Being the preferred choice for making a difference

Robust and dedicated CSR governance

To ensure maximum coherence and top-level coordination, Nexans has set up a dedicated governance structure. This structure is led by the CSR department, which reports to the Group’s Human Resources Director who is in charge of Communications and CSR and who is also a member of the Executive Committee. The highest decision-making bodies are closely involved, as well as the various operating and support departments, making CSR an integral part of the Group’s strategy.

Primarily, the CSR Committee, chaired by Christopher Guérin, Chief Executive Officer, is made up of members of the Executive Committee. This committee meets at least once a year to define CSR policy and assess the various initiatives.

The CSR Committee works with two expert committees, chaired by members of the Executive Committee, which meet at least once a year to translate the CSR ambitions and other issues into operations:

Governance and Social Committee
Environment and Products Committee

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To support its strategic transformation, Nexans places particular emphasis on cultural change in its "Culture Story” video. This “Nexans Living History” film traces the Group’s history and emphasizes its major role in the electrification of the world, reminding its staff of the roots that have contributed to strengthening their commitment. The Culture Story video is enhanced by a redefinition of the Group’s raison d’être and values.

Fair and responsible practices

A code and values for exemplary conduct

The Nexans Code of Ethics and Business Conduct sets out the rules and principles that the Group’s staff and business partners must respect when performing their professional activities: compliance with competition law, prevention of fraud, corruption and conflicts of interest, compliance with regulations on embargoes, anti-money laundering, protection of personal data, etc. This reference base incorporates Nexans’ values — Pioneers, Dedicated, United — which form the foundations on which we rely to guide our actions and our relations with our stakeholders on a daily basis.

An incident reporting system

A whistleblowing system for any breaches of the rules of the Code of Ethics and Business Conduct is open to all Group staff and third parties.

A dedicated compliance programme

The purpose of the Group’s Ethical Compliance programme is to define actions to prevent, detect and deal with violations. This programme is coordinated by a strong team under the responsibility of the General Secretary:

Ethics Correspondent;
Ethics Compliance Program Manager;
Data Protection Officer;
Chief Risk Officer;
Lawyers.

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92

%

of employees signed the annual compliance certificate in 2021*.
*Group executives and all sales and marketing staff (including non-managers).

Fair practices

Each year, a specific action plan is deployed throughout the Group by the top management and the general departments of the various operational entities and subsidiaries: signing of certificates of compliance with the Code of Ethics by all Group executives, advanced mandatory training programme, e-learning or face-to-face training depending on the year and the subjects, etc.

Unwavering relationships with our stakeholders

Nexans strives to act responsibly and build long-term relationships with all its stakeholders. It is therefore very natural that the “Ecosystem” pillar is an integral part of our CSR policy. In fact, it one of the CSR policy’s three main priorities an aims to share our values and the highest ethical standards with this ecosystem.

This is the essence of our policy of regular, high-quality dialogue with all our stakeholders. An approach based on a rigorous and proactive approach to ethics and corporate responsibility. A day dedicated to ESG, organised in November 2020, enabled the Group to present its approach and the new CSR roadmap as well as the associated management indicators.

Finally, Nexans endeavours to protect people, whether staff, customers, partners or the general public, by implementing a vigilance approach and a range of measures to protect consumer health and safety.

Our staff

Because staff engagement is at the heart of operational excellence and the achievement of the Group’s performance objectives, its measurement is an integral part of the indicators monitored in the CSR roadmap.

Customers

Dialogue with customers, particularly with those who have already made commitments, is one of the priority CSR ambitions. A cycle of meetings with them is organised with the aim of seeking a proactive approach and implementing joint projects. The idea is that each party contributes to meeting the targets set, more particularly, in terms of low carbon offers, one of the goals of the Nexans Climate roadmap.

Industrial partners

The Group’s database of efficient and reliable subcontractors and suppliers helps Nexans to achieve its commercial objectives, while complying with most national and international requirements, obligations and regulations. In particular, the Group has updated the supplier CSR Charter and is planning a CSR risk reassessment campaign that will be followed by EcoVadis assessment requests or equivalent, and then possible on-site audits.

Financial and non-financial partners

Whether shareholders, bankers, investors or rating agencies, etc., Nexans is cultivating quality dialogue with each sphere. Its main contacts include around ten financial analysts who regularly publish reports on the Group and carry out annual assessments of our non-financial performance. Not to mention the 300 or so investors encountered each year at roadshows and conferences around the world, and of course at specific sessions such as Investor Day.

Territorial partners

Through the establishment of its subsidiaries, Nexans forges close links with local and regional authorities, economic and social players, universities, schools and training centres. These quality relationships, both human and financial, take the form of donations, support for associations, assistance programmes, volunteering and partnership. The aim is to contribute more to the labour market and thus to regional development.

Support of the Vinci EcoDrive association

Nexans' support allows students from the Vinci EcoDrive association to work on the realization of a prototype vehicle with electric batteries. Their objective: to participate in various races such as the Shell Eco-Marathon, which consists of driving 7 laps around a track using as little energy as possible.

Sphere of influence

Nexans’ lobbying activities are subject to compliance with the rules of the Code of Ethics and Business Conduct. They are mainly exercised through professional associations of which the Group companies are members, and relate to initiatives linked to cables, in particular renewable energies and security, as well as certain technical subjects relating, for example, to governance, social and tax matters.

People, of crucial value

Nexans is grabbing the opportunity to mobilise its staff around the Group’s new purpose to “Electrify the Future”. People will always be the Group’s raison d’être. It is our employees who, thanks to their mobilisation and commitment, talents and diversity, contribute to turning Nexans’ vision into a reality. Thus, the Group’s social approach is an integral part of its CSR policy and makes up one of its 3 pillars.

The “Human” pillar aims to “Take care of our employees and build a diverse and inclusive work environment for all” with the three-fold goal of focusing efforts on

workplace safety,
human capital
CSR awareness, in particular by integrating CSR criteria into long-term performance plans.

		2021	Target 2021	Target 2022	Target 2023
Workplace safety	Workplace accident frequency rate ⁽¹⁾	1.81	1.5	1	0.9
	Severity rat ⁽²⁾	0.15	<0.12	<0.11	<0.10
Human capital	Graded positions staffed internally ⁽³⁾	43%	50% - 55%	55% - 57%	60%
	Women in management positions	24.5%	24%	25%	26%
	Women in top management positions ⁽⁴⁾	17.7%	16% - 18%	17% - 19%	18% - 20%
CSR awareness	Employees eligible to Long Term Incentive with CSR criteria ⁽⁵⁾	100%	100%	100%	100%

(1) Overall workplace accident frequency rate: total number of workplace accidents with more than 24 hours of lost time/total number of hours worked x 1,000,000. This rate relates to internals and temporary workers.
(2) Severity rate: total number of lost work days due to accidents at work/total number of hours worked x 1000. This rate only relates to internal employees.
(3) Proportion of staff positions filled through internal mobility at position C and above, according to the Nexans Grading system.
(4) Top management: Category of employees defined by the Group’s Executive Committee based on the Nexans Grading system.
(5) Among the employees benefiting from a long-term Incentive plan validated by the Board of Directors, 100% include a CSR criterion.

Meeting three challenges

In order to turn Nexans into a learning company, where every employee can actively participate in their own personal development, and into a diverse company, concerned about the well-being of its staff and workplace safety, capable of attracting people with the skills that the Group needs for its future developments, three major challenges need to be met.

Attract and onboard people with the right skills, and attract graduates and expert technical profiles, highly in demand in the competitive energy sector.
Retain and train skilled people through knowledge transfer, ongoing training and changes in position within the organisation.
Promote diversity, as the Group is convinced that multi-disciplinary teams and differences are a source of wealth and performance, not only for the company, but also for all its employees.

The fight against the digital divide

Nexans has chosen the association PoleS to run digital mediation workshops at all 17 of the Group’s French production sites, targeting close to 600 operators who struggle to use digital formats or who even suffer from “illectronism”.

Nexans Remarkable People Programme

The engagement and outstanding contribution of certain employees is rewarded each year by the Nexans Remarkable People Programme. In 2021, 32 projects were selected: a total of 111 employees in 16 countries won awards for their remarkable engagement or performance.

+486 employees awarded Nexans Remarkable People since its creation in 2016.

Shared values

In 2020, Nexans organised an extensive internal survey inviting all its employees to consult a list of key words and select the three that they felt most embodied the new Nexans.

The majority of votes opted for “Pioneers”, “Dedicated” and “United” – a “triptych” of characteristics essential to achieving our purpose of “Electrifying the Future”.

Nexans has joined the "Businesses are committed" community created to strengthen and perpetuate the link between the State and the Company in favor of employment for all. Among the commitments announced, Nexans is committed to low energy consumption, to using inclusive service providers, to the Ukraine, to young people, to people with disabilities and to residents of priority urban areas.

Sponsorship drivers

Nexans’ sponsorship, which makes greater use of the core business and the mobilisation of internal skills to respond to societal challenges, gives meaning to initiatives and makes employees proud of their business and their group. As a leader that is fully integrated into the life of the city, at a very early stage, Nexans committed itself to sponsorship actions in areas in which its expertise in sustainable electrification can be used for the common good on three fronts: climate change, medical research and cultural heritage.

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Our patronage and sponsorship initiatives

The Nexans Foundation, fighting against energy poverty

Electrifying the future also means supporting solidarity initiatives to combat poverty and fuel poverty worldwide.

As the first player in the cable industry to create a Corporate Foundation in 2013, Nexans responded to the call to the world launched by the United Nations to develop access to energy. In 2015, the UN included in its Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) an energy component to “ensure affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all"” (SDG7). This is an imperative long recommended by the International Energy Agency, which advocates universal energy access by 2030.