Royal Mail sustainability score: 46/100
Leading practice starts at 60. The highest score on SINK is 71.
Royal Mail is the UK's primary postal and parcel delivery operator, serving 33 million addresses. A universal service provider whose roots go back to 1516, it has operated as the current company, Royal Mail Group Ltd, since 2001 and runs the largest delivery network in Britain.
More about Royal Mail
The company was acquired by EP Group in April 2025, transitioning from public to private ownership.
Founded 2001Head office London, UKStaff ~130,000Revenue ~£8.2BWebsite ↗
Royal Mail has built genuine absolute emissions reductions (25% total, 27% Scope 1&2) backed by SBTi validation and granular supply chain carbon accounting via Watershed. Fleet decarbonisation remains early-stage with 7,000 EVs among 43,000 vehicles. Biodiversity and nature impact reporting is minimal—no TNFD disclosure, no quantified footprint.
Royal Mail scores 46/100 (Making progress) on SINK's independent climate assessment, scored from public data only. Scores are free. Nobody can pay to change a score, speed it up or hide it. Last verified May 2026.
That places Royal Mail joint 258th of 1,023 companies scored, and joint 2nd of 22 in Shipping / Logistics.
What is Royal Mail doing well, and where does it fall short?
Strongest on Targets & Commitments and Carbon Footprint: Operations (9/10, 8/10). Weakest on Nature & Biodiversity Impact and Water Impact (3/10, 5/10).
Where Royal Mail lost points
For each question that lost points, the evidence our public rubric looks for that we didn't find.
What would raise this score
- Its effect on natureAssess its effect on nature and publish a basic environmental policy.
- Its effect on waterMeasure its water footprint and set reduction targets.
- How it uses materials and handles wastePublish verified figures for reuse and recycling across the business.
Every question that lost points
- Emissions from its own operations8/10No verified figures published with their method and a falling trend.
- Emissions from its supply chain7/10No full value-chain map or supplier engagement programme.
- Whether its emissions are falling7/10No consistent fall over several years across its operations and supply chain.
- How clean its energy is7/10Less than 90% of its energy shown to be renewable.
- Its effect on nature3/10No assessment of its effect on nature, and no basic environmental policy.
- How it uses materials and handles waste6/10No verified figures for reuse and recycling across the business.
- Its effect on water5/10No measured water footprint with reduction targets.
- Its climate targets9/10No validated long-term net zero target.
- How openly it reports7/10No annual impact report, or no pay linked to climate targets.
A score changes when the evidence does. We use new published evidence at the next rescore. Anyone can send us new evidence, free. How to send it.
How is Royal Mail's SINK score calculated?
Same ten questions for every company. No private weighting.
SINK = (0.3 × Base + 0.7 × Performance) × ScaleHas Royal Mail's score changed?
Royal Mail's score has been reviewed 2 times and currently stands where it started, at 46.
- 46 → 4614 October 2026
Founded-year rule, score unchanged. founded 1516 -> 2001: Companies House 04138203 ROYAL MAIL GROUP LIMITED, incorporated 2001-01-10 (formerly Consignia plc, Royal Mail Group plc; https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/04138203); "Royal Mail is a trading name of Royal Mail Group Ltd, registered number 4138203". Roots 1516 confirmed on the group's own history page: "With origins dating back to 1516, Royal Mail is one of the oldest organisations in the world" (https://www.internationaldistributionservices.com/en/about-us/our-history/).
- Scored 464 April 2026
Initial score at platform launch
What evidence is Royal Mail's score based on?
12 sources used in this assessment. All publicly available. Each row shows which of the ten questions it informed.
42% of them were published by Royal Mail itself; the rest come from independent sources.
Scored on 4 April 2026 under an earlier version of our method. We're re-checking it under the current method.
7 of 12 sources are independent of the company.
If you believe a source has been misread or a newer version exists, submit a challenge.
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How does Royal Mail compare with other shipping / logistics companies?
Where Royal Mail sits among shipping / logistics peers.
Among the 22 major shipping / logistics brands we've scored, Royal Mail is tied =2nd of 22, with 1 other.
Who scores higher in Shipping / Logistics?
The one company in the sector scoring above Royal Mail.
See the full Shipping / Logistics table →Which companies moved this week, and why.
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