Nielsen Commits to Advancing Media Equity, Building Diverse Leadership and Reducing Environmental Impact in 2022 ESG Report

Nielsen recently released its 2022 Nielsen ESG Report, a progress report on how the company prioritizes environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues such as climate change; diversity, equity and inclusion; employee engagement; business integrity and societal trust in the media.

Nielsen champions transparency, integrity, counting every voice and making a positive impact in its communities through its ESG commitments. In a year of evolution and change, Nielsen reviewed its existing ESG focus areas and updated or established a range of new goals to be achieved by 2024.

The 2024 goals include:

• 46% of women represented in global leadership
• 5.2% representation for Black talent in leadership in the U.S.
• 5.9% representation for Hispanic talent in leadership in the U.S.
• Reduce on-premises application server footprint to 10%
• Reduce business travel spend by 25% from the 2019 pre-COVID baseline
• Ensure that every eligible employee is held accountable to complete required privacy training
• Increase employee participation in community-oriented programs to 30%
• Track and increase Employee Net Promoter Score from “good” to “great,” according to external benchmarks

“With these forward-looking goals, along with our ongoing initiatives, we want to deepen our commitment to our employees, clients, the communities we serve and additional stakeholders, in order to consistently improve our ESG performance,” said David Kenny, Chief Executive Officer, Nielsen. “We remain committed to innovation and measurement integrity in ESG as we bring the industry forward to capture and reflect the changing face of the audience at large.”

This ESG report, Nielsen’s first full report since the sale of Nielsen Global Connect was completed in 2021, also includes highlights across its six main ESG topic areas of diversity, equity and inclusion, human capital, governance, data privacy and security, environment, and communities. These highlights include:

• Achieving 50% female representation and 20% racial and ethnic diversity representation across Nielsen’s Board of Directors (Nielsen was recently recognized by JUST Capital as one of five JUST 100 companies leading on board diversity)
• Starting the Diverse-Owned Media Equity program, a first-of-its-kind offering to accelerate the growth and impact of diverse-owned media businesses
• Launching Gracenote Inclusion Analytics, a unique analytics tool that matches a cohesive view of on-screen diversity with viewership data
• Rolling out a new Emotional Health Support program for all employees globally, and a new “Smart Work” framework to guide Nielsen’s approach to remote and virtual work
• Announcing company values of Inclusion, Courage and Growth to power Nielsen’s growth culture
• Initiating an update to Nielsen’s Code of Conduct, finalized and published in May 2022, with the latest foundational guidance to help everyone at Nielsen work ethically and with integrity
• Offering training and education events throughout Privacy Awareness Month in January and Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October
• Updating its Global Cybersecurity and Global Privacy Policies to guide data collection and protection
• Celebrating Earth Week across 17 countries, promoting education and awareness for environmental justice
• Continuing progress to identify emissions reductions goals through an evolution of its data collection process and a full supply chain assessment of its greenhouse gas emissions
• Volunteering more than 14,500 hours across 43 countries, including 3,000 volunteers for Nielsen Global Impact Day in October 2021
• Donating an estimated $23.6 million of pro bono and in-kind data, products and services through the Data for Good program

Nielsen’s ESG report also provides an Appendix with supplemental data and information aligned with the reporting frameworks most relevant to the company: the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

To stay up to date on Nielsen and its ESG efforts, follow the company on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.    

Media contact:
Sarah Muratore
(917) 226-1193
Director, Communications, Nielsen

About Nielsen:
Nielsen shapes the world’s media and content as a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics. Through our understanding of people and their behaviors across all channels and platforms, we empower our clients with independent and actionable intelligence so they can connect and engage with their audiences—now and into the future.

An S&P 500 company, Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) operates around the world in more than 55 countries. Learn more at www.nielsen.com or www.nielsen.com/investors and connect with us on social media.

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