Support customers_RS Group

How RS Group and tesa engineered more sustainable sealing at scale

Sustainability

Every day, 20,000 packages leave RS Group’s distribution center in Bad Hersfeld, Germany. Each one sealed with tape that weighs almost nothing. But when you multiply that by thousands, the impact becomes impossible to ignore.

For RS Group, every meter of tape is a chance to move them closer to their sustainability goals. That's why, in 2025, they joined forces with tesa to rethink their sealing solutions: secure, reliable, and designed for a reduced environmental impact. Boxes, cartons and containers do more than keep products safe during transportation, storage and handling. They also represent a company’s values. Today’s consumers take a critical view of unnecessary packaging, expecting less waste and more sustainability. Meanwhile, increasingly strict regulations like the EU’s PPWR (opens in a new window or tab) are raising the bar for recyclable, low-impact designs. The message is clear: sustainability has become a business imperative.

Strong bonds, strong commitment

Businesses can get ahead of those trends by switching to future-ready solutions that save resources, cut waste and enable circularity. And RS Group (opens in a new window or tab) is one of those ambitious, first-mover organizations. The company supplies industrial and electrical products to customers worldwide. Their site in Bad Hersfeld is a logistics powerhouse, handling up to 45,000 orders and 20,000 packages daily. Speed and reliability are non-negotiable – but neither is sustainability. The company aims to cut plastic use, reduce waste, and promote the transition to a circular economy, all without compromising on its customers’ unboxing experience.

In 2025, RS Group and tesa – strategic partners for round about 15 years – came together in this endeavor with a shared vision: to make packaging processes more efficient and more sustainable. The result: an innovative sealing tape for transit cartons that achieves outstanding bond strength - and helps RS Group make measurable progress toward its sustainability targets.

 

It is estimated that 407 billion packages got shipped worldwide

in 2025.

Innovation through close collaboration

Teams from the two companies worked hand in hand, exploring every possibility to identify the optimal solution for RS Group’s specific needs. Scientists and engineers from tesa brought deep expertise and technical knowledge, designing and testing high-performance sealing tapes. Their support didn’t stop at rollout but they also ensured a seamless transition, boosting operational efficiency and unlocking measurable sustainability gains.

Those advances not only benefit the environment but also demonstrate the companies’ proactive approaches to sustainability: By actively shaping the shift to circular packaging solutions, both companies are setting new standards for sustainable packaging practices. Regulations like the EU’s PPWR provide an important framework for this transition, but for RS Group and tesa, the real motivation is empowering customers and reducing environmental impact.

 

This partnership with tesa has been pivotal—not just in delivering a packaging solution, but in helping us take a real step forward in our sustainability journey. It’s a testament to what can be achieved when two companies align on purpose and performance
Liam Dowds

Head of Packaging at RS Group

Designed for impact

tesa’s expanding portfolio of more sustainable solutions is shrinking the environmental footprint of products and processes across the value chain. Innovations include tapes made from renewable sources such as sugar cane or corn starch, and post-consumer recycled PET – both replacing fossil-based raw materials.

Paper-based products – with paper sourced in line with responsible forestry practices and certified by trusted bodies such as the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC®) – also help customers comply with regulations and move closer to achieving their sustainability goals. These tapes can be recycled together with cardboard and paper packaging, with no need to separate materials and no impact on the quality of the output material.

 

The EU’s Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR)

The European Union introduced its PPWR in February 2025. It will apply from August 2026 onwards and aims to cut packaging waste, reduce the use of virgin materials and make all packaging recyclable by 2030. It sets rules for packaging designs, materials and labeling, as well as limits on potentially harmful substances. Companies that don’t meet PPWR criteria risk losing access to the European market.
 

Driving positive change

A variety of tesa tape and tesa tape dispensers arranged within and around cutout 100 on white, with a blurred warehouse behind.

tesa® products contribute to more sustainability across innovation, emissions reduction, responsible sourcing and circular economy.

Already, more than 100 products in tesa’s portfolio contribute to sustainability in the areas of innovation, emissions reduction, responsible procurement, and circular economy Every day, more than 600 tesa scientists, engineers and product developers worldwide are working to create more. Boosting efficiency, cutting waste and enabling circularity are high-priority focus areas, and partnerships like the one with RS Group show what’s possible when companies work together for a more sustainable future.

 

We do: Support customers

Achieving a higher level of sustainability is an important goal for many of our customers - just as it is for us. We are taking this path together with them and supporting them with innovative adhesive solutions. In addition to our own product sustainability, we are working to ensure that our customers enjoy ecological benefits through the use of our products; for example, tesa® Bond & Detach makes smartphone components recyclable and can be removed easily without leaving any residue. The aim is to make these contributions more visible in the future.

Read more about the targets of this action area