Driving Equity

A baseline of equity: As an equal opportunity employer in the U.S., we will continue to fulfill our affirmative action requirements and challenge ourselves to exceed simple compliance. Our programs and initiatives will create lasting change that is seen, felt and believed throughout our organization.

We see affirmative action as the floor, not the ceiling, and will actively promote equitable opportunity regardless of an individual’s race, gender, national origin, sexual orientation, and other factors. We’ll continue to go above and beyond what is required to ensure DE&I in our hiring and retention practices while developing the inclusive competencies and accountability of our people leaders.

Expanding our support for service members and veterans: Every year, approximately 200,000 U.S. service members transition from military to civilian life, a shift that poses unique challenges for veterans and their spouses. As a company with a long legacy of supporting the military, we are committed to becoming an employer with an even stronger culture that supports, celebrates and understands veterans and their families.

In 2021, we progressed toward this goal when our CEO signed a corporate Statement of Support with Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve (ESGR). Our partnership with ESGR will help LS&Co. become a destination employer of choice for service members and veterans by ensuring our hiring practices are more supportive and inclusive of military service members.

Creating sustainable progress through responsible procurement: As we looked at our DE&I efforts holistically, we recognized the importance of developing a strong supplier inclusion program committed to meeting global environmental and ethical standards. As we lay our foundation we’re focused on:

• Taking a closer look at the indirect suppliers we currently work with, especially if underrepresented groups own them, and evaluating the contracts in place with them.
• Launching a global supplier inclusion program to provide transparency around our indirect suppliers’ corporate social responsibility performance.

We also have a long-standing commitment to worker care and workplace culture. To support and drive this through our supply chain, we recently made several enhancements to our Sustainability Guidebook impacting our policies and guidance around:

• Gender equity
• Foreign migrant worker protections
• Freedom of association
• Wages and benefit requirements
• Robust health and safety guidelines in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and to address multi-story building risks

While we’re in the nascent stages of systematically embedding DE&I into our supplier programs for direct and indirect purchases, we’re fully committed to creating lasting progress in our supplier inclusion programs and standards. This will create opportunities for marginalized businesses while also contributing to our growth, innovation and sustainable success.