Environmental Sustainability

We believe that doing the right thing for the environment drives our growth. We believe in human rights, sustainable business practices and responsible sourcing. We promote corporate sustainability not only within our own operations, but also with our partners and supply chain.

Veritas committed to supporting SDGs

To further our work towards promoting and implementing environmental sustainability initiatives within our operations and throughout our supply chain, we support the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

Responsible Business Alliance (RBA)

In 2016 Veritas joined the RBA. Veritas has voluntarily adopted the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) Code of Conduct and subsequently applied the code to our supply chain and some of our Tier 1 suppliers. In 2018, Veritas qualified as a Regular Member of the RBA.

The RBA Code of Conduct is a set of standards on social, environmental and ethical issues in the electronics industry supply chain. The standards set out in the Code of Conduct reference international norms and standards including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ILO International Labour Standards, OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, ISO and SA standards, and many more.

The RBA code outlines Veritas' expectations regarding labour conditions and the protection of labour rights, prohibits child labour and forced or compulsory labour, and promotes environmental and ethical practices by our suppliers.

Key Issues in the Electronics Supply Chain

Greenhouse Gas Emissions

In FY17, we conducted a global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions inventory (including Scope 1, 2 and 3 business travel) to support internal decision-making on reduction goals and efficiency strategies. We finalised the inventory for FY18 realising a 10% decrease from FY17 emissions. We are currently expanding the FY18 inventory to include Scope 3 emissions from our supply chain.

Forced Labour & Human Trafficking

At Veritas, we work to preserve and uphold human rights throughout our company and our supply chain. We have a zero-tolerance policy for forced labour, slavery, child labour and human trafficking, as outlined in our Human Rights Policy, the RBA Code of Conduct and the United Nations Global Compact.

On 26 March 2015, the Modern Slavery Act 2015 was passed into law in the United Kingdom. This law requires companies to publish a formal statement of how they are preventing human trafficking and slavery in their supply chains.

• Veritas UK Modern Slavery Act Statement for fiscal year 2020 can be found here
• Veritas UK Modern Slavery Act Statement for fiscal year 2019 can be found here
• Veritas UK Modern Slavery Act Statement for fiscal year 2018 can be found here
• Veritas Amended UK Modern Slavery Act Statement for fiscal year 2017 can be found here
• Veritas U.K. Modern Slavery Act Statement for fiscal year 2016 can be found here

Veritas also complies with the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act of 2010 which requires retail sellers and manufacturers with annual worldwide gross receipts over $100 million doing business in the state of California to publicly disclose their efforts to eradicate slavery and human trafficking from their direct supply chains. Veritas statement for the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act can be found here: Veritas Statement California Transparency Supply Chain Act.

Veritas has a zero-tolerance policy and expects all employees and contractors to be aware of the implications of violating any aspect of human-trafficking related activities. Employees and contractors can report potential violations of this policy to Veritas EthicsLine.

Conflict minerals

The US Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") adopted a rule under Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act that requires companies to disclose whether the products they manufacture or contract to manufacture contain conflict minerals that originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) or other Covered Countries. We support the aims and objectives of the US legislation on the supply of conflict minerals as stated in our Veritas Conflict Minerals Policy.

To underscore this commitment, we have also:

• become members of Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI)
• communicated our conflict minerals policy to our suppliers
• required our suppliers to complete the CFSI’s Conflict Minerals Reporting Template (CMRT),
• developed a comprehensive due diligence process that is in line with the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas.

For more information, please visit our Veritas Conflict Minerals Report.

Industry Engagement & Collaboration

• Signatory to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), the world’s largest sustainability initiative.
• Signatory of the Women’s Empowerment Principles, which promote gender equality in business.
• Signatory of the Business Backs Low-Carbon USA Statement, which is a call out to elected US leaders to strongly support continued US participation in the Paris Climate Agreement.
• Signatory of the Science Based Targets Initative (SBTi), joint initiative to increase corporate ambition on climate action by mobilising companies to set science-based GHG emissions targets.
• Support the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
• Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) Regular Member.
• Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) Member.
• US & Canada ENERGY STAR Partner.
• Members of Global WEEE, Packaging, Batteries Compliance Schemes supporting end-of-life management.

Creation of Sustainable Products

We continually seek new ways to minimise the environmental impact of our products and services during their entire life cycle, by considering factors such as energy consumption, materials use and end-of-life treatment.

Product compliance

We consider compliance with all applicable environmental laws and regulations to be the baseline for our performance and we continually look for innovative ways to eliminate the use of environmentally sensitive materials in our products.

All our manufacturing partners and hardware suppliers are both ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certified.

We comply with all applicable laws and regulations in the countries where we operate. Compliance areas include regulatory requirements, hazardous substances, WEEE, batteries, packaging, conflict minerals and logistics.

e-Waste: Product Recycling Programs

By reusing and recycling electronic equipment, we extend its useful life and reduce the amount of waste we send to landfill.

Refurbishment and reuse are especially important for electronics and other e-waste because they often contain metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, gold and silver, which have multiple significant environmental impacts – from their initial mining to potential environmental contamination if they are not recycled or disposed of properly.

Veritas prioritises opportunities to reuse spare parts and relocate old inventory to avoid the purchase of new equipment. Equipment that has reached the end of its useful life is sent to responsible vendors for proper recycling. These vendors offer services such as hardware retrieval, asset tag and identifier removal, sorting, and environmentally responsible data wiping, cleaning and destruction procedures. Veritas participates in a variety of take back for recycling programmes for our appliances which vary depending on local regulations.

For more information on collection and recycling in your area, visit the Veritas Product Recycling website.