communities.

RPS is committed to minimising its carbon footprint by reducing energy consumption in its offices and in transportation. RPS has set itself the task of reducing individual energy consumption by 5% each year using 2007 as the base. This will halve our (per capita) energy use by 2020.

Clients
The Group aims to develop and maintain strong and lasting relationships with its clients. RPS endeavours to deliver all services and reports to the required quality and specification within the time frame agreed with the client. RPS' employees work with their clients to anticipate and develop their needs.

Conflicts of Interest
All RPS employees must avoid personal or

professional activities and financial interests that could conflict with their responsibilities to the Group. If a conflict of interest does arise then this must be acknowledged and openly reported. Employees must not seek personal gain from third parties, or abuse their position within the Group for personal gain. Any gifts received must be reported and acknowledged.

Community Involvement
RPS has supported community and charitable fund raising with gifts in kind and financial contributions throughout the year, mostly at office level. The Group and its staff gave or raised £420,822 in charitable contributions during 2008. Taking into account the £168,121 spent on academic bursaries and educational initiatives, the Group's total contribution to the communities in which it operates was £588,943 (0.125% of total revenue). This was an increase of 60.1% on social contributions made in 2007.

Our Planning and Development businesses in the UK and Ireland made charitable contributions and raised funds for community projects worth £133,986 and gave £125,286 in academic bursaries to undergraduate and postgraduate students studying at universities on both sides of the Irish Sea. The Planning and Development businesses donated £45,000 to establish an Urban Design Scholarship working in partnership with the publishers of the Architects Journal and in association with Design for London (now part of the London Development Agency). The award winning work of the top three scholars will be exhibited in May 2009.

Our Energy businesses in the UK, North America and Australia made charitable donations and raised funds for community projects worth in total £234,100 and contributed £13,380 for academic bursaries to students studying at universities in the UK and Australia. The largest single charitable donation by the Energy businesses, £16,000 was made towards the Gondwana Link project, which seeks to protect, restore and sustain the natural heritage in the Great Southern Region of Western Australia.

At the end of 2008, the Group continued its corporate support for Tree Aid and its educational, tree planting and woodland conservation programmes in Sub-Saharan Africa by making a charitable donation of £15,500 towards its work in Mali, where RPS has worked on oil and gas exploration and mineral extraction studies in recent years. Deforestation in this part of Africa presents particularly acute problems for some of the world's most vulnerable traditional communities.

Environmental Management
RPS contributes to environmental management through the projects that it undertakes for clients. The Group advises international bodies, governments, local authorities and private companies on improving their environmental performance. A wide range of services are available from conducting ecological surveys through to carbon trading. In the organisation there are many employees with professional qualifications in environmental management,