The United Nations have defined 17 Sustainable Development Goals to tackle poverty, inequality, and climate change by 2030. Described as the world’s to-do list, these Global Goals will only be achieved if business leaders get behind them.

HH Global are committed to supporting these goals, as well as the ten principles of the United Nations Global Compact in the areas of Human Rights, Labour, Environment and Anti-Corruption.

Together with our FY20 sustainability report, this annual Communication on Progress outlines our strategy and efforts to support the Global Goals and to build the principles of the UN Global Compact into our business strategy, culture and daily operations. We will share this information with our stakeholders on social media, our website, and in face-to-face meetings.

Sincerely yours,

Robert MacMillan

Group Chief Executive Officer

We have a range of policies and staff training mechanisms in place to raise awareness of and tackle human rights issues, particularly in relation to diversity, inclusion, disabilities, and modern slavery.

In common with many organisations, the greatest risk to human rights exists in our supply chain. All suppliers have to adhere to our Supplier Code of Conduct and Sustainable Sourcing policies, which clearly outline the necessity of adhering to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and supporting the Sustainable Development Goals.

As a global business, we consider the inherent risks in the countries in which we operate. Our Sustainable Sourcing policy and vendor assessment processes use well-recognised human rights indices for these countries to inform our approach.

Over the next year, we will be setting challenging commitments and targets related to labour practices, human rights, diversity and inclusion that support the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Our stance on human rights is included in our policies, which are introduced to employees through our Employee Handbook and through training.

Supplier adherence to these principles is monitored through assessments and on-site audits, conducted by our sourcing team and overseen by our sustainability team.

Our performance on human rights is regularly assessed by Sedex and Ecovadis, including SMETA audits. We are rated in the top 5% of businesses within our sector by EcoVadis.

We are in the process of developing dashboards to track and publish any issues relating to human rights, which will be monitored at board level.

We support freedom of association and recognise the right to collective bargaining within our own workforce, and mandate that our suppliers do the same. Forced, compulsory or child labour is not tolerated and our views are communicated in our policies.
Our policy on Modern Slavery is available at https://www.hhglobal.com/media/2010/hh-global-slavery-and-human-trafficking-statement-2020.pdf

We have policies, training programs, and practices in place to eliminate both conscious and unconscious discrimination. We have also introduced a comprehensive Health & Safety management system, which adheres to OHSAS18001.

In common with many organisations, the greatest labour-related risks exist in our supply chain. All suppliers have to adhere to our Supplier Code of Conduct and Sustainable Sourcing policies, which clearly outline the necessity of adhering to ILO Core Conventions and supporting the Sustainable Development Goals.

Over the next year, we will be setting challenging commitments and targets related to labour practices, human rights, diversity and inclusion that support the UN Sustainable Development Goals. We will also be certifying our Health & Safety management systems to support the ISO45001 standard.

Our stance on labour rights is included in our policies, which are introduced to employees through our Employee Handbook and through training.

Supplier adherence to these principles is monitored through assessments and on-site audits, conducted by our sourcing team and overseen by our sustainability team.

Our Health & Safety management system has been rolled out and is certified to OHSAS18001.

Our performance on labour rights is regularly assessed by Sedex and Ecovadis, including SMETA audits. Our Ecovadis rating is in the top 5% of businesses within our sector.

We have obtained OHSAS18001 certification for our Health and Safety systems, and are in the process of developing dashboards to report on our labour performance which will be monitored at board-level.

Following an assessment of our environmental risks and opportunities, we have determined that the greatest environmental risk lies within our supply chain. Conversely, tremendous opportunities for positive environmental impact exist by influencing the purchasing decisions of the major brands we work with.

We have developed a comprehensive focus on sustainability which permeates our culture, our sourcing model and, most importantly, our interaction with clients. Policies exist to support this, and our environmental management system is certified to ISO14001.

In our 2020 financial year, our ambition was to use 38,000 fewer trees, 120,000,000 litres less water, 10,000 MWh less energy in the production of materials, resulting in a reduction of 11,000 tonnes of carbon.

This is enough trees to cover 19 football pitches, enough water to fill 48 olympic size swimming pools, enough energy to power 850 average
US homes, and the equivalent of taking 2,335 average US cars off the road.

We have over achieved this target in most areas, and will report fully on the results in our upcoming FY20 sustainability report.

Further details of our environmental sustainability ambitions and progress for FY19, including support for the UN Sustainable Development Goals, are available in our annual sustainability report at https://www.hhglobal.com/media/1781/hh-global-fy19-sustainability-report.pdf

In FY20 we committed to publishing carbon targets in-line with 1.5 C reduction and net-zero across the value chain by 2050. We plan to publish these targets within the next year.

Our sustainability ambitions are implemented through our ‘Innovation with Purpose’ strategy - our plan to carry out sustainable business by harnessing innovation. This is owned by our Chief Sustainability and Innovation Officer, who reports to the Group Chief Executive Officer

We have introduced a range of mechanisms to raise awareness of the environmental impact of the products we sell, including providing engaging dashboards to our clients showing the carbon, energy, trees, water, and fossil fuels involved in the paper and plastic components of their purchases.

We also work with our internal teams to raise awareness of the impact of product manufacturer, logistics, and packaging, and track initiatives that help to reduce these.

Our processes and reporting has been certified to ISO14001.

We measure the environmental impact of our clients purchases and present this to clients using powerful dashboards. We then identify and quantify savings opportunities.

In our 2019 financial year, we measured the results of our efforts to reduce the impact of paper and card consumption. In total, we managed to save 28,000 trees, 130,000,000 litres of water, 9,246 MWh of energy, and 8,903 tonnes of carbon. Dashboards to measure target performance have been developed and are regularly reviewed at board-level.

Our figures for FY20 are being finalised and will be published shortly in our FY20 sustainability report.

Our environmental performance is regularly assessed by Sedex and Ecovadis, including SMETA audits. Our Ecovadis rating is in the top 5% of businesses within our sector.

Corruption and bribery risk in our operations is low, however we have implemented an anti-bribery and corruption policy to outline our zero-tolerance stance on this issue.

Bribery and corruption risk is greater in our supply chain, and we clearly communicate our position in our Supplier Code of Conduct.

Training is provided to employees on how to identify and tackle bribery and corruption, and policies are communicated in our employee handbook.

Supplier adherence to these principles is monitored through assessments and on-site audits, conducted by our sourcing team and overseen by our sustainability team.

Our performance on business ethics is regularly assessed by Sedex and Ecovadis, including SMETA audits. Our Ecovadis Gold rating is in the top 5% of businesses within our sector.

We are in the process of developing dashboards to track and publish any issues relating to business ethics, which will be monitored at board level.