2-29 - Approach to stakeholder engagement

At Milliken, we identify our reporting priorities by focusing on the ways we can have the greatest impact– on the economy, the planet, and people, including through human rights. In a quickly shifting global landscape, we realize the importance of assessing both the positive and negative potential repercussions of Milliken's activities and our business relationships. And we consider our effect on the environment, the economy, and society, and the effects of the environment and society on Milliken.  

Engagement with our key stakeholders is part of Milliken's on-going due diligence process and impact assessment. Key stakeholders for us includes our associates, customers, government officials, non-governmental organizations, trade associations, scientists, and sustainability subject matter experts. We identify key stakeholders based on internal and external stakeholders that can provide a meaningful perspective on our company's impacts, and be engaging external subject matter experts on best practices for identifying and engaging with stakeholders. 

Stakeholder engagement includes our process to identify and assess actual and potential positive and negative impacts, which informs our impact assessment process and identification of our key impact areas for the purpose of sustainability reporting. For Milliken, sustainability due diligence is an on-going practice that responds to changes in our strategy, business models, activities, business relationships, operating, sourcing, and controls, in alignment with the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. Sustainability matters are embedded in our governance roles and responsibilities. We recognize that we cannot address all impacts at once, so we prioritize impacts based on severity and likelihood of the impacts. As outlined in our annual sustainability report, we continue to take actions to address impacts on people and the environment and track the effectiveness of our efforts.

We consider our stakeholders and users of our Sustainability Report. Our engagement efforts include ongoing channels of engagement that are integrated into Milliken's business practices, such as active involvement in trade associations and employee feedback channels. We also consider credible independent experts such as non-governmental organizations that represent local, affected communities, and scientific articles and reports for environmental matters. Data from scientific sources also provides insights on silent stakeholders, such as the impacts on nature.

We engage stakeholders in surveys, interviews, attending conferences, holding customer visits and webinars, and convening.

Our sustainability reporting is driven by our commitment to transparency as well as a deep and growing understanding of the potential impacts of our actions or inactions. We recognize all our efforts are interconnected and therefore report in alignment with global standards on our key impacts, including on key policies, commitments, actions, targets, and an evaluation of our progress.