B Corp Human Rights Policy

Read as pdf: BCorp Work Human Rights Policy.pdf

We at Edgard & Cooper are dedicated to being the pet world’s best advocates. But for the record, we’re also quite supportive of people. After all, until the dogs and cats of the world develop opposable thumbs, they’re still totally counting on us humans.

And let’s face it: Societies, economies, and businesses thrive when human rights are protected and respected. Respect for human rights means conducting our businesses ethically. It benefits us, yes, but also supports our fundamental purpose of improving the well-being of dogs & cats.

This document isn’t nearly as fun as, say, taking a walk with our dogs or having playtime with our cats. But it IS as important. It articulates our commitment and approach to human rights. It’s the policy that has been adapted by Edgard & Cooper as our own commitment to human rights, consistent with and building on the global human rights principles upheld by our parent company, General Mills.

We aren’t the first or only company dedicated to protecting and respecting human rights. The principles we use to treat people with dignity within our company and throughout our supply chain are guided by internationally recognized principles from:

Please don’t tell this to the cats, because they think they’re in charge: We recognize that governments are ultimately responsible for establishing the legal framework to protect human rights within their jurisdictions. We are committed to the rule of law and will adapt to changes in legal frameworks to maintain compliance with the law wherever we operate.

We expect our business partners, both internal and external, to have the same commitment.

We work within a large, diverse value chain of business partners and stakeholders. We recognize that each entity in this value chain has its own independent duty to respect human rights. We expect them to adhere to ethical business conduct consistent with our own. We are committed to working with our business partners and stakeholders to fulfill this common goal.

Consistent with the rights set forth by our parent company, General Mills, in our shared Employee Code of Conduct and Supplier Code of Conduct, we:

As part of our commitment to respect human rights, we’ve established internal and external mechanisms to help identify, address and mitigate potential adverse human rights impacts that may be caused by our actions. Many of these mechanisms are integrated into our operations through established policies on a variety of topics such as labor standards, ethics, sourcing, safety, climate and water.

Of particular significance are our Employee Code of Conduct and Supplier Code of Conduct, as noted above. We regularly review the content and application of these policies with the goal of continuously improving our ability to fulfill our commitments.

We recognize that we are part of a broader community. In the communities where we operate, we believe that engaging stakeholders — including those from more at-risk populations — is fundamental to our respect for human rights.

We provide public grievance channels to raise concerns, and where practical, are committed to dialogue and engagement with relevant parties in an effort to understand, assess and address areas of concern as appropriate.

Training is an important part of effective human rights practices. We therefore undertake efforts to build awareness about our human rights policies and procedures.

At Edgard & Cooper, accountability for our human rights commitments sits with the Business Operations Director, who oversees implementation of this policy, including periodic risk assessment and remediation actions, and reports progress to the E&C directors, and involves the relevant parties should extended accountability be necessary.

As part of General Mills, we also draw on group-level resources and expertise to strengthen this work. General Mills’ Human Rights Integration Team, a cross-functional team advancing human rights work across the group, and the Global Responsible Sourcing program within Global Sourcing and Capabilities (GSOC), support the identification and management of human rights risks.

Should you have questions, concerns or issues related to this Statement, use our Stakeholder Grievance channels, including the Ethics Line, which is hosted by an independent reporting service, available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, from any location worldwide and is multilingual.

We commit to periodically assessing the potential negative human rights impacts of our activities, products, and value chain, at least every 36 months.

This includes proactively identifying, preventing, and mitigating risks across our operations and supply chain. The resulting salient human rights report is shared with our directors for formal review.