Protecting Human Rights
Respect for human rights is a fundamental value of PotlatchDeltic. We recognize that we have an important role in fostering human rights and have built our approach to protecting human rights on respect for internationally recognized human rights principles, such as the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Labour Organization standards. These principles have informed our Human Rights Policy. Our operations, however, are entirely within the United States, which has a robust and expanding body of human rights laws. Accordingly, we comply with applicable state and federal human rights laws, and our Human Rights Policy and Supplier Code of Conduct have been drafted to meet or exceed those legal requirements. Our Human Rights Policy commitments were approved by our Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, and our Vice President Public Affairs and Chief Sustainability Officer.
Our commitment to human rights is embodied in our Human Rights Policy and supported by our Corporate Conduct and Ethics Code, Supplier Code of Conduct, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Policy, Forest Stewardship Policy, Environmental, Health, and Safety Policy, and our other policies, standards, and practices. These codify the expectations we have for our full-time employees, part-time employees, and temporary staff. We respect Indigenous peoples and traditional livelihoods and value stakeholder engagement on these issues. We recognize the fundamental importance of water and respect the right to water including quality, sufficiency, and accessibility.
Our operations are entirely in the United States and do not include stakeholder resettlement, although we support the principle to seek free, prior, and informed consent, offer compensation, and avoid forced evictions of stakeholders. Similarly, our operations are not in conflict zones, but we support the principle that private security forces respect international human rights and the requirement to avoid complicity in public security force human rights violations.
We require that our value chain – suppliers, contractors, and customers uphold human rights in their actions and relationships with PotlatchDeltic. We have outlined these requirements in our Supplier Code of Conduct.
All salaried Team Members receive training on selected components of the Human Rights Policy. We provide training to contractors and suppliers about our Supplier Code of Conduct, which includes our Human Rights Policy. Human rights are integrated into our enterprise risk management process. Regular internal audits monitor our procedures and activities. We provide an ethics hotline as an avenue for Team Members and external stakeholders to raise concerns regarding human rights and other issues. Reports may be made anonymously, and are made to an independent third party, which then notifies the Law Department.
This release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. Words such as “commitment,” “may,” “regular,” “seek,” and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. These statements reflect management’s views of future events based on assumptions and are therefore subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, and other factors, and are not guarantees of future conduct, results, or policies. Please view the Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Information on page 134 of PotlatchDeltic’s 2022 ESG Report.
