13.17.2 - 408-1,14.18.2 - 408-1,408-1 - Operations and suppliers at significant risk for incidents of child labor

As a global manufacturing company with diversified supply chains, we have a responsibility to manage our supply chain impacts. We increasingly monitor metrics and data and offer tools to support our suppliers. Our Supplier Code of Conduct sets our expectations, which 100% of new suppliers affirm during onboarding. Our S upplier C ode addresses people, labor, human rights, integrity, health, safety, and the environment, and provides our suppliers with additional resources for implementing related principles and guidelines. We require suppliers to put management systems and controls in place to comply with our code. Suppliers are also required to maintain reasonable documentation demonstrating compliance with the principles of our supplier code to allow for inspection or independent audits. We encourage our suppliers to report externally about their social and environmental impacts in line with the principles set forth in this code. 

Milliken awards business to suppliers based on integrity, value, quality, risk, sustainability, and price. We adhere to a strategy that emphasizes risk assessment, and we perceive a higher level of supplier risk in our upstream supply chain, specifically with our raw material suppliers. However, this does not mean our downstream supply chain is risk-free, and we continue to enhance our third-party risk management governance to monitor upstream and downstream third parties.

No findings within our supply base.

Our human rights commitments are included in our Sustainability Report, Annual Modern Slavery Report, Code of Conduct, and Supplier Code of Conduct. These documents are available publicly and our Supplier Code of Conduct is acknowledged by all new suppliers. Our Supplier Code of Conduct is included in the terms and conditions of all purchase orders sent to suppliers.  

We continue to monitor supplier compliance and measure performance, including considering social and environmental criteria for supplier selection, using two cloud-based sustainability platforms, including IntegrityNext and Sedex. These assessments include social, environmental, and business conduct assessments. We also utilize OneTrust® for data privacy assessments. Our due diligence process incorporates supplier screening, reviews, and onsite audits to prevent forced labor, child labor, and human trafficking. 

In 2024, we joined Sedex to implement comprehensive Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit (SMETA) including onsite audits for our direct suppliers.  This social audit methodology assesses a company's ethical business practices across various aspects like labor standards, health and safety, environmental impact, and business ethics, allowing us to evaluate and improve our supply chain sustainability and compliance with ethical standards, particularly regarding worker rights and responsible sourcing. We will continue to build our data and monitoring systems to identify any incidents of forced labor, child labor, and human rights concerns in our supply chain.

We also use third-party systems to provide diligence on risk reviews and mitigation for sanction party list screenings/denied parties as well as screens on adverse media to include force labor issues. These third-party system(s) enable us to block suppliers that hold potential risk for forced labor, including child labor. We also review and use a U.S. Customs and Border Protection report that helps us to identify high-risk commodities and countries.  We regularly attend multiple government and U.S. Customs and Border Protection outreach sessions on best practice for combating forced labor. We participate on a bi-monthly forced labor working committee through the Chemical Trade Association which is primarily focused on the new US regulation (UFLPA).