Committed to Making the World a Better Place
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Committed to making the world a better place. 2019 Corporate Social Responsibility Report INTRODUCTION ABOUT NEWELL BRANDS OUR SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS OUR PRODUCTS OUR GOVERNANCE OUR PEOPLE ABOUT THIS REPORT / 2 • Table of Contents Introduction 3 Our Governance 27 CEO Message 3 Corporate Governance 28 Ethics & Compliance 29 About Newell Brands 5 About Newell Brands 5 Our People 30 Our Brands 6 Talent Development 31 Wellness & Safety 32 Our Sustainable Operations 7 Diversity & Inclusion 35 Community 38 Sustainability Philosophy 8 Climate, Energy & Emissions 9 Waste 13 About This Report 41 Water & Land 14 About Our Reporting 42 Stakeholder Engagement 43 Our Products 15 Innovation & Sustainability 16 Responsible Sourcing 23 INTRODUCTION ABOUT NEWELL BRANDS OUR SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS OUR PRODUCTS OUR GOVERNANCE OUR PEOPLE ABOUT THIS REPORT / 3 The environmental stewardship does not stop there. Our In additional to our sustainability initiatives, we have a range of Talent CEO Message employees continuously evaluate the scale and materials Development, Diversity & Inclusion, and Wellness & Safety programs necessary to produce great products and manage our energy I am pleased to present Newell Brands’ first Corporate designed to create an inclusive and engaged workforce. We strive to usage. We have prioritized lowering the amount of waste support a diverse and inclusive working environment that gives our people Social Responsibility Report, which includes highlights that we send to landfills. Our sites have programs in place to the opportunity to develop and succeed. Giving back to the communities from 2019 and our continuous journey to achieve a more reuse first, recycle second, and then only if necessary, send to a where we live and work is important to us as a company and to our planet friendly world. While I am delighted to share these landfill. Water consumption is also important. Newell Brands people. The Newell Brands Charitable Foundation is the cornerstone of accomplishments, I also want to acknowledge that this our philanthropy efforts. I am very proud of the recent contributions our appreciates the importance water has on the communities report’s publication comes during the COVID-19 global Business Units have made to healthcare facilities, shelters and other near our manufacturing facilities and we are working hard pandemic, and the devastating impacts and challenges community organizations during the COVID-19 crisis. Among many to increase water reuse and lower our water consumption. it presents. As Newell Brands, like so many other product donations, our team has donated cleaning and sanitization Overall, we have set sustainability goals against a 2016 companies, responds to this unprecedented situation, we products, gloves, masks, water bottles and food storage containers to baseline and have committed to achieve the following by 2025: have three key short-term priorities. First and foremost, hospitals and childcare products like car seats, highchairs, strollers and is unequivocally the safety and wellbeing of our people. playards to families in need. Through volunteering, product donations, • Reduce our energy usage by 25%. Since 2016 we have Second, we are taking the necessary steps to ensure financial support and strategic initiatives and partnerships, we strive to lowered our energy usage by 7%; make a difference in our communities while engaging our employees. the company’s financial vitality and business continuity, • Reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 30%. Our including the protection of the profitability and cash flow Our commitment to act responsibly extends to our suppliers and GHG emissions have been lowered by 11% to date; of the enterprise. And finally, we are working diligently to their people. We support them through training and engagement keep our manufacturing facilities and distribution centers • Ensure 90% of transporters are certified by the on responsible sourcing, respect for human rights and continuous operating so we can provide products like food storage Environmental Protection Agency’s SmartWay® improvement within our operations. containers, cleaning and sanitization products and Transport Partnership. Currently 80% of our partners With that said, we must lead by example. Newell Brands’ Board of childcare products to our consumers who need them now are certified; and Directors and Executive Leadership Team establish the long-term more than ever. • Reduce landfill disposal by recycling or reusing 90% of strategic direction of the company and the strong framework of principles The critical nature of these short-term priorities, however, the waste we generate each year. In 2019 we diverted and practices which ensure accountability, fairness and transparency in our relationships with all our stakeholders. Additionally, myself and does not detract from the important long-term work 72% of our waste from the landfill. the Executive Leadership Team and Board of Directors feel passionately we are doing to ensure our company is a force for good You will see many examples in this report of how our beloved about continuing to make diversity and inclusion a hallmark value of in the world. Our work in sustainability and corporate brands support sustainable living and help our consumers Newell Brands. We are committed to maintaining the highest level social responsibility is critical for our employees, of ethics and integrity in our business dealings and have set up the reduce their environmental impact, including Contigo®, consumers, customers, communities and investors. We’re appropriate structure to enable this commitment. Bubba®, Rubbermaid Freshworks®, Sistema® and Rubbermaid continually striving to keep our workplaces safe, limit the Commercial Products®. An important part of reducing our environmental impact of our products and operations I am immensely proud of our progress while acknowledging we have a environmental impact starts with the packaging of our and foster an inclusive environment where everyone is great deal of opportunity ahead to make positive change in the world. products. We have set product packaging goals to remove empowered to contribute and make an impact. Thank you for joining us on this journey and we hope you enjoy reading difficult to recycle materials and increase sustainably sourced about our achievements to date. This report illustrates that our people are the driving force materials: of our success. We have teams of senior leaders across • By 2025, eliminate the use of Polyvinyl Chloride Onwards and upwards, the organization devoted to effecting change and driving (PVC) and Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) in all sustainability. But our sustainability efforts extend well product packaging; and beyond this dedicated group. Employees from all our • By 2025, have 100% of our direct sourced paper- locations globally are encouraged to become Sustainability based product packaging supplied by certified, Champions tasked with driving positive and sustainable verified or recycled sources. change locally. We currently have over 100 Sustainability Champions across our operating businesses and we look Ravi Saligram forward to growing this number. President & CEO INTRODUCTION ABOUT NEWELL BRANDS OUR SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS OUR PRODUCTS OUR GOVERNANCE OUR PEOPLE ABOUT THIS REPORT / 4 About Newell Brands Newell Brands (NASDAQ: NWL) is a leading global consumer products company with 2019 net sales of $9.7 billion and 30,000 employees worldwide. INTRODUCTION ABOUT NEWELL BRANDS OUR SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS OUR PRODUCTS OUR GOVERNANCE OUR PEOPLE ABOUT THIS REPORT / 5 Our products are found in more than 90 percent of U.S. households, with about 80 percent of our sales coming from brands that are #1 or #2 in their categories. Our top ten markets generate more than 90 percent of our total sales and are home to more than 1.1 billion consumers. We have 63 manufacturing and research facilities globally, across 20 countries. We utilize both internal and external manufacturing facilities and third-party partners to manufacture and source our products. Approximately 50 percent of products are made internally, and 50 percent are made externally. Our internal and external manufacturing facilities are in the U.S., China, Mexico, France and Germany, among other countries. Our products are designed to simplify and improve consumers’ everyday lives and help them do some good in the world. We’re committed to sustainability at each step of the product life cycle and in the way, we operate in the workplace and our communities. We realize sustainability has no end point but is a journey of responsibility, transparency and accountability and we’re proud stewards of brands that support a planet friendly lifestyle, including: Our Brands Reducing single-use plastics Contigo®, Bubba®, Rubbermaid® Preserving food and/or reducing food waste Ball®, FoodSaver®, Rubbermaid®, Rubbermaid Freshworks®, Sistema® Collecting and diverting waste properly Rubbermaid Commercial Products® Choosing sustainably-sourced products Marmot® INTRODUCTION ABOUT NEWELL BRANDS OUR SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS OUR PRODUCTS OUR GOVERNANCE OUR PEOPLE ABOUT THIS REPORT / 6 Our Sustainable Operations Employing responsible practices to benefit people and the planet and to profit We strive to view our decisions through the lens of sustainability to ensure we are balancing our purpose with our business by managing environmental impacts and reducing energy usage and emissions, waste and our impacts on water and land surrounding our facilities. INTRODUCTION