Building a culture of sustainability with responsible sourcing

Sustainability is a never-ending journey at James Hardie. Our company’s vision is to inspire how communities design, build and grow today and tomorrow, anchored in our core values, including “do the right thing.” One way we demonstrate our values is through responsible procurement of materials and services. It is a priority as we work to reduce our environmental and social impacts.

An early step in our journey is recognizing the international standards on human and labor rights as outlined in our Global Supplier Code of Conduct (“Code”). We are committed to combatting modern slavery and some of our efforts can be seen in our Australian Modern Slavery Statement and UK Modern Slavery Statement.

Our work on building out a global responsible sourcing program is also a foundational step in creating a robust human rights program to better understand the working conditions of people in our value chain. The aim is to ensure that all suppliers operate in line with our values, uphold our Code and applicable local laws, and are committed to combating modern slavery throughout the value chain.

Our Journey: Responsible Sourcing

At James Hardie, we strive to be proactive, innovative and adaptable in a rapidly changing landscape. We have ambitious targets that align with our purpose of Building a Better Future for All™, the issues that matter most to our stakeholders and our overall corporate objectives.

In fiscal year 2024, we continued to implement our revised Code, which sets out the principles and standards that we expect our suppliers to support, embrace, and uphold. We risk mapped 100% of our in-scope Tier 1 suppliers around the globe as part of our approach to managing our supply base. This important first step provides a foundation as we create a roadmap to grow our responsible sourcing and human rights program.

To help us focus our efforts where we can have the greatest impact, our risk mapping process leveraged a third-party tool and builds upon the previous successes of our Australian team. This tool has a particular focus on assessing risk variables that can impact working conditions, especially around forced labor.

This fiscal year, we are continuing to conduct enhanced due diligence on suppliers identified as operating in high-risk environments which include on-site social compliance audits. As part of our program, we will also begin the process for a human rights salient issues review for our value chain and development of a global human rights policy.

Adding Value to our Communities

Responsible sourcing is one element of our overall social sustainability strategy, which includes a focus on building and sustaining an inclusive culture within our business and supporting the communities where we live and work. For example, James Hardie is committed to developing a more circular supply chain to reduce our impact while strengthening our business. Maintaining a sufficient supply chain and locating our plants near our suppliers, benefits our suppliers, customers and bottom line while reducing the impact on the environment.

In addition, supporting and investing in communities is integral to the James Hardie culture. We strive to positively impact the people and families in the communities in which we operate and where our products are used. Over the past year, we revised our global giving strategy to better align with our business objectives, while continuing to enable specific local giving.

All of these actions are positive steps forward on our never-ending sustainability journey and to help generate a positive impact in our communities.