Third Annual U.S. Transparency Awards Best Code of Conduct Winner Announced

ATLANTA–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Labrador, a global communication firm specializing in regulated disclosure documents, today announces the winner for Best Code of Conduct in the third annual U.S. Transparency Awards. After a comprehensive study of disclosure by the S&P 250 companies¹, Procter & Gamble emerged as the winner in this category.

Each year, we add additional criteria to the awards based on the investor community’s needs and focus areas in the market. These rankings should encourage companies to adapt and innovate to make their disclosures as effective as possible.

“Since its inception in 2018, the primary goal of the U.S. Transparency Awards is to demonstrate the extent of each company’s commitment to providing useful and complete information,” said Molly Doran, director of advisory & design services at Labrador.

The Transparency Awards analyze the quality and completeness of information companies provide to regulators, investors and employees. The awards focus on four types of corporate disclosure: proxy statements, Forms 10-K, investor relations websites and Codes of Conduct. Winners are announced for each category to highlight their best practices. The Code of Conduct winner is announced early to encourage companies to review their own codes during this quiet time of year, and the remaining Transparency Awards category winners will be announced in September.

Each company’s Code of Conduct was scored using 27 discrete criteria² that fall within four pillars of transparency: accessibility, precision, comparability and availability. Procter & Gamble was the clear winner for 2021. Among other highlights, the Procter & Gamble Code of Conduct begins with a letter from the CEO that underlines the importance of the company values and employee responsibilities. The rest of the Code is thorough while using approachable language.

PepsiCo and Colgate-Palmolive rank second and third in the Code of Conduct category. The Codes by all three honorees present easy ways for employees and others to anonymously report concerns or possible violations, providing either a phone number or targeted email address. The three winning Codes also include decision-making trees to help employees think through different situations.

Doran explained, “Each year, we add additional criteria to the awards based on the investor community’s needs and focus areas in the market. These rankings should encourage companies to adapt and innovate to make their disclosures as effective as possible.”

For more information on the U.S. Transparency Awards, visit www.transparencyawards.com. Companies wishing to inquire about the rankings should contact transparency@labrador-company.com.

ABOUT LABRADOR
Labrador, the creator and organizer of the Transparency Awards, is an independent agency specializing in communicating compliance. After two decades in Europe and 10 years in the U.S., Labrador’s mission remains the same – to design and publish reader-centric documents that generate shareholder trust and reinforce their investment decisions. Focusing exclusively on corporate disclosure documents, and with over 300 clients worldwide, Labrador provides a unique insight into industry trends and best practices, and award-winning innovation and initiatives.

For further information, visit www.labrador-company.com or connect with us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

¹ All S&P 250 companies are ranked, with no need to apply and no fee. Each company will receive its own confidential annual ranking. The list of companies was created on January 1, 2021, and the codes to be analyzed were collected from company websites the week of May 10.

² The criteria are objective and selected based on methodologies developed by an independent panel of stakeholders (investors, analysts, auditors, industry representatives, etc.). All criteria and more information about the four pillars of transparency are available at www.transparencyawards.com.