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At Technicolor, Known as Vantiva, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an embedded value managed at the highest level.
All strategic orientations, initiatives and commitments relating to Sustainable Development are reviewed by the Board of Directors and its Governance and CSR Committee.
Dear Stakeholder,
At Technicolor, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an embedded value managed at the highest level. All strategic orientations, initiatives and commitments relating to Sustainable Development are reviewed by the Board of Directors and its Governance & CSR Committee.
One of the foundations of our CSR approach has been our longstanding adoption since 2003 and renewed commitment every year to the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), and, more recently, our willingness to integrate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in our CSR reporting.
More specifically, Technicolor policies and practices prohibit the use of child labor, forced labor, human trafficking and modern slavery, and of any form of discrimination and harassment in its operations and its supply chain, and require our suppliers to comply with our standards. The resulting governance processes have helped to place Corporate Social Responsibility at the heart of our business approach, and ensure that commercial needs are appropriately balanced with those of local communities, the environment, our business partners and of course our workforce.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are key for all businesses of the Group in order to reflect the societies we serve and where we operate, to foster our creativity, and to promote an equitable approach. We aim to recruit and retain the most talented people from a broad range of disciplines and experiences, regardless of race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, ethnicity, national origin, or ability status. In 2021, several initiatives to promote Diversity, Equity and Inclusion were encouraged locally. A worldwide anti-discrimination and anti-harassment training, available in 5 languages, was delivered to all employees. They were also invited to respond to an on-line global engagement survey. New initiatives are being launched in 2022 to be more inclusive for visible and non-visible minorities. Beyond our commitment to the UNGC, our focus in 2022 also includes being accountable to the UN Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs), which Technicolor endorsed in 2021.
Focused on supply chain vigilance, in 2018 Technicolor added a more systematic risk assessment of suppliers with the implementation of the EcoVadis (an independent global organization allowing companies to assess the environmental and social performance of their suppliers) assessment platform for suppliers representing a yearly spend of more than €1 million. In 2021, this category represents 90.9% of the total spend of the Group. Suppliers representing about 86.6% of total spend in this category had already been assessed by EcoVadis by the end of 2021.
Since 2017, Technicolor has been a certified and audited member of the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), after having successfully implemented its code of conduct throughout its supply chain. RBA membership includes compliance requirements for periodic third party audits of all critical suppliers, with an intense focus on Human Rights.
With respect to climate change and the circular economy, Technicolor is taking steps to fulfill its responsibilities as a global corporate citizen, and committed a carbon trajectory to the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) and the Net-Zero Standard at the end of 2021. The Group will submit its targets for validation during 2022. The Company also participated for the fourteenth consecutive year in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). The Group started to implement eco-design guidelines in 2008, and has long taken a positive stance towards environmental issues in the development, manufacture, energy use and ultimate disposal of its products, bringing benefits for both customers and the environment.
Content security and protection, areas where the Group has demonstrated strong expertise since its inception, remain high on the CSR agenda. Technicolor has issued a Security Policy and implemented an internal program to address risks such as content leaks affecting customers (film), suppliers (source code) or employee personal data, as well as to defend its products and systems against cyberattacks, or theft of otherwise valuable intellectual property.
Employee health and safety also remains an important focus, demanding continuous vigilance and innovation to ensure we do everything possible to keep our employees safe.
During the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in early 2020, and continuing throughout 2021, Technicolor reacted strongly to protect the health and safety of all workers as a first and primary step, and then launched multiple programs and working groups in order to adapt safely to the new and changing pandemic conditions while continuing to support all customers and business lines. Many aspects such as the evolution and tracking of requirements and conditions at sites and within countries, global management issues, care of employees, families and communities, and continuity of business and operations, were supervised and monitored by a “Covid-19 Global Crisis Committee” that I personally chaired.
For the ninth year in a row, an external audit of our social, environmental and societal information reporting took place. Our commitment to align sustainability reporting to the GRI Standards, a worldwide reporting framework on sustainability, relies on diligent data harvesting processes, and audits help us retain focus year after year. Our sustainability report has been prepared in accordance with the GRI Standards: Comprehensive Option. Technicolor thereby demonstrates that its non-financial information and disclosures are exhaustive, and give more control to stakeholders over the transparency, comparability, quality and accountability of the Group’s sustainability data.
All these long-term efforts have been recognized by external and independent agencies. In early 2022, for its first year of sustainability assessment by S&P Global, Technicolor reached the 91st percentile, ranking among the top 10% of companies in the Movies, Media & Entertainment industry globally. In 2021, Technicolor achieved ISS ESG “Prime” status for the second time. We also reached the ISS “Best-in-class” status, and received the ISS QualityScore – the highest rating awarded by ISS – for both our Environmental and our Social Performance. After receiving Gold Medal accolades from EcoVadis for the past three consecutive years (2018-2020), in 2021 Technicolor earned its first Platinum Medal, the highest rating awarded, and now ranks among the top 1% of companies in the communications equipment manufacturing sector, with a sustainability performance rated “Advanced” in all categories assessed. Technicolor’s ranking assessed by Ethifinance, an independent European sustainability rating and research firm, has steadily improved in past years, and the Group has since 2019 been ranked among the top companies within a panel of 390 companies: in 2020, the Group was ranked number 1, and in 2021 Technicolor reached an overall ESG score of 89/100, largely outperforming the average benchmark.
Technicolor remains committed to advancing these goals, which are essential to both our business and society.
Richard Moat,
