Climate Change Data

Cint Group AB (publ)

Climate Impact & Sustainability Data (2021, 2022, 2023)

Reporting Period: 2021

Environmental Metrics

ESG Focus Areas

  • Employee health and well-being
  • Diversity, equality and inclusion
  • Environmental impact
  • Innovation
  • Data protection and privacy
  • Ethical and profitable growth
  • Community impact
  • Towards a net zero economy for insights

Environmental Achievements

  • Business trips made more environmentally friendly; travel policy updated to reflect this.
  • Cint's platform allows insights to be gathered with no emission footprint and our digital solutions enable our various partners to interact without impacting the external environment.

Social Achievements

  • Two surveys conducted to follow up on employee well-being, engagement and safety aspects related to remote working conditions.
  • Inclusive recruitment strategies, Movember and Pride celebrations.
  • Strategic partnerships with Women in Tech and Women in Research.

Governance Achievements

  • All Cint’s people are enrolled in e-training related to anti-corruption and anti-bribery.
  • All Cint’s new employees sign and approve the Code of Ethics.
  • No material breaches on the Code of Ethics were reported during 2021.
  • No material information security incidents were reported during 2021.

Climate Goals & Targets

Long-term Goals:
  • Driving the digital transformation in the insights industry towards a net zero economy well ahead of 2050
Medium-term Goals:
  • Maintain an annual organic net sales growth of at least 25 percent
  • Achieve an EBITDA margin of at least 25 percent
Short-term Goals:
  • Reinvest cash flows into growth initiatives and as such will not pay annual dividends in the short-term

Environmental Challenges

  • Risks related to protection of intellectual property rights
  • Risks related to employment and minimum wages
  • Risks related to human rights and corruption
  • Employment condition rights
  • Non-compliance of rules and regulations
  • Risk related to Covid-19
  • Geopolitical risk
  • Sustainability risk
Mitigation Strategies
  • Cint protects its trade secrets, proprietary information and other intellectual property rights by a combination of copyright, trademark and trade secret laws in addition to confidentiality procedures.
  • Cint fosters a culture of entrepreneurship through its key core values: Accountability, Collaboration and Innovation. Cint works continuesly to pertain and acquire competence, through carreer opportunities and growth possibilities.
  • Cint has a comprehensive set of policies established to prevent the potential consequences of these risks, such as Code of Ethics, HR Policy, Whistle-blowing Policy, and Trade Sanctions Manual.
  • Cint has an adaptable crisis management plan that can enable mitigating measures.
  • Cint is a leading software platform for digital insights gathering in EMEA and the Americas, and the geographical expansion plan constitutes continued focus on expanding the current strong position in the U.S. and expanding into nascent markets.
  • Cint has a comprehensive set of policies established to prevent the potential consequences of these risks, such as Code of Ethics, HR Policy, Whistle-blowing Policy, and Trade Sanctions Manual.

Supply Chain Management

Responsible Procurement
  • All suppliers, customers and other key stakeholders of the Company must act in accordance with Cint’s policies.

Climate-Related Risks & Opportunities

Reporting Period: 2022

Environmental Metrics

ESG Focus Areas

  • Employee health and well-being
  • Diversity, equality and inclusion
  • Community impact
  • Data protection and privacy
  • Ethical and profitable growth
  • Environmental impact
  • Increased energy efficiency

Environmental Achievements

  • Reduced carbon footprint (though specific figures are not provided, the report mentions increased business travel impacting emissions, and future assessment is planned)

Social Achievements

  • Continued strong growth within Media Measurement solutions and in Asia.
  • Reinvigorated commitment to an outstanding employee experience following the Lucid acquisition.
  • Reorganized people team focused on employee programs around professional development, performance, cross-company engagement, and total rewards.
  • Developed a comprehensive DEI strategy aiming to address diversity in hiring, succession planning, pay equity, performance management, and professional development opportunities.

Governance Achievements

  • Initiated a targeted project focusing on aligning standards, procedures, and processes to ensure that the risk management processes, and the internal controls framework meet the requirements of the integrated businesses.
  • Conducted training sessions on data privacy and GDPR internally and externally.
  • 90% of Cint’s employees completed anti-corruption and anti-bribery training in 2022.
  • No incidents of non-compliance were reported against the Code of Ethics or human rights policy in 2022.

Climate Goals & Targets

Medium-term Goals:
  • Maintain an annual organic net sales growth of at least 25 percent.
  • Achieve an EBITDA margin of at least 25 percent.

Environmental Challenges

  • Decreased demand for market research and advertising towards the end of the year due to the macroeconomic climate.
  • Significant increase in reversals (delivered survey completes that are deemed fraudulent) in the last quarter of the year.
  • Challenges in integrating Lucid after acquisition.
Mitigation Strategies
  • Launched several initiatives to increase working capital efficiency, with a special focus on accounts receivable.
  • Actively enhancing technical and partner solutions to better identify and prevent fraud.
  • Bringing together relevant parties in the industry to address the issue of reversals.
  • Consolidating and streamlining platforms, processes, and systems to form one unified organization after the Lucid acquisition.

Supply Chain Management

Responsible Procurement
  • All partners and suppliers must sign and comply with the company Code of Ethics.

Climate-Related Risks & Opportunities

Reporting Period: 2023

Environmental Metrics

Total Carbon Emissions:5,299 tCO2e/year
Scope 1 Emissions:0 tCO2e/year
Scope 2 Emissions:92 tCO2e/year
Scope 3 Emissions:5,207 tCO2e/year

ESG Focus Areas

  • People
  • Governance
  • Environmental Impact

Environmental Achievements

  • Reduced commuting and meetings due to remote-friendly work policy
  • Monitoring and tracking emissions from business activities

Social Achievements

  • Increased employee satisfaction scores to 4.2 out of 5
  • Improved Glassdoor score from 2.6 to 3.7
  • Launched multiple initiatives to increase employee engagement, education, alignment, and optimism
  • Maintained and enhanced health, well-being, diversity, equal opportunities, and inclusion through talent acquisition, learning and development, and proactive support

Governance Achievements

  • Continued work on building robust policies and procedures addressing regulations such as GDPR and CPRA
  • 100% of employees completed anti-corruption and anti-bribery training
  • No incidents of non-compliance with the Code of Ethics reported

Climate Goals & Targets

Long-term Goals:
  • Contribute to a net-zero economy by 2050 (EU target) and 2045 (Sweden target)
Short-term Goals:
  • Maintain adequate profitability and improve operating cash flow

Environmental Challenges

  • Lower demand from a few large clients and overall sluggish economic conditions
  • Survey fraud and cybercrime
  • Competition in the insights market
  • Attracting, developing, and retaining talent
  • Software platform errors, defects, and cyberattacks
  • Unauthorized access to confidential information
  • Keeping up with evolving cybersecurity threats
  • Data protection and compliance with GDPR and other regulations
  • Compliance with laws and regulations across various jurisdictions
  • Financial risks (credit risk, currency risk, liquidity risk, and access to funding risk)
Mitigation Strategies
  • Strategic integration plan (consolidation, standardization, optimization/automation, and innovation)
  • Proprietary detection and prevention solutions for survey fraud, support from third-party specialists, updated operational processes, and prevention software
  • Investing in a unified platform with best quality and user experience
  • HR roadmap to improve employee engagement, leadership development program, reward strategy, and employee engagement initiatives
  • Cyber resilience program, vulnerability detection technologies, 24/7/365 security monitoring, and disaster recovery processes
  • Defense in depth model for protection of assets, access management framework, multi-factor authentication, mandatory training, and data classification policies
  • Information security management system, regular reviews, and improvement initiatives
  • Appointing a global data protection officer (DPO), monitoring compliance, and updating standards and processes
  • Legal and Compliance department, policies, training, and compliance controls
  • Risk management policy, monitoring currency fluctuations, bank accounts in local currencies, hedge accounting, and managing liquidity

Supply Chain Management

Responsible Procurement
  • Code of Ethics for all partners and suppliers

Climate-Related Risks & Opportunities

Opportunities
  • Supporting customers in developing businesses, products, and services with less carbon emissions

Reporting Standards

Frameworks Used: Annual Accounts Act (Sweden), EU Taxonomy Regulation, Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol)

Third-party Assurance: PricewaterhouseCoopers AB