This article originally appeared on Nielsen.com.
Today we published our second Nielsen Global Responsibility Report. The report captures our performance and progress on our long term ESG-focused (environmental, social, and governance) initiatives that drive continuous value and improvement for our business and stakeholders. The report covers 2016 and 2017 and contains our forward-looking strategy and goals as a company. It also clearly outlines how Nielsen’s ESG efforts connect to our most critical business issues, including diversity representation and inclusion, and data privacy, security, and integrity.
A message from Mitch Barns, CEO, Nielsen
In our second Global Responsibility Report, we explore how we are expanding what it means to create value as a company.
It’s through our holistic approach to cultivating a corporate responsibility and sustainability mindset that we create—and multiply—value for our company, our people, our shareholders, and our world. We recognize that to do it right, value creation must be collaborative, inclusive, and focused on the long term.
Today, we see this happening in areas in and beyond our company, such as our commitment to investing in meaningful development opportunities for our associates, addressing the risks related to climate change in our own global operations, or using our powerful, world-class data for good. I’m excited to share these results from 2016 and 2017 as we remain focused on our forward-looking strategy. Among the highlights, we:
- Embarked on our Path to 2020 plan, a multi-year transformation focused on investing in innovation to drive growth and efficiency.
- Enhanced the reach of our Compliance & Integrity program with the launch of an Integrity Ambassador program; Integrity Ambassadors serve as “diplomats” of integrity in our offices around the world.
- Completed our first global climate risk assessment, which looked at climate-related physical and transition risks for Nielsen in the short and long term.
- Expanded the reach of our supply chain sustainability assessments, covering 40% of our spend in 2017, up from 30% in 2016, the first year of the program.
- Launched a new, multi-year strategy to strengthen employee engagement.
- Were named one of the Best Employers for Healthy Lifestyles®, which recognizes companies that are committed to improving their employees’ physical health, productivity, overall quality of life, financial security, and emotional and social connectedness.
- Established the Nielsen Global Support Fund, through which associates can apply for grants in times of personal hardship or natural disaster, as well as donate to fellow associates in need. In 2017, the Global Support Fund made grants to associates in 12 countries.
- Logged 170,000 volunteer hours and delivered $23.1 million in pro bono work and skills-based volunteering through Nielsen Cares since 2016.
- Saw a more than 300% increase in the number of offices being represented by Green Teams since we launched Green Teams globally in mid-2013.
As detailed in our inaugural value creation model, our mission as a company is to fuse data, science, and the talents of our people to provide measurement and improvement for the clients and markets we serve, ultimately creating value and yielding greater prosperity for all. In my letter to shareholders in Nielsen’s Annual Report, I highlighted the efficiency implications of the productivity initiatives that we’re undertaking through our Path to 2020. When you consider these in the full context of our value proposition, it’s clear that this focus on the long-term sustainability of Nielsen adds a necessary dimension to our overall business strategy.
I hope you are as energized as I am by the possibilities ahead, which include refining, and in some cases, redefining, our understanding of how we create value. It’s only through consistent measurement, learning, and engagement with a variety of stakeholders that we’ll continue to deliver value in the fast-changing world and diverse communities in which we operate.
