Social

At Corning, we pledge to uphold the highest standards for fundamental human rights and view them as a key component of a socially responsible supply chain. We closely monitor supply chain activity and collaborate with our supplier partners to promote fair, safe, and healthy working environments. See our Human Rights Policy.

Within our supply chain, we proactively identify, monitor, train, and engage with suppliers on human rights, beginning with our strategic sourcing process.

During the selection process, we encourage diverse suppliers to participate in our contracting and procurement process. One way we incentivize this is by waiving supplier onboarding fees for diverse suppliers that we onboard.

After onboarding, we use sustainability and human rights criteria to assess supplier performance, conducting audits, if necessary, especially for high-risk suppliers. We ensure compliance with our Supplier Code of Conduct, addressing issues like forced labor and discrimination, using third-party audits by organizations like Intertek. Audits include worker interviews and document reviews. Corrective actions are taken based on audit results, and contracts may be terminated for insufficient remediation.

Corning is committed to a socially responsible supply chain – one that reflects our Values. The very foundation of our Values is respect for the rights, freedoms and standards of treatment to which all people are entitled—human rights. Respect for human rights is practiced the same way we practice our other Values: everyday, as a part of every interaction with each other and those with whom we do business. To ensure that our suppliers understand our expectations and comply with Corning's standards for human rights, as set forth in Supplier Code of Conduct and Human Rights Policy, we have launched a required Responsible Sourcing training program for suppliers since 2022. With this program, through 2024 we have trained around 897 suppliers of Corning’s supply chain on our human rights commitments including the prohibition of forced labor.  In addition, this training builds our suppliers’ capacity to identify risks related to human trafficking and forced labor in their own operations, as well as further upstream with their suppliers and in their own supply chains.

Since 2024, we are working on re-training our existing suppliers and so far re-trained 158 suppliers and expanding this training to a broader set of suppliers, including new suppliers.

Footnote:* This program is supported by the RBA training tool.

At Corning, corporate social responsibility is essential to our business, focusing on sustainable development and ethical practices. We commit to responsible sourcing of minerals to protect human rights and prevent any link to violence or abuse. Our Supplier Code of Conduct requires suppliers to uphold these standards and pass them along their supply chains.

Since adopting a policy in 2012 in compliance to comply with the Dodd-Frank Act, Corning ensures that conflict minerals (tantalum, tin, tungsten, and gold) in our supply chain are not at risk of financing armed groups in the DRC. Our purchase orders and contracts reflect these expectations. In 2020, we expanded our focus to include minerals like cobalt from high-risk areas and joined initiatives like IRMA and RMI to enhance our industry collaboration and supplier capacity-building.

Corning’s responsible minerals sourcing program – which covers all minerals, as well as suppliers and smelters/refiners previously or currently certified as “conflict free” and non-certified suppliers and smelters/refiners on their journey towards certification – is based on three key steps to identify and respond to risks in the minerals supply chain.

Our responsible minerals sourcing program involves three steps: supplier mapping to identify risk, reviewing certification standards, and engaging with priority suppliers and industry stakeholders.

First, to prioritize our due diligence efforts we regularly conduct supplier mapping exercises to identify those within our vast and complex supply chain, which can be up to six layers deep in some areas, that may be at greatest risk.

The second key step in our program is regularly reviewing and approving the standards for certification that we use to determine human rights and conflict minerals risks further upstream in our supply chain.

The third step in our program is engaging directly with our priority suppliers to review our plans for certification and to gather and track their feedback on the effectiveness of our ongoing risk mitigation efforts.

 We use Assent Compliance Manager for supply chain surveys and collaborate with third-party auditors to address forced labor allegations. Our efforts include leveraging new technologies, such as blockchain, to improve our reach and effectiveness.

For more details on our approach to responsible minerals sourcing and to view a full list of smelters/refiners and their RMI audit conformant status see our Responsible Minerals Policy.

Diversity is an integral part of Corning’s value system and a critical business initiative. We understand the value a diverse supply chain can bring to innovation and productivity, and we are committed to providing access to all suppliers and to promoting diversity in our supply chain.

One of the main objectives of our supplier diversity initiative is to give diverse businesses an opportunity to participate in our contracting and procurement process. We are also working to increase the amount of quality products and services we obtain directly from diverse suppliers.

Corning recognizes the following certification organizations: NGLCC, NMSDC, WBENC, Disability-IN, NVBDC, NaVOBA, USPAACC, USHCC.

As our supplier network grows, so does our exposure to data and information security risks. Protecting the privacy of personal and business data within our supplier network is a key priority at Corning. Please review our Data Privacy Policy to learn more about our policies and procedures to manage data privacy risk at Corning and throughout our supply chain.

Our corporate vision is to deliver an injury-free workplace for every employee, contractor, and business partner. We hold ourselves accountable to stringent health and safety guidelines and expect our supplier partners to do the same.

Suppliers shall minimize the incidence of work-related injury and illness to help achieve a safe and healthy work environment, enhancing the quality of products and services, consistency of productions, worker retention and morale. We also expect that suppliers recognize that ongoing worker input and education is essential to identifying and solving health and safety issues. Learn more from our Health & Safety statement.

For information about contractor Health & Safety in the prior year, see here.

Suppliers, and other relevant stakeholders, can submit any questions or report any violation or grievance to Corning's confidential and anonymous Code of Conduct Line 24 hours per day, seven days per week.

(Country Code) +1-888-296-8173 or online at www.ethicspoint.com