Better Health for All
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Coats Group demonstrates strong commitment to employee mental and physical wellbeing. Its Energy4Performance program includes over 150 global initiatives in 2023
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, with mental health training for almost 900 leaders
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, counselling rooms, and awareness campaigns like World Mental Health Day and Movember
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, resulting in an 88% employee wellbeing score in 2024
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, 9 points above the top 10 Great Place to Work companies
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. The company also provides comprehensive health education, including first aid training for students
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, medical camps, and disease awareness sessions
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. Coats maintains excellent data practices, adhering to 13 Data Protection Principles
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and providing mandatory data protection training
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. The company shows strong environmental mitigation efforts, achieving 99.8% compliance with Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals standards
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and reducing landfill waste by 87% from 2022 levels
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, alongside providing clean drinking water to communities in Indonesia
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, indicating negligible negative and substantial positive health externalities. The company's core products are industrial components with a neutral health impact for users
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, and its business model does not involve serving vulnerable populations with health needs or offering health-related products requiring price accessibility.
Fair Money & Economic Opportunity
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Coats Group PLC is a manufacturing company and does not offer consumer lending, deposit services, or other financial products to external customers. Therefore, all Key Performance Indicators related to fair money and economic opportunity, which are designed for financial institutions, are not applicable. The company's initiatives, such as internal diversity and inclusion programs for employees
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and charitable donations
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,
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do not fall under the scope of financial inclusion or community finance as defined by the rubric's KPIs.
Fair Pay & Worker Respect
30
Coats Group PLC recorded 278 substantiated labor-law or human-rights violations over the past three years
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, including 35 upheld whistleblowing incidents in 2024
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, 24 in 2023
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, and 219 in 2022
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. These incidents involved unfair employment practices, disrespectful behavior, harassment, bullying, fraud, ethics code violations, and health and safety issues
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. The company's safety incident rate (TRIR) was 0.26 per 200,000 hours in 2024
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, though one work-related fatality occurred in the same year
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. Coats states that all employees are paid at or above a locally defined living wage
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. In 2024, 59% of permanent employees were covered by collective bargaining agreements
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. The CEO's total remuneration to median UK employee pay ratio was 24:1
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. The Global Trust Index was 90% in 2024
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, and the employee engagement score was 85% in 2023
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. Voluntary employee turnover was 17% in 2021
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. Approximately 18.67% of the workforce were temporary employees in 2023
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.
Fair Trade & Ethical Sourcing
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Coats Group demonstrates strong remediation for severe violations, immediately and permanently terminating supplier relationships for any of its five core standard violations, including child and forced labor.
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This was exemplified in 2023 when an instance of underage employment at a supplier in China led to immediate termination of the relationship and support for the affected individual.
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In 2024, 17 suppliers were terminated for failing standards, ethical breaches, or refusing audits.
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All suppliers are required to sign the Supplier Code as a condition of doing business, ensuring 100% coverage of enforceable ethical-sourcing clauses.
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Supplier audits are conducted by Bureau Veritas, with 322 completed in 2024.
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Re-audits are tailored to performance: 90% of suppliers received a 'good' rating in 2024 and are re-audited every 3 years, while 10% were 'acceptable' and are re-audited within 12 months.
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Beyond the 2023 underage employment case, no other substantiated forced or child labor incidents were found in Coats' own operations, and no whistleblowing concerns linked to slavery or forced labor were reported in 2023 or 2024.
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Honest & Fair Business
20
Coats Group has a "Speak Up (Whistleblowing) Policy" reissued in September 2024
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and December 2025,
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offering multiple internal and external reporting channels, including an external online web portal and telephone numbers for EU countries
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. The company transitioned to an external web-based channel in 2022 for enhanced security and independence
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. Reports are acknowledged within 7 days in native language
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, and investigations are targeted to be completed within 30 working days
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, with outcomes communicated within three months
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. Quarterly whistleblowing and fraud reports are reviewed and provided to the Board and Audit and Risk Committee, including trends and closure rates
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. In 2024, the hotline received 228 incidents
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, with 16% of completed investigations upheld
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. Biennial training is provided for approximately 5,000 key staff members
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. The company has a comprehensive "Anti-bribery and Anti-corruption Policy" that prohibits bribery and facilitation payments worldwide
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. It requires suppliers and contractors to adhere to this policy
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, supported by a new role focused on ethical behavior across the supply chain, working with an outsourced verification partner
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. Coats subscribes to international standards like the OECD Convention on Combatting Bribery and the UN Global Compact
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. Mandatory, multi-language compliance training modules cover anti-bribery and anti-corruption
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, with biennial training for key staff and online training for all employees
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. Coats' sustainability performance for seven core metrics was externally validated under limited assurance (ISAE 3000 standard) by EY for 2022, 2023, and 2024, receiving an unqualified report
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. Bureau Veritas completed 322 supplier audits in 2024 using a common global template
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. Investigations for fraud and corruption may also be conducted by a third party
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. The company received a Sustainalytics ESG risk score of 9.5, indicating negligible risk
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. Investigations for ethics complaints are targeted to be completed within 30 working days
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, with outcomes communicated within three months
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.
Kind to Animals
20
Coats Group PLC has eliminated virgin animal-derived inputs, with no virgin animal-based products in its range as of the end of 2022.
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The company does not procure any raw materials directly derived from animals, with the exception of small volumes of post-consumer offcuts of leather for recycling, and less than 0.01% of sales are from animal-derived materials.
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The company does not source eggs, meat, or dairy, and has no animal agriculture operations. Coats has an Animal Welfare Policy
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and is committed to ensuring that no animals are caused unnecessary pain or suffering to create its products and materials.
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No War, No Weapons
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The company conducts human rights risk assessments on a biennial basis.
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Planet-Friendly Business
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Total Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions were 955,215 tCO₂e in 2024
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, representing a 19.87% decline from the 2019 rebaselined figure of 1,191.9 thousand tCO₂e.
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The company's near and long-term science-based emissions reduction targets for 2030 and 2050 are SBTi-validated and aligned with a 1.5°C trajectory.
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In 2024, 74% of electricity consumption was sourced from renewables, including solar installations and Power Purchase Agreements.
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The company recycled or reused 68% of its waste in 2024
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, achieving an 87% reduction in waste to landfill from its 2022 baseline.
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Preferred (non-virgin oil-based) primary raw materials constituted 46% of materials used in 2024.
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A Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) report is included in the Annual Report
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, and climate scenario analysis uses three IPCC Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP1, SSP3, SSP5) to assess risks across short, medium, and long-term time horizons.
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Respect for Cultures & Communities
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Coats Group PLC has 3 formal partnerships with local community groups, including the Bidyanondo Foundation in Bangladesh, Fashion 4 Freedom in Vietnam, and Paisley’s Museum in Scotland.
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No cultural appropriation incidents have been reported.
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Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) processes are not applicable to the company's operations.
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Coats has partnered with Paisley’s Museum in Scotland for its transformation, which includes redesigning the museum to highlight the Paisley pattern's global influence and safeguarding its social and cultural heritage.
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No incidents disrupting cultural or heritage sites have been reported.
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Safe & Smart Tech
10
Coats Digital achieved SOC 2 Type II compliance in August 2023.
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The company grants users comprehensive rights over their personal data, including access, correction, erasure, objection, restriction, portability, and withdrawal of consent.
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Coats states compliance with GDPR, PCI DSS, and other regional mandates, and is streamlining this worldwide.
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The company implements data minimization policies, does not collect special categories of personal data, and for some data types at Coats Digital, retains information for up to 6 months.
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Coats has no documented data breaches and has procedures for handling and reporting suspected breaches within 72 hours.
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All personnel handling personal data must complete and regularly refresh data protection training.
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Access to personal information is restricted to authorized personnel, and data collected for one purpose is not used for unrelated purposes without consent.
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Where automated decision-making is used, it must be fair, transparent, and include safeguards.
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Zero Waste & Sustainable Products
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Coats Group achieved a 68% waste recycling or reuse rate in 2024.
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The company has a target of zero waste to landfill by 2026, and its long-term 2050 Net-Zero target is approved by the Science Based Targets initiative.
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In 2022, 58% of its units achieved zero waste to landfill status.
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Waste data is recorded monthly from over 58 business units.
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In 2024, 46% of primary raw materials were preferred (recycled or bio-based).
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Coats integrates circular design principles as standard practice, focusing on product disassembly, mono-material designs, and circular models for packaging. Hazardous waste management is strong, with 99.85% effluent compliance to Roadmap to Zero standards in 2024, supported by a $1.1 million investment in treatment plants, and no environmental prosecutions.
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Supplier waste requirements are enforced through a Supplier Code of Conduct, with 322 supplier audits completed in 2024, and collaboration on circularity opportunities.
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Customer waste education is limited to collaborative efforts with customers to minimize packaging.
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