Owens Corning

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company provides evidence of linking performance criteria in senior executives’ remuneration policies to targets and objectives which cover nature, including biodiversity, and social issues.

Stakeholder engagement
The company discloses how often and through which channels it engages with various stakeholder groups.

Solid and air pollution
The company discloses the proportion of hazardous waste treated to reduce pollution compared to total waste, the hazardous waste diverted from disposal and the waste directed to disposal. The company reports recycling its own manufacturing scrap, which is reprocessed to reduce single-use plastic use and waste related to its production of woven plastic packaging. The company has time-bound targets to reduce air pollutants across the most material parts of its value chain. It reports regularly against these targets.

GHG emissions
The company is reducing its scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions. It has targets to reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 emissions by 50% and scope 3 emissions by 30% by 2030 from a 2018 base year. These targets are aligned with a 1.5-degree trajectory, and the company reports progress against them.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the social inclusion and community impact area

Sustainability strategy and accountability
The company discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts as well as the outcome of this process, in relation to its sustainability strategy. While the company discloses having targets related to water use, greenhouse gas emissions and solid waste, it does not disclose group-wide targets on key sustainability topics for the most material parts of its value chain. The company reports consistently against all its targets. While Owens Corning discloses a skills matrix, it does not provide evidence that its highest governance body has expertise regarding the company’s most material nature-related topics.

Stakeholder engagement
The company does not disclose an overview of the issues raised during its stakeholder engagement activities.

Lobbying
Owens Corning discloses a list of trade associations of which it is a member wherever it operates. However, it does not disclose a clear and detailed framework for assessing alignment of its trade associations with nature-positive policies. The company does not report on misalignments between the lobbying activities of its trade associations and nature-positive policies.

Impact and dependencies assessment
The company assesses its impacts on nature at site level, using the Integrated Biodiversity Assessment Tool (IBAT) and the Key Biodiversity Areas (KBA) methodology to conduct the assessment. However, it can improve by also analysing its business model impact. Owens Corning does not disclose any assessment of its impacts on nature, including biodiversity, in its supply chain. Additionally, it does not disclose any assessment of its dependencies on nature within its own operations, nor those of its upstream business relationships.

Key areas and species
Owens Corning discloses the locations that are in or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity within its own operations. However, it does not disclose the locations of its suppliers that are in or adjacent to areas important for biodiversity. While the company discloses conducting an assessment regarding species that might be affected by its operations, it does not disclose species populations existing in or adjacent to its own locations or those of its suppliers. The company does not disclose the status according to national and international conservation lists of species identified in its own locations.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
No evidence was found regarding the company’s efforts to avoid ecosystem conversion, including deforestation, or promoting restoration. Owens Corning has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets. The company does not disclose a commitment to restore ecosystems. Nor does it disclose details and outcomes of ecosystem restoration projects in areas affected by its own operations or by its suppliers.

Resource exploitation and circularity
While Owens Corning discloses an overview of its inputs, including the amount of recycled materials used, it has an opportunity to disclose a detailed breakdown of its inputs. Additionally, it does not report quantitatively on its group-wide circularity performance. While the company discloses activities around grasslands in Ontario aimed at improving soil health or agrobiodiversity in its production or sourcing practices, it does not disclose an associated target.

Water
Owens Corning discloses its water withdrawal and reports an increase in its withdrawal. Although the company has a commitment to cut its water withdrawal in half, this only applies to water-stressed areas. The company has an opportunity to set a target for its own operations outside of water-stressed areas. The company reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas. While the company discloses that it carries out stakeholder engagement regarding water management, these efforts do not translate into commitments. Additionally, Owens Corning does not report a decrease in water pollution, nor does it disclose its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality. Although it reports regularly on water pollution, including biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD) and total suspended solids (TSS), it does not disclose targets to reduce water pollution. The company does not disclose a commitment to respect the right to water, nor disclose its processes for implementing preventive and corrective action plans for identified specific risks to the right to water and sanitation in its own operations.

Solid and air pollution
While Owens Corning has a no-waste-to-landfill target for 2030, it does not report evidence regarding hazardous waste. No evidence was found that the company reduces plastic use and waste in its own operations. The company does not report on the amount of plastic waste generated and proportions directed from or to disposal. Nor does it report regularly on air quality parameters of emissions of harmful air pollutants, including volatile organic compounds, particulate matter, nitrogen oxides and sulphur oxides.

Invasive species
The company has not identified any activities that could lead to the introduction of IAS in its own operations.

Safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment
The company does not disclose a commitment to respect local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment or to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
While the company mentions Indigenous Peoples’ rights, this does not translate into a commitment to respect their rights which references relevant part(s) of ILO Convention No. 169 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples or the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. The company does not disclose its processes for identifying and recognising the rights of Indigenous Peoples when activities in its own operations may impact their rights, nor does it describe how it obtains Indigenous Peoples’ free, prior and informed consent. The company does not disclose a commitment to respect ownership and use of land and natural resources and related legitimate tenure rights, as set out in the relevant part(s) of the VGGTs or the IFC Performance Standards. No evidence was found that the company requires its business relationships to have a process to identify legitimate tenure rightsholders, paying particular attention to vulnerable or marginalised tenure rightsholders, and to negotiate with them to provide adequate compensation.

Owens Corning describes the process for identifying its human rights risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. It has assessed five sites for human rights risks, examined the documented evidence and made visual assessments where needed. Further, it has conducted 19 internal audits on human rights risk and disclosed its human rights annual survey. However, it has an opportunity to disclose what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. The company publicly discloses the results of its human rights risk assessments, which are aggregated across its operations and locations. While the company discloses that it conducts routine human rights risk assessments and that it remediates in locations with the highest risk, no evidence was found that it has a global system to act on all its salient human rights issues. Nor was evidence found that the company provides an example of the conclusions reached and actions taken or to be taken on at least one of its salient human rights issues as a result of assessment processes. While the company discloses the categories of stakeholders it engages with generally on sustainability issues, it is not clear if these stakeholders are those whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities.

The company has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect the health and safety of its own workers and expecting its suppliers to do the same. The company states that it compensates its people at or above all established minimum wage requirements. However, no evidence was found that the company discloses a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or that it has achieved paying all workers a living wage. No evidence was found that the company describes how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates, nor how it works to support the payment of a living wage by its suppliers. Although the company discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce covered by collective bargaining agreements, no evidence was found that it describes how it works to support the practices of its suppliers in relation to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

The company has an opportunity to publish a global tax strategy and should assign responsibility for this strategy to an executive-level individual or body. No evidence was found that the company describes the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations. Neither was evidence found that the company includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships. The company outlines its approach to lobbying and political engagement but does not formalise this approach in a public policy document. No evidence was found that the company has a publicly available policy statement specifying that it does not make political contributions.