Taking responsibility
The Ipsos approach to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has always incorporated three critical elements – Social, Societal and Environmental. This information not only gives us insight into benchmarking our performance, around the world, but also provides a basis for our improvement.
Those matters have also been at the heart of the Company's strategic orientations as envisaged by the Board of Directors, which had decided in 2014 to create a specialised committee called the "CSR Committee". In 2022, this committee was renamed the "Strategy and ESG Committee". The Board of Directors formalised the Company's purpose in 2019 as follows.
Our Raison d’être: “Deliver reliable information for a true understanding of Society, Markets and People”
Extra-Financial Performance Statement 2022 | A CSR commitment wherever Ipsos operates | Ipsos Foundation | Committed to the planet | Employee volunteering
A CSR commitment wherever Ipsos operates
Ipsos was the first research company in the world to subscribe to the UN Global Compact, in 2008. The Group has subscribed for respecting ten universal principles concerning human rights, labour, the environment and combating corruption.
The CSR policy management tools include “The Green Book”, the Ipsos Professional Code of Conduct, and the “Book of Policies and Procedures”, supplemented by a whistle-blowing procedure. You can read specifically about the UK’s Environmental, Social & Governance activities here.
The Ipsos Professional Code of Conduct and Ethics
Ipsos Foundation
Established in 2014, the mission of the Ipsos Foundation is to “Develop a global outreach program to support and implement educational programs for underprivileged children and adolescents around the world”.
Since its creation, the Ipsos Foundation has funded 98 projects in 43 different countries, for a total amount of over €2.6M. Over the years, we have built schools in Nepal, Ghana and Zambia, provided books in the USA, Hong Kong, South Africa and Haiti, supported the education of children with severe illnesses in Russia, the Philippines and Kazakhstan. And these are only a few examples.
In the UK, we have most recently supported two projects – TalentEd which provides school tuition programmes for disadvantaged students and the National Literacy Trust.
Promote the integration of refugees
In September 2018, Ipsos signed a partnership agreement with Tent Foundation, established in 2016 by Hamdi Ulukaya, to mobilize businesses around the world to improve the lives and livelihoods of over 25 million men, women and children forcibly displaced from their countries of origin and with refugee status. Ipsos currently employs over 60 refugees worldwide.
Committed to the planet
In 2008, Ipsos embarked on a structured approach to manage its environmental footprint. To this end, a report is compiled on its greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, Ipsos has implemented environmental policies in most countries aimed at reducing waste and energy consumption.
In 2019, the UK became the first major economy to adopt a legal commitment to achieve ‘Net Zero’ carbon emissions by 2050. As an organisation, Ipsos has gone further and is committed to reaching net zero emissions in the UK by 2026. Read about our current emissions, our targets for reduction and the initiatives we have in place to support our sustainability agenda within our business and across our supply chain in our Carbon Reduction Plan.
Employee volunteering
Our actions in the UK are co-ordinated by a team with board-level representation to drive local action and communicate our activities internally and externally. Each employee has up to two days of paid volunteering time per year which they can use to support charities as they wish or to contribute towards our Schools Partnership Programme or our Refugees initiative.