CooperCompanies' Approach to Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Topics

We believe that conducting our business in a socially and environmentally responsible manner is important to our long-term success and the future of our planet. It allows us to manage potential risks to our Company and to identify opportunities that will help drive our long-term strategic plan.

In 2021, to help inform our approach to ESG, we conducted a formal materiality assessment to identify critical ESG priorities, opportunities, risks, and trends affecting our stakeholders, our businesses, and our industry over the coming years. For the purposes of this report, we use the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI)’s definition of “material” topics to reflect Cooper’s significant economic, environmental, and social impacts or areas that substantively influence the assessments and decisions of stakeholders.

As part of this assessment, we researched more than 300 ESG topics of potential relevance to Cooper. We then prioritized these topics by evaluating: ESG reporting frameworks, including the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), the GRI, and the World Economic Forum’s Stakeholder Capitalism Metrics; risk factors listed in our 10-K; ESG rating organizations’ focus areas for the medical device industry, including MSCI, ISS, and Sustainalytics; and topics determined to be material by our peers. We weighted the scoring based on recent investor feedback, giving highest weighting to topics within the SASB Materiality Map for the medical equipment and supplies industry. This analysis pared the list down to 38 ESG topics.

We then conducted a highly quantitative assessment with more than 100 internal and external stakeholders including customers, partners, investors, executives, and members of our Board of Directors, coupled with qualitative input, to assess the relative importance of these 38 ESG topics. Finally, we constructed our Materiality Matrix by mapping topics by importance to our stakeholders and level of business impact.

Through this process, we identified nine high-priority ESG topics, which inform our ESG approach, guide our ESG disclosure strategy, and which are discussed in more detail in this report. This report is our first account of our performance on ESG issues. We plan to produce an ESG data snapshot this year, while we work towards producing annual ESG reports beginning in 2023.

Read the inaugural full report here.