Nielsen’s 2022 ESG report includes highlights from the last year, new 2024 goals, and refreshed lens on ESG issues as a media-focused company
Published 07-22-22
Submitted by Nielsen
Originally published in Nielsen's 2022 ESG Report
A message from our CEO
At Nielsen, we like to say: Audience is everything.
Every day, we work to provide insights into where the media industry is going, how audience behavior is changing and how we all must adapt to continue to thrive.
We recognize that change is constant, not just in our industry but around the world. In 2021, as the globe grappled with the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people began to rethink how they live and work. In the United States, as in many other parts of the world, there was renewed focus on systemic racism and the existing disparities among people of color. The United Nations continued to sound an alarm about climate change, and in the wake of countless news stories about vaccinations and elections in the U.S., we saw a rising demand for truth and integrity in the media.
At Nielsen, we went through significant change as well, as we completed the sale of Nielsen Global Connect (now NielsenIQ) and emerged as a rebranded, media-focused company intent on helping to power a better media future for all people.
Our reorganization did not impact our long-standing core values of diversity, equity and inclusion, global responsibility and sustainability, data privacy and security, innovation and improving citizenship through positive engagement. We did, however, review our existing environmental, social and governance (ESG) focus areas, considering systemic issues impacting society at large, future generations and our natural ecosystems
Ultimately, we embraced six key ESG areas, which we will detail at length in the 2022 Nielsen ESG Report that follows. At a high level, our ESG strategy going forward will prioritize:
Recent achievements
I am proud of our ESG achievements in the last year. A few highlights include starting a Diverse-Owned Media Equity program, a first-of-its-kind offering to accelerate the growth and impact of diverse-owned media businesses. On our Board of Directors, we achieved 50% female representation and 20% racial and ethnic diversity representation. We celebrated our eighth annual Earth Week across 17 countries, encouraging education and awareness for environmental justice. We continued our progress to identify science-based, long-term emissions reductions goals, through an evolution of our data collection process and a full supply chain assessment of our greenhouse gas emissions. We accelerated business diversity efforts and reached 15% of U.S. sourceable spending with diverse-owned businesses. Despite the ongoing pandemic, over 3,000 employees across 40 countries volunteered on Nielsen Global Impact Day in October 2021, logging more than 9,700 hours of volunteer time.
New goals for 2024
We have established or updated a range of new goals for 2024 around our key ESG focus areas. With these forward-looking goals, along with our ongoing initiatives, we want to deepen our commitment to our employees, clients, the communities we serve and additional stakeholders, in order to consistently improve our ESG performance.
These goals include achieving, by 2024:
Looking forward, as we prepare to celebrate our 100th year in business next year, I am energized by the bright future that awaits. We remain committed to innovation and measurement integrity in ESG as we bring the industry forward to capture and reflect the changing face of the audience at large.
David Kenny
Chief Executive Officer
Nielsen
To learn more, download the 2022 Nielsen ESG Report here.
Nielsen shapes the world’s media and content as a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics. Through our understanding of people and their behaviors across all channels and platforms, we empower our clients with independent and actionable intelligence so they can connect and engage with their audiences—now and into the future.
An S&P 500 company, Nielsen (NYSE: NLSN) operates around the world in more than 55 countries. Learn more at www.nielsen.com or www.nielsen.com/investors and connect with us on social media.
More from Nielsen