Human Rights

Upholding human rights in our operations

We understand that upholding human rights extends beyond avoiding oppression through issues such as modern slavery or unsafe working conditions, and having a comprehensive strategy to protect human rights throughout our operations. Key components of our strategy include:

Diversity, equity and inclusion: We are committed to valuing differences in experience, perspective, background, race, age, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and/or expression, culture, interests, geography and style. We strive for a collaborative environment in which everyone is embraced for their differences and has the chance to succeed.

Equal opportunity: We base employment decisions on job qualifications and merit, which include education, experience, skills, ability and performance. We give equal employment opportunity to – and will not discriminate against – individuals on the basis of any status protected by applicable laws.

Safety and health: A key PPG value is ensuring our people return home safely each day. We are actively working toward a goal of zero injuries by engaging with our employees to improve our operating practices around the world, investing in a safe work environment and running our business with sound operating practices.

Community support: Our commitment extends into the communities where we operate. We dedicate financial resources, apply our products and use the power of our employee volunteers to address the needs of our local communities and transform lives.

Environmental impact: We are also committed to preserving and protecting the environment in which we operate at all our locations around the world. Minimizing the footprint of our operations is an ongoing focus, and our locations are guided by our sustainability targets.

Product stewardship: Our vigorous product stewardship program aims to minimize the human health and environmental impacts of our products throughout their entire life cycle and to eliminate substances of concern from our products. We have standards and processes in place to help ensure our products are developed, used and disposed of safely.

Upholding human rights in the value chain

We expect all of our contractors, suppliers and other business partners to respect and uphold our commitment to human rights in their operations. Our suppliers are a core focus of our human rights due-diligence process. We evaluate their commitment and adherence to human rights through our supplier onboarding process, assessments of our high-risk suppliers globally and annual audits of selected suppliers.

Policies

Our Global Supplier Code of Conduct clarifies our expectations in the areas of business integrity, labor practices, employee health and safety, and environmental management. Specific requirements relating to human rights include:

• Treating employees fairly, including with respect to wages, working hours and benefits
• Prohibiting all forms of forced or compulsory labor
• Prohibiting the use of child labor
• Respecting employees’ right to freedom of association and collective bargaining, consistent with local laws
• Providing safe and healthy working conditions
• Complying with all applicable environmental laws and regulations, and having processes in place to sustainably manage waste, air emissions, energy consumption and water
• Delivering products and services that meet applicable quality, health and safety standards

Our Supplier Sustainability Policy builds upon our Global Supplier Code of Conduct by establishing expectations for sustainability within our supply chain. This policy reinforces our expectations that our suppliers, as well as their subcontractors, will comply with applicable laws and adhere to internationally recognized environmental, social and governance standards. Each supplier must evaluate and maintain sustainable processes and raw material sources throughout their supply chain. We encourage our suppliers to innovate and develop products that require less material and energy to produce.

Additional information about the steps we have taken to ensure human rights are respected in our own operations and our supply chain also can be found in our California Transparency in Supply Chains Act Statement and Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Statement.

We incorporate the supply base of any of our recent acquisitions into our vendor management processes. Our standard acquisition integration process includes having suppliers attest to the Supplier Sustainability Policy and ethics standards. This approach ensures that all PPG suppliers understand and meet our expectations.

Supplier engagement and management

Suppliers use our global eProcurement (ePro) platform’s supplier portal to do business with PPG. This includes completing an electronic acknowledgement of our Global Supplier Code of Conduct and Supplier Sustainability Policy and indicating compliance with data privacy laws as they pertain to any relationship with PPG.

We engage with a leading third party sustainability assessment organization to leverage processes, tools, resources and insights to drive sustainability standards and practices throughout our global supply chain. Key assessment areas include labor and human rights, which cover employee health and safety, working conditions, child labor, forced labor, human trafficking, diversity, discrimination and harassment. The organization's sustainability intelligence provides broad-scale supply chain risk screening and mapping, supplier sustainability metric scorecards with actionable ratings, and audit and improvement management capabilities. This information helps us align our suppliers' practices with PPG's sustainability commitments.

Industry collaboration

Many human rights risks stem from industry-wide challenges. We participate in many industry collaborations to support a collective approach to upholding human rights around the world.

We are a founding member of the RESPONSIBLE MICA INITIATIVE® (RMI), which aims to mobilize the supply chain to eradicate child labor in India’s mica mines through traceability efforts and community building activities. RMI's holistic approach focuses on three program pillars:

• Mica supply chain mapping and implementing workplace standards for mica collection and processing
• Community empowerment, including improving educational resources and alternative means of livelihood, in villages that provide the mica workforce
• Legal frameworks for the mica sector, including advocacy for laws and regulations that support workers and operators of mica mines, processors and exporters

Ensuring supplier compliance

We expect suppliers to immediately report any suspected violations of our Global Supplier Code of Conduct through the PPG Ethics Helpline or other specified channels. In the event of any non-compliant activity or violation of the Code, the supplier may be required to provide a detailed corrective action plan to address the deficiency. We reserve the right to terminate our relationship with any supplier that cannot demonstrate compliance with the Code.

Employees, suppliers and other third parties can anonymously report suspected human rights violations within our operations and those of our suppliers through the PPG Ethics Helpline. The helpline is managed by an independent, third-party firm, and we investigate each allegation thoroughly and fairly.