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Behaving ethically and transparently

Protecting and enhancing our reputation with all our stakeholders

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“At Convatec, one of our core values is Do what's right, as we know that how we do business matters. Our committment to responsible business practices on important topics such as human rights, environmental stewardship and ethical and transparent behaviours extends to all those who we work with - colleagues through our global supply chain. Across Convatec, we are committed to building stakeholder trust and confidence by meeting standards that demonstrate our ESG commitments in action."

James Kerton, EVP, General Counsel & Company Secretary

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Our approach

How we conduct ourselves in commerce – earning trust by behaving with integrity and doing what we say we will do – is essential if we are to achieve our vision and create value for our stakeholders. It is also the right thing to do and protects our reputation.

Our extensive ethics and compliance programme incorporates several policies and procedures including:

Maintaining a Code of Ethics and Business Conduct
Making available an independently provided Compliance Helpline and web link for employees and third parties
Assuring the existence of mechanisms to ensure issues can be reported and reviewed

Our targets & commitments

In the past year, we have updated our Human Rights and Labour Standards Policy, expanded the scope of our risk assessment process for suppliers, and improved Code of Conduct training completion rate. Convatec’s Human Rights Committee - a working group under the direction of our ESG Steering Committee - holds the company accountable to meeting targets around behaving ethically and transparently, including:

Keeping human rights-related policies updated to current global standards and expectations.
Expanding human rights training across the business.
Expanding the use of our supplier assessment platform.

For more information about how we behave ethically and transparently, see pages 56 and 57 of our 2023 Annual Report.

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FTSE4Good

We are proud members of FTSE4Good, a global sustainable investment index series, designed to identify companies that demonstrate strong ESG practices measured against international standards.

Companies that meet inclusion demonstrate strong transparency and management in clearly defined ESG criteria.

Transparency

Being transparent with our stakeholders about how we run our business is a vital part of building strong, long-term relationships based on trust. Our disclosures and reporting are assessed and scored by a range of external ESG analysts and other organisations, and we use this information to benchmark our progress.

Rating organisation	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022	2023
ISS-oekom	C	B-	B-	B	B	B
Sustainalytics Overall Performance	72/100	74/100	73/100	Not available	Not available	Not available
Sustainalytics Risk Rating¹	16.5	15.3	15.2	14.6	14.5	16.6

1. As at 28 Oct. 2021. Lower scores are desirable for Risk Rating while higher scores are desirable for Overall Performance.

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Policies, procedures and resources

We maintain a Code of Ethics and Business Conduct and a series of Global Policies which cover a range of business conduct and compliance issues, focusing particularly on anti-bribery and anti-corruption. All employees are required to complete the training on our Code of Conduct.

A Compliance Helpline is available for employees and third parties to report suspected breaches. Any issues reported are reviewed by our ethics and compliance function and the resulting investigation and outcome of any significant issues are overseen by the Audit and Risk Committee. 

A person resting there hand on another persons shoulder

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Policies and Standards

Convatec's Code of Ethics and Business Conduct (Our Code) embodies our corporate vision and corporate values. We are committed to creating a working environment where everyone is treated fairly with respect, dignity and consideration and where there are opportunities for all. Our Human Rights and Labour Standards Policy, which incorporates principles and guidelines set out in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Modern Slavery Act and the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, addresses a range of issues including equal opportunities, anti-harassment and dignity at work. Many elements of our Human Rights and Labour Standards Policy are reflected in our Code of Conduct. Our Code of Conduct and Human Rights, Labour Standards Policy, California Supply Chains Act statement and Modern Slavery Act statement are available here.

A medical worker looking at another person

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Working responsibly with partners

We require new suppliers to adhere to our Global Third Party Compliance Manual (the “Manual”) which covers a range of topics, including commitments to the International Labour Organization conventions and the Principles of the UN Global Compact and environmental protections, and extends our Code of Conduct and our Human Rights and Labour Standards Policy to the supply chain, which prior to 2022 were addressed in our Supplier Code of Conduct. The Manual is introduced to all existing supplier contracts as these are renewed. A copy of our Manual is available here. We monitor and assess suppliers using third-party risk platforms, which provide in-depth, real-time coverage of a range of factors that could impact supplier performance (including geopolitical, climatic and civil unrest), as well as events that may have been caused by our suppliers (for example major pollution and strikes incidents).

EcoVadis

We strengthen our supplier due diligence by using a third-party provider, EcoVadis. The EcoVadis platform offers an evidence-based assessment of our supply base covering four themes: environment, labour and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement. The resulting EcoVadis score is now incorporated in the compliance section of our supplier relationship management scorecards. We include an assessment of potential new suppliers’ ability to participate in EcoVadis as part of our new sourcing process. This assessment is part of the Request for Information (RFI) and Request for Proposal (RFP) phases.

For more information about how we work responsibly with our partners see page 56 of the 2023 Annual Report.

Supplier diversity

We use a database maintained by a third party to verify the status of potential vendors as women or minority-owned businesses, and supplier diversity is a consideration when we select our partners. In addition, our supplier selection and oversight processes require us to proactively assess that positive progress is being observed throughout our Logistics Supplier base. Third party logistics providers are expected to have set DE&I targets which we assess at the time of their appointment and monitor through supplier annual performance reviews.

Man and child stirring a mixture in a measuring jug

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a couple of women sitting on a couch looking at a tablet

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Global Third-Party Compliance

In many countries Convatec conducts its business via third party distributors.  We expect and require that our distributors comply with all applicable laws and regulations and follow the Convatec Code of Ethics & Business Conduct. To support our distributors’ compliance efforts, we have prepared the Convatec Global Third Party Compliance Manual.