Focus and consolidation are at the core of our reporting effort. While you may find similar information in our other public disclosures, this Nielsen Global Responsibility Report serves as the comprehensive hub for how our environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance and forward-looking strategy connect to our business, with a focus on 2018-2019. The PDF version of this report is available here.

We recognize that, for any company, conducting a materiality assessment, regularly engaging stakeholders and connecting business strategy with top ESG focus areas are all key to a coherent strategy. We also know that our diverse stakeholder groups have specific areas of interest. To make it easier to access the information they may be looking for in this report, we have organized the content according to six main topic areas, available via the “Our Company” dropdown menu, with complementary narrative and Detailed Disclosure pages for each. We have also provided specific reports for each of the reporting standards most relevant for Nielsen: the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

In order to determine the content we would include in this report, our Global Responsibility & Sustainability team considered the nature of our most material areas, risks and opportunities, as well as how our ESG and business strategies have evolved in the two years since we published our last report. We also reviewed the key issues that were raised in our most recent nonfinancial materiality assessment. 

As part of our strategic approach in compiling this report, we considered and incorporated indicators from 12 external ESG rating and reporting entities, as well as standards-setters, which were selected based on stakeholder feedback and market dynamics. These entities include (in alphabetical order): Bloomberg ESG, CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project), Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI), EcoVadis, the Financial Times Stock Exchange FTSE4Good, Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) ESG, JUST Capital, MSCI, Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), Sustainalytics and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). By pulling in inputs and indicators—well over a thousand—from these varied raters, rankers, standards-setters and frameworks, we’ve created our own consolidated, internal “ESG database” of the metrics that matter most to Nielsen, cutting out excess while recognizing the important topics that rise to the top. We share these indicators with our internal subject matter experts to prepare Nielsen’s external reports, including this one. More importantly, this ESG database also serves as a key part of our guidebook in developing our strategy and measuring our progress. Given the large number of ESG raters, rankers, standards-setters and frameworks that exist to provide companies with opportunities to voluntarily disclose their risks, opportunities and impacts, we reserve the right to update and advance our approach in determining which we respond to, where we proactively engage and how we ensure the right overall balance of time spent and value delivered for all our stakeholders.

For any questions related to report content or our overall strategy, please reach out to globalresponsibilitysustainability@nielsen.com.