We focus our efforts on what matters most to our business and stakeholders.
Our Priority Issues
Our formal prioritization assessment identifies the ESG risks, opportunities and impacts that are essential considerations for developing and executing PPG's strategy and reporting.
Our most recent assessment was completed in 2022. The assessment prioritized issues based on their capacity to impact people, the economy, the environment (stakeholder impact) or their capacity to create or erode enterprise value (financial impact). Some ESG issues have been prioritized based solely on their stakeholder or financial impacts, while other issues are included because of their impact on both stakeholders and PPG. Throughout 2024, we are working to update our assessment in line with current best practice, including implementation guidance for the materiality assessment published by EFRAG.
Our ESG approach focuses on managing the stakeholder impacts and financial effects related to these ESG issues. Each issue is addressed through comprehensive policies, action plans and risk management procedures. We also used the issues identified by this assessment as inputs when developing our 2030 goals.
ESG issues (in no particular order)
- Addressing chemical-related social and environmental impacts, real and perceived
- Upholding human rights in PPG's supply chain
- Fostering a diverse, equitable and inclusive workforce
- Managing interactions with water as a shared resource
- Ensuring safe work environments and promoting employee wellbeing
- Maintaining positive community relationships
- Decarbonizing PPG operations, supply chain and customer emissions
- Using circular economy principles to reduce impacts from materials and waste
- Providing ESG training and career progression pathways for our people
- Effectively prioritizing and deploying technological improvements
- Attracting and retaining talent in a post-COVID world
- Building climate change resilience in physical assets
- Understanding and communicating the financial importance of ESG to PPG and how PPG contributes to economic, social and environmental outcomes
Prioritization assessment process
We identified our impacts based on a range of sources, including:
- Analysis of global megatrends impacting PPG
- Interviews with PPG executives and external stakeholders, including industry representatives
- Formal and informal feedback received from customers and employees
- Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analyses of PPG's current position
- Review of internal strategy papers, policies and public disclosures
- ESG reporting frameworks and standards, including surveys shared by external ratings organizations
- Media coverage of PPG and the broader paints and coatings industry
Engagement with each of PPG's stakeholder categories is an important part of our strategy, and helps ensure we're prioritizing the right issues. See the stakeholder engagement section for information on the variety of ways that we engage throughout our value chain.
Evaluating and prioritizing impacts
We assessed PPG's sustainability-related risks, opportunities and impacts using the dual lenses of impacts on stakeholders and risks and opportunities for the company's financial position. This approach ensures our strategy and reporting meets the expectations of investors interested in the long-term success of our business, customers' evolving needs, as well as the expectations of stakeholders interested in our contribution to sustainable development objectives. Our prioritization assessment reflects guidance from global ESG standard setting organizations, including the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB).
Based on our research and a series of internal and external interviews, we developed a shortlist of issues that are most likely to be impactful for PPG and its stakeholders. The list of issues was refined at a workshop with PPG's senior leadership where each issue's relative impact was considered. Issues were deemed to be a priority based on a combination of desk research, perceptions of key stakeholders, peer review and discussion with PPG's senior leadership. The results of this assessment were then disseminated to everyone that had participated in the process, including the Board of Directors, PPG's sustainability committee and interview participants, including functional and business leaders.
In addition to focusing on the priority topics identified by this exercise, PPG works to continuously improve our corporate governance and compliance program. This includes addressing important issues, including corporate governance and ethics, data privacy, and regulatory compliance and maintaining a productive relationship with our workforce and labor unions. Learn more in the governance section.