2022 ESG Report
GovernanceDiversity, equity
and inclusion

Human capital

Environment

Data privacy
and security

Communities

A message from our CEO
At Nielsen, we like to say: Audience is everything.
Every day, we work to provide insights into where the media
industry is going, how audience behavior is changing andhow we all must adapt to continue to thrive.
We recognize that change is constant, not just in our industry
but around the world. In 2021, as the globe grappled with thesecond year of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of people
began to rethink how they live and work. In the United States,
as in many other parts of the world, there was renewed focus
on systemic racism and the existing disparities among peopleof color. The United Nations continued to sound an alarm
about climate change, and in the wake of countless news
stories about vaccinations and elections in the U.S., we saw arising demand for truth and integrity in the media.
At Nielsen, we went through significant change as well,as we completed the sale of Nielsen Global Connect (nowNielsenIQ) and emerged as a rebranded, media-focusedcompany intent on helping to power a better media future forall people.
Our reorganization did not impact our long-standing corevalues of diversity, equity and inclusion, global responsibility
and sustainability, data privacy and security, innovation andimproving citizenship through positive engagement. We
did, however, review our existing environmental, social andgovernance (ESG) focus areas, considering systemic issues
impacting society at large, future generations and our
natural ecosystems.
Ultimately, we embraced six key ESG areas, which we will
detail at length in the 2022 Nielsen ESG Report that follows.
At a high level, our ESG strategy going forward will prioritize:• Societal trust in media—People’s perceptions of thesocietal impacts created or amplified by the media andadvertising ecosystem in which Nielsen operates.
• Climate change and environment—Climate change andother environmental factors such as waste management
and energy management, especially as they relate toNielsen and the media and advertising industries’ roles.

• Fair and functioning media ecosystem—The impacts andactivities of Nielsen and other industry stakeholders suchas media producers, distributors and advertisers, and how
we all contribute to or detract from a healthy
media industry.
• Social inclusion—Nielsen’s approach to diversity, equity
and inclusion within its businesses, and the company’s
influence over media and advertising content related todiverse audiences, representation and overall inclusion.

New goals for 2024
We have established or updated a range of new goals for2024 around our key ESG focus areas. With these forwardlooking goals, along with our ongoing initiatives, we want
to deepen our commitment to our employees, clients, thecommunities we serve and additional stakeholders, in order
to consistently improve our ESG performance.
These goals include achieving, by 2024:• Human capital management—The impacts of Nielsen’s
operations and culture on its employees, contractors andsuppliers and its ability to support, enable and empowerits people.

• 46% of women represented in global leadership• Ethical governance and business integrity—The internaland external-facing impacts of Nielsen’s governance andapproach to business integrity.

• 5.9% representation for Hispanic talent in leadership in
the U.S.

Recent achievements
I am proud of our ESG achievements in the last year. A few
highlights include starting a Diverse-Owned Media Equity
program, a first-of-its-kind offering to accelerate the growthand impact of diverse-owned media businesses. On our
Board of Directors, we achieved 50% female representationand 20% racial and ethnic diversity representation. We
celebrated our eighth annual Earth Week across 17 countries,
encouraging education and awareness for environmental
justice. We continued our progress to identify sciencebased, long-term emissions reductions goals, through an
evolution of our data collection process and a full supply
chain assessment of our greenhouse gas emissions. We
accelerated business diversity efforts and reached 15% of
U.S. sourceable spending with diverse-owned businesses.
Despite the ongoing pandemic, over 3,000 employees across
40 countries volunteered on Nielsen Global Impact Day in
October 2021, logging more than 9,700 hours ofvolunteer time.

• 5.2% representation for Black talent in leadership in
the U.S.

• Reduce our on-premises application server footprint to 10%• Reduce our business travel spend by 25% from our 2019
pre-COVID baseline• Ensure that every eligible employee is held accountable tocomplete required privacy training• Increase employee participation in community-oriented
programs to 30%• Track and increase our Employee Net Promoter Score from“good” to “great,” according to external benchmarks
Looking forward, as we prepare to celebrate our 100th year
in business next year, I am energized by the bright future thatawaits. We remain committed to innovation and measurement
integrity in ESG as we bring the industry forward to capture
and reflect the changing face of the audience at large.
David Kenny

Chief Executive Officer

Table of contents
About this report

4

ESG highlights and goals

7

Governance11

Diversity, equity and inclusion

20

Human capital

31

Environment

41

Data privacy and security

49

Communities

55

Appendix

63

Home

2022 ESG Report |Introduction

About this report
This ESG Report provides a comprehensive overview ofNielsen’s environmental, social and governance (ESG)
strategy, approach and performance, inclusive of 2021
data. In the past, we published this type of comprehensive
report only on a biennial basis, in 2016, 2018 and 2020,
with a shorter, interim update published for the first timein 2021. Given the rising importance of providing frequent
ESG updates on our progress and strategy for a range ofstakeholders, we plan to produce an ESG report on an annual
basis moving forward.
This report is organized around our six main ESG topic
areas and includes a narrative overview of each, along with
supplemental data and information. We also provide addenda
on the reporting frameworks most relevant to Nielsen: theSustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), the Task
Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and
the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
For questions, please reach out to Nielsen’s Corporate
Citizenship team at nlsncorporatecitizenship@nielsen.com.

Forward-looking statements
This communication includes information that could constituteforward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harborprovision of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.
These statements include those relating to Nielsen ONE as wellas those that may be identified by words such as “will,” “intend,”“expect,” “anticipate,” “should,” “could” and similar expressions. Thesestatements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and actual results
and events could differ materially from what presently is expected,
including regarding Nielsen ONE. Factors leading thereto may include,
without limitation, the risks related to the Ukraine conflict or the
COVID-19 pandemic on the global economy and financial markets,the uncertainties relating to the impact of the Ukraine conflict or the
COVID-19 pandemic on Nielsen’s business, the failure of Nielsen’s new
business strategy in accomplishing Nielsen’s objectives, economic

conditions in the markets Nielsen is engaged in, impacts of actions
and behaviors of customers, suppliers and competitors, technologicaldevelopments, as well as legal and regulatory rules and processes
affecting Nielsen’s business and other specific risk factors that are
outlined in Nielsen’s disclosure filings and materials, which you canfind on http://www.nielsen.com/investors, such as its 10-K, 10-Q and
8-K reports that have been filed with the Securities and Exchange
Commission. Please consult these documents for a more complete
understanding of these risks and uncertainties. This list of factors
is not intended to be exhaustive. Such forward-looking statements
only speak as of the date of these materials, and Nielsen assumes
no obligation to update any written or oral forward-looking statement
made by Nielsen or on its behalf as a result of new information, future
events or other factors, except as required by law.

Disclaimer
This report represents current Company policy and intent and is notintended to create legal rights or obligations. This ESG Report may
contain or reference public information not separately reviewed,
approved or endorsed by the Company and no representation,
warranty or undertaking is made by the Company as to the accuracy,
reasonableness or completeness of such information. Materiality
and its relevant definition as used in this ESG Report, and our ESG
materiality review process, is different than the definition used in thecontext of filings with the SEC. Issues deemed material for purposesof this ESG Report and for purposes of determining our ESG strategies
may not be considered material for SEC reporting purposes.

and transparency efforts and our ongoing communications
about our overall ESG commitments. The updated findings
also considered our last assessment, published in 2019, andhighlighted evolving perspectives on existing ESG priorities.
As part of the analysis, we worked with an external
consultant to identify the universe of ESG issues, impacts,
risks and opportunities that may be important to thecompany and its stakeholders. This process drew on awide range of public and internal documents, an employee
survey and interviews with 26 internal and external
stakeholders. After identifying dozens of potential ESG
issues, we ultimately prioritized those we felt would be
most meaningful, in order to develop more concise input tocorporate strategy and ESG reporting.

Stakeholders considered as part of thisassessment included:• Employees and company leaders• Clients• Industry trade groups and influencers• Regulators and policymakers

Our key ESG issue areas
In late 2021, Nielsen undertook a reassessment of ourexisting ESG focus areas to understand our current impacts
as a solely media-focused company following the saleof Nielsen Global Connect. This updated analysis also
integrated important context around our ESG issues in a
rapidly changing industry, during a time of widespread
global uncertainty.
The objective of this assessment was to identify anddescribe ESG issues and topics of greatest relevanceto Nielsen and its stakeholders. This, in turn, informed
Nielsen’s internal ESG strategy and planning, our reporting• Community organizations and nonprofits• Investors• Suppliers and strategic business partners

Because of the broad nature of the media industry in which
Nielsen operates, and the increasingly urgent climate crisis
affecting all industries, we also looked beyond the more
focused perspective of traditional stakeholders to consider
wider systemic issues. We examined issues for theirpotential impacts on society at large, future generations andnatural ecosystems.

4

Home

2022 ESG Report |Introduction

Our key ESG issue areas (continued)

Our key ESG issue clusters

The updated assessment identified six interrelated issue
clusters, some of which share overlapping sub-topics. No
entirely new issues were identified since the last assessment
in 2019, but there were notable shifts in perspective on certain
issues, including:Societal trust
in media

People’s perceptions of the societal impacts created or amplified by the media
and advertising ecosystem in which Nielsen operates

1. Increased awareness and concern around data use,
media integrity and private sector influence overconsumer behavior—including by Nielsen and many othercompanies—as well as on over-consumption and othereconomic and sustainability-related topics.

Climate change
and environment

Climate change and other environmental factors such as waste management
and energy management, especially as they relate to Nielsen and the media
and advertising industries’ roles

Fair andfunctioning media
ecosystem

The business practices of Nielsen and other industry stakeholders such as
media producers, distributors and advertisers, and how we all contribute to or
detract from a healthy media industry

Socialinclusion

Nielsen’s approach to DE&I within its business, as well as the company’s
influence over media and advertising content created by others as it relates todiverse audiences, representation and overall inclusion

Human capitalmanagement

The impacts of Nielsen’s operations and culture on its employees, contractors
and suppliers, and the company’s ability to support, enable and empowerits people

Ethicalgovernance andbusiness integrity

The internal- and external-facing impacts of Nielsen’s governance andapproach to business integrity

2. Increased emphasis—and divergent perspectives—on
Nielsen’s business model and the risks and opportunities it
presents regarding the tension between revenue generationand consumer protection.
3. Increased debate around Nielsen’s role as a neutral
observer within an increasingly fragmented andcontentious media landscape.
4. Greater and more urgent concern around high-profile ESG
issues, such as the consequences of climate change,
and challenges related to diversity, equity and inclusion(DE&I).

5

Home

2022 ESG Report |Introduction

External ESG recognition highlights

Included in JUST Capital’s and
CNBC’s “JUST 100” 2022 list
(5th consecutive year)

Included in the 2021 Dow Jones
Sustainability Index (DJSI) North
America (5th consecutive year)

Included in the 2022 Bloomberg
Gender-Equality Index(4th consecutive year)

Ranked #5 out of 100 global
companies on Equileap’s 2022
Gender Equality Global Report &Ranking, and #1 in the United States

Earned a 100% ranking on the Human Rights
Campaign Foundation’s 2022 Corporate
Equality Index (9th consecutive year) and
named one of the Best Places to Work for
LGBTQ Equality (8th consecutive year)

Named a Top 100 “Most Loved
Workplace” for 2021 by Newsweek
and the Best Practice InstituteRanked #19 on 100 Best Corporate
Citizens by 3BL Media(3rd consecutive year)

Recognized by PR News as the 2021
DE&I team of the year, honoring diverse
teams that tackle big challenges using
innovative and effective PR strategies

Included in the FTSE4Good IndexSeries (6th consecutive year) by
global index provider FTSE Russell

6

Home

Introduction

ESG highlights and goals
We know that setting ambitious, yet achievable, targets for our ESG
performance is important in order to drive accountability, ownership andcontinuous improvement for Nielsen and our stakeholders. In 2021, following thesale of Nielsen Global Connect and our transition to a media-focused company,
we worked to consolidate ESG data and establish relevant baselines for our
new operational footprint. From this new foundation, we have now establishedor updated a range of new 2024 goals around our key ESG focus areas. With
these forward-looking goals, along with our ongoing initiatives, we want todeepen our commitment to our clients, communities and stakeholders in order
to consistently improve our ESG performance.
We plan to regularly evaluate our progress toward our goals, and continue ourdue diligence work to identify, establish and update additional targets that drive
Nielsen’s progress as a responsible and sustainable company.

2022 ESG Report |

7

Home

2022 ESG Report |Introduction

ESG highlights of the past year
• Achieved 50% female representation and 20% racial/ethnic diversity representation across our Board of Directors• Held 8 Board meetings in 2021, with all directors attending at least 75% of the meetings• Updated Board Committee charters to expand and clarify the committees’ roles with regard to ESG matters• Initiated an update to Nielsen’s Code of Conduct, published in May 2022, with the latest foundational guidance to help everyone at Nielsen, including our subsidiaries andaffiliates and the joint ventures that we control, uphold Nielsen’s ethical standards• Required Nielsen’s Board and all employees (except where not permitted by local laws) to annually certify that they understand and will abide by our Code of Conduct

Governance• Connected the Board with an outside consultant to provide continuing education to the Board and senior management on diversity, equity and inclusion in December 2021
• Adopted a Director Continuing Education Policy to provide our directors with articles, information and presentations relating to our business, relevant industries, competitorsand corporate governance and regulatory issues• Maintained diversity of our leadership team; 4 out of 9 Nielsen Executive Committee leaders are women, and 3 out of 9 Executive Committee leaders are racially/
ethnically diverse• Launched Gracenote Inclusion Analytics, a unique analytics tool that matches a cohesive view of on-screen diversity with viewership data
• Expanded our Diverse Intelligence Series to include thought leadership around media representation and audiences of additional communities, including Native Americans,
LGBTQ+, people with disabilities and women over 50 years of age• Added two new leaders, representing Native Americans and people with disabilities, to our External Advisory Council

Diversity, equity
and inclusion• Started the Diverse-Owned Media Equity program, a first-of-its-kind offering, to accelerate the growth and impact of diverse-owned media businesses• Launched two new Business Resource Groups (BRGs) including Believe (our inter-faith BRG) and NATIV (our Native American, Tribal and Indigenous Voices BRG), bringing our
BRG total to 13 in 2021
• Accelerated business diversity efforts in the U.S. to alleviate the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on diverse businesses, hitting $104 million in spend withdiverse suppliers and 15% of our U.S. sourceable spend• Announced our company values of Inclusion, Courage and Growth, which guide everything we do and power what we call our “Growth Culture,” a key enabler of our strategic
business goals and our purpose• Launched a new “Smart Work” framework to guide our approach to remote and virtual work, as part of our philosophy of providing flexibility for purposeful and productive
work locations• Began offering a new Emotional Health Support program to all employees globally, and expanded paid sick benefits to part-time employees in the U.S.
• Pivoted to a new employee listening and continuous feedback strategy with a new survey tool designed to improve our employee engagement, experience and overall culture

Human capital• Achieved a participation rate of 78% of our employees accessing our Learning Management System and Degreed platforms, completing over 73,000 learning activities• Created a new Chief Talent Officer role in early 2022 to maximize our approach to how we attract, grow and retain talent

8

Home

2022 ESG Report |Introduction

ESG highlights of the past year (continued)• Engaged more than 6,400 employees across 17 countries to organize, participate and lead Earth Week events to advocate for environmental justice• Continued our progress to identify science-based, long-term emissions reductions goals, through an evolution of our data collection process and a full supply
chain assessment of our GHG emissions• Switched to only recycled or Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified paper product options in our U.S. purchasing channels

Environment• Facilitated training and education events throughout Privacy Awareness Month in January and Cybersecurity Awareness Month in October• Updated our Cybersecurity Policy in April 2021

Data privacy
and security• Updated our Global Privacy Policy in January 2022

• Executed Nielsen Global Impact Day in October 2021, with over 3,000 employees in 40 countries participating, logging over 9,700 hours of volunteer time
• Donated an estimated $23.6 million of pro bono and in-kind data, products and services• Provided more than $1.97 million in grants to 49 non-profit organizations through the Nielsen Foundation, a separate private foundation

Communities92022 ESG Report |IntroductionHome2024 ESG goals
We aim to achieve the following goals by 2024.

ESG area

Goal

Governance• Ensure that >80% of Nielsen policies are up-to-date based on our policy framework cadence• Improve average days-to-close Integrity Reports to 40 days

Diversity, equity
and inclusion• Achieve 46% of women represented in global leadership1• Achieve 5.2% representation for U.S. Black talent in leadership• Achieve 6.0% representation for U.S. Black mid-level talent• Achieve 5.9% representation for U.S. Hispanic talent in leadership• Maintain 15% of our U.S. supplier spend with certified diverse-owned businesses, with 18% as a stretch goal

Human capital• Track and increase our Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) from “good” to “great” according to external benchmarks

Environment• Reduce our on-premises application server footprint to 10%• Reduce our business travel spend by 25% from our 2019 pre-COVID baseline, and implement a travel policy that will maintain the reduced travel emissions• Ensure that all of our e-waste managed through our field operations team is diverted from landfills and is recycled, refurbished or reused

Data privacy
and security• Ensure that 100% of eligible employees are held accountable to complete required privacy training• Track and grow Nielsen's National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework Maturity score internally• Increase employee participation in community-oriented programs to 30%

Communities• Contribute $30 million in total in-kind value for pro bono data donations, public reports, and other support for organizations and topics that are powering a better
media future for all people• Grant $6 million by the Nielsen Foundation, a private foundation originally funded by Nielsen, to support educational access and persistence, economic mobility andwell-being, and representation in media and technology

1This goal was previously noted in our 2021 Interim Responsibility Report, with a 2023 goal year. It was adjusted to 2024 to align with our 2024 strategic roadmap and suite of 2024 ESG goals for consistency.

10GovernanceGovernanceBecause Nielsen serves as an independent data andmeasurement company, our clients—and the industries wesupport—depend on us to maintain the highest standards ofintegrity in everything we do. To maintain their trust, we operatewith an unwavering commitment to sound governance, ethicalbehavior and integrity throughout our company, every day.

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

2021 highlights• Held 8 Board meetings in 2021, with all directors
attending at least 75% of the meetingsand senior management on diversity, equity andinclusion in December 2021

° 9/10 directors are considered independent• Adopted a Director Continuing Education
Policy to provide our directors with articles,
information and presentations relating to ourbusiness, relevant industries, competitors andcorporate governance and regulatory issues° 5/10 are female directors• Updated committee charters in February 2022

° 2/10 are racially or ethnically diverse directors• Initiated an update to Nielsen’s Code of
Conduct, published in May 2022, with thelatest foundational guidance to help everyone
at Nielsen, including our subsidiaries, affiliates
and the joint ventures that we control, upholdNielsen’s ethical standards• Held 28 committee meetings in 2021, with all
directors attending 100% of applicable meetings• Board highlights• Required Nielsen’s Board and 100% of
employees—except where not permitted
by local laws—to annually certify that they
understand and will abide by our Code of
Conduct• Advocated on issues important to our businessand inclusion across society, including U.S.
Census funding, diversity in media, media
ownership, tax reform, privacy, e-commerce,
digital advertising, TV audience measurement
and more• Connected the Board with an outside consultant
to provide continuing education to the Board

Appendix

13

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

2024 goals• Ensure that >80% of Nielsen policies
are up-to-date based on our policy
framework cadence• Improve average days-to-close
Integrity Reports to 40 days

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Appendix

14

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Board independence

Supporting a fair and functioning media ecosystem

The Nielsen Board of Directors is elected by shareholders
annually to oversee management and to ensure that thelong-term interests of the shareholders are being served. All
Board members except our CEO are independent, including
the chairperson.

A healthy media industry requires measurement integrity—a reliable,
accurate, unbiased and inclusive media measurement that measures
everybody, everywhere.

Board oversight of ESG issues
While it is the responsibility of all teams within Nielsen to
consider relevant ESG impacts in their everyday work, we
aim to approach ESG risks and opportunities in a holistic
way through our strategy, infusing these considerations into
regular engagement with our Board of Directors, Executive
Committee leaders and internal working groups, as well as
across functional groups and teams and other forums.
Our Board Committees have direct oversight responsibilities
for a range of ESG issues.
• The Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee(NCGC) oversees the Company’s overall ESG matters,
including overall ESG strategy, except to the extent
reserved for the full Board or another committee.
• Our Compensation and Talent Committee oversees
Nielsen’s human capital management strategies andprograms, including overall employee wellness andengagement; strategies in support of DE&I; talentdevelopment and employee experience.
• The Audit Committee has primary oversight for the
management of key enterprise risks, including its
Compliance and Integrity, Cybersecurity and Privacy
programs, and reviews external reporting on ESG in the
Company’s financial reports, as appropriate.

Our response and continuous work to address concerns raised by theMedia Rating Council (MRC) in the United States in 2021 has helped us
crystalize our views on what’s needed to support a fair and functioning
media ecosystem across the world.
Measurement integrity requires embracing the latest technologicalcapabilities, including big data, cloud computing and artificial
intelligence, to build accurate and forward-looking forms of
measurement. It also requires validating big data with person-level
panel measurement that is fully inclusive and representative of society’s
shifting demographics.
The media ecosystem is becoming more fragmented, and viewers are
distributing their attention across even more platforms. Nielsen believes
that a single, de-duplicated, cross-media metric will dramaticallysimplify measurement, significantly reduce media waste for advertisersand greatly benefit both consumers and the industry in the long term.
We believe that for a thriving media ecosystem that works for allparties, the primary measurement must come from an independentand impartial organization that provides objective accounting of theaudience and is audited against consistent standards. This approachcreates a level playing field for all parties across both the advertisingand content distribution sides of our industry.
We believe in the establishment of, and adherence to, rigorous
measurement standards that reflect current audience realities andplatform capabilities. Nielsen ONE is designed to be responsive to andfully supportive of the industry’s cross-platform measurement needs, aswell as adaptive to future iterations. For more on Nielsen ONE, pleasealso refer to the Data privacy and security section of this report.

Appendix

15

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Appendix

Board oversight of ESG issues (continued)

Primary management
Sets strategy and goals

Board Committee
Reviews and advises

Diversity, equity
and inclusion

Diversity, equity
and inclusion

Compensation and talent

Human capital

PeopleCompensation and talent

Board
Engaged as needed

Board diversity
The NCGC plays an important role in ensuring that the Board
has the right combination of expertise and experience toserve the company effectively. In late 2021, we expanded thediversity considerations to be used when nominating directors
to include “gender identity or expression and sexual orientation,and disability status,” in addition to other factors such as age,nationality and racial and ethnic background.

Executive compensation and ESG
Environment

Corporate citizenship,procurement, real estateNomination and corporate
governanceCommunity engagement

Corporate citizenship

Nomination and corporate
governance

Data privacy and security

Legal and corporate affairs

Audit

Governance

Legal and corporate affairs

Audit / Nomination andcorporate governance

Major long-term
strategic decisions +updates elevated to full
Board by Committees

DE&I is a key part of our ESG performance and is also aformal executive responsibility. Our executives, including ourChief Executive Officer, are evaluated on key objectives that
include creating a diverse and inclusive culture, as part of theirperformance and compensation reviews. Additionally, we embedaccountability across the company through DE&I objectives
at the business/functional level, as well as via leadership
involvement in, and sponsorship of, Business Resource Groups(BRGs). In 2021, we incorporated Inclusion, along with ourother company values of Courage and Growth, into individual
performance evaluations and broader outcomes across thecompany as part of living our Nielsen values. Throughout theyear, we demonstrated our ongoing commitment to building a
globally inclusive culture at Nielsen, which includes embracing,leveraging and incorporating DE&I into all that we do.

16

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Enterprise risk management program

Code of Conduct, ethics and integrity

Our Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework helps us
to identify, evaluate, manage and develop mitigation plans
for financial and nonfinancial risks across Nielsen. The twingoals of our ERM program are:Integrity is the foundation of Nielsen’s business, because
our people, our reputation, our clients and the communities
where we live and work depend on it. We empower our
employees to act with integrity by setting clear expectations
through our Nielsen values of Inclusion, Courage and Growthand our Code of Conduct. We also provide the tools andresources that employees need in order to act ethically andto escalate concerns.

• To ensure that leaders are well-informed about Nielsen’srisk landscape so they can make educated, strategic
decisions that lead to sustainable growth• To facilitate cross-functional discussion and information
sharing about key risks facing Nielsen in order tostrengthen risk mitigation efforts
The framework is built to facilitate information gatheringand sharing, while also promoting collaborative discussions
across all levels of the company to identify and assess risks.
These risk areas include, but are not limited to, Privacy,
Information Security, Data Integrity, Customer Relations,
Conflicts of Interest and Acquisitions/Divestitures. We haveidentified and regularly track three risk categories that are
explicitly related to ESG issues: Climate Change; Health,
Safety and Human Rights; and Business Continuity.
The COVID-19 pandemic, the rapidly changing global
political landscape and increasing extreme weather-related
events have amplified the importance of proactive risk
management and highlighted how one crisis event canilluminate numerous risk areas. In discussing and assessing
risk, it has been even more important to ensure stakeholders
are aware of how different risks affect multiple functional
areas. Results and considerations from our annual effort areincorporated in the Risk Factors section of our Annual Reporton 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, and these
Risk Factors may be updated as required in our Quarterly
Reports on Form 10-Q.

Our Code of Conduct is the foundational resource to help
employees understand Nielsen’s standards. The Codehighlights ways employees can respond to the types of
ethical dilemmas and real-life situations they may face intheir day-to-day work. To support understanding of thesestandards, all employees and our Board, except whereprohibited by local laws, are required to annually certify to
the Code.
Every Nielsen employee has a responsibility to speak up
when they believe they have knowledge of wrongdoing.
Employees have access to our Speak Up secure third-party
portal and international Helplines to report these types ofconcerns, anonymously if they so choose.
Our Compliance and Integrity team intakes these reports of
misconduct (directly or through the Helpline) and ensuresthat the concerns are reviewed and investigated in an
impartial and timely fashion. If the report is substantiated,
an assessment is made as to whether discipline is required
and, if so, what level of discipline, ranging from warnings
to termination. To support organizational justice, theCompliance and Integrity team analyzes data about prioroutcomes to inform disciplinary decisions.

AppendixNielsen prohibits any form of retaliation against anyone who
raises a concern or question regarding unethical conduct,
violations of the Code of Conduct, company policies or thelaw. Any retaliation will subject the violator to appropriate
disciplinary action, including possible termination.
Our formal Enterprise Risk Management process and supply
chain risk assessments include the assessment of risks
related to ethics and corruption in our own operations andour suppliers’ operations. Using detailed questionnaires
and other outreach, our Compliance and Integrity teamand Corporate Audit Staff (CAS) work together to assess
and inform local business contacts across functions suchas Legal, Finance, People, Operations and Sales, regardinganti-corruption risks and obligations. This global approachto addressing risks at the local level enables our teams to
put in place new processes and procedures for operations
or functions at higher risk of corruption, wherever this more
tailored approach may be needed.
Targeted training is provided to employees as appropriate,including on topics such as anti-corruption, protecting
human rights and complying with the General Data
Protection Regulation. We also provide training for
employees whose roles involve greater corruption risk
exposure and those who can most effectively detect andprevent misconduct as a function of their day-to-day
responsibilities.

17

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Appendix

Human rights
We maintain a global commitment to respect and protect
human rights across our value chain, and this is embedded
in both our Nielsen Code of Conduct and Supplier Code of
Conduct. In early 2021, we reaffirmed our pledge to protect
human rights, releasing an updated version of our Global
commitment to human rights.
We have identified key high-risk groups that require more
rigorous monitoring, including manufacturing suppliers,
panelists and Nielsen employees. For employees, it isparticularly important to monitor those who perform theirjob responsibilities in the field. Nielsen understands thatelectronics manufacturing poses greater risks of human rights
and supply chain violations than other sectors, particularly incertain geographies. To address this risk, Nielsen requires its
electronics manufacturing suppliers in high-risk countries tocomplete specific social compliance questionnaires addressing
human rights and fair labor conditions at the production
facility level.
Additionally, for all active suppliers, Nielsen uses an online,
third-party platform, available to members of the Responsible
Business Alliance (RBA), to assess conformance with the
RBA Code Section A.1 about various types of forced labor.
2021 was the first year that we assessed over 4,000 of ouractive suppliers across the globe with this tool, significantly
increasing our coverage of the suppliers monitored for this risk.
Nielsen provides a virtual training video for our employees
about the warning signs of modern slavery and human rights
violations when working with suppliers, which is available in
20 languages. Our Modern Slavery Statement contains more
information on our approach to human rights.

18

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Public policy engagement
Through our Public Policy and Government Relations team,Nielsen engages with elected officials, industry associations
and experts on public policy to explain our products andpromote the use of measurement to create thriving markets
and communities. These public policy issues include U.S.
Census funding, diversity in media, media ownership, tax
reform, privacy, e-commerce, digital advertising, TV audiencemeasurement and more.
We also look for opportunities to use our platform tostand for what we understand to be the right thing for ourcommunities, by influencing public policy on issues that
help ensure every voice is heard, counted and respected. In
2021, our engagement with policymakers was focused on thefollowing issues:• Advocating for full funding for the U.S. Census andappropriations for the U.S. Census Bureau• Advocating in favor of federal privacy legislation• Advocating for diversity in technology and media• Support for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)• Advocating for tax provisions affecting Nielsen
Nielsen does not currently use corporate funds to makedirect contributions to candidates, political parties, politicalaction committees (PACs), super PACs, political committees,
527 groups, ballot question committees or 501(c)(4)organizations, or to pay for independent expenditures.
We maintain a federal PAC, which allows eligible Nielsen
employees to pool their resources and support candidates
whose positions are consistent with Nielsen’s. Our Nielsen
Code of Conduct includes a section on participating fairly
and lawfully in political processes; it expressly prohibits
employees from attending political events or making
donations on Nielsen’s behalf or using Nielsen funds.

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

We report U.S. political contributions through the Federal
Election Commission website. In the 2021-2022 cycle, thePAC contributed $12,000 through Q1 2022.
See our Public Policy page for more information about ourgovernment relations work, including detailed reports
on our lobbying activities and expenditures.

Appendix19Diversity, equity and inclusion

Diversity, equity and inclusion
In all that we do, we aim to embed the principles of diversity, equity
and inclusion (DE&I). To truly measure everyone, across all channels
and platforms, we must uncover new insights into and about diverse,
often overlooked communities and the content they watch. A truly
inclusive measurement of the media—on both sides of the screen—is one essential way we aim to power a better media future forall people. Our efforts also extend internally, toward building andnurturing the talents of a diverse workforce and supply chain and byproviding support to diverse communities.

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Nielsen’s commitment to DE&I starts at the top. In March
2021, Sandra Sims-Williams was appointed Chief Diversity
Officer (CDO), taking over for CEO David Kenny, who had
held the title alongside his duties as CEO since February
2019. Prior to this role, she led Nielsen’s DE&I strategy as
Senior Vice President of Diversity and Inclusion. As CDO,
she continues to lead Nielsen’s DE&I team and to accelerate
our journey toward creating not just a company, but a media
landscape at large that is more inclusive.
Our DE&I approach centers on four core areasthat are geared toward maximizing our impact
both internally and externally:• People• Products and thought leadership• Business diversity• Community engagement“Diversity, equity and inclusion are essential
to everything we do at Nielsen. When we
operate in a culture that is diverse, equitable
and inclusive, innovation flourishes, ourclients win, and employees are engaged andcollaborate to bring the best that Nielsen canoffer to the communities we measure.
At the end of the day, fostering diversity,
equity and inclusion isn't just a good thing to
do—itʼs crucial to the success of our businessand all businesses.”— David Kenny, CEO

Appendix

22

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Data privacy & security

2021 highlights• Maintained diversity of our leadership team—4 of 9 Nielsen Executive
Committee leaders are women and 3 out of 9 Executive Committee leaders
are racially/ethnically diverse• Launched Gracenote Inclusion Analytics, a unique analytics tool thatmatches a cohesive view of on-screen diversity with viewership data
• Added two new leaders, representing Native Americans and people withdisabilities, to our External Advisory Council• Started the Diverse-Owned Media Equity program, a first-of-its-kind offering
to elevate the visibility of diverse-owned media companies with advertisers
and agencies• Expanded our Diverse Intelligence Series with new reports and insights on:
Native Americans
LGBTQ+ audiences
People with disabilities
Women aged 50+• Launched two new Business Resource Groups (BRGs): Believe, an inter-faith
BRG, and NATIV, a group for Native American, Tribal and Indigenous voices• Accelerated business diversity efforts to alleviate the disproportionate
impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on diverse businesses, hitting $104
million in U.S. spend with diverse suppliers and representing 15% of our
U.S. sourceable spend

Communities

Appendix

23

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

2024 goals• Achieve 46% of women represented in global
leadership²• For groups where Nielsen is under-indexed(based on market availability by skill set):° Achieve 5.2% representation for U.S. Black talent
in leadership° Achieve 6.0% representation for U.S. Black
mid-level talent° Achieve 5.9% representation for U.S. Hispanic
talent in leadership• Maintain 15% spend with diverse firms of our U.S.
sourceable spend, with a stretch goal of 18%² This goal was previously noted in our 2021 Interim Responsibility Report, witha 2023 goal year. It was adjusted to 2024 to align with our 2024 strategic
roadmap and suite of 2024 ESG goals for consistency.

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Appendix

24

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Products and thought leadership
Advertisers and companies that acquire, distribute, develop
and produce content look to viewership and marketing data
to inform their investment decisions. As a global leader
in audience measurement, data and analytics, we are
well-positioned to illuminate on-air content by measuringwho, what and how content is consumed. This is both anopportunity and a particularly important responsibility, as theentertainment industry continues to address deep-seatedissues around representation and equity.
Beyond our efforts to ensure our measurement panels—which
we methodically recruit to represent an accurate crosssection of the population—are diverse and inclusive, we
continue to invest in products and solutions that accelerate
diversity transformation in the entertainment industry.

Harnessing the power of our data through Gracenote
Inclusion Analytics“We understand that creating a better media
future is not just about ensuring viewers
are seen and heard. We also must cultivate
an inclusive presence of diverse voices inmedia. This is a change we want to see in
the industry; and through our insights andsolutions, we empower others to do so.”— Sandra Sims-Williams, Chief Diversity Officer

We believe that you can’t change what you can’t measure.
In early 2021, we launched Gracenote Inclusion Analytics,
a unique tool offering cohesive measurement of both U.S.
viewership and on-screen representation by race, gender,
sexual orientation and other metrics. It’s a key piece of our
mission to measure everyone, and ultimately help drive
meaningful progress toward truly inclusive content that isbrought to the world by diverse creators.
The tool marries data from various Nielsen sources to create acomplete look at diversity on screen compared with audiencedemographics. Crucially, we have also structured Gracenote
Inclusion Analytics to understand how marginalized groups are
portrayed on screen. The tool can provide context on themes
associated with different identity groups in on-screen content,
creating a fuller picture of not just who is represented, but
how they might be perceived by viewers.

Appendix

With Gracenote Inclusion Analytics, we’re helping todemocratize information around representation in content,with real-world impacts. For example, using this tool, a
distributor can highlight content within its catalog featuring
diverse female leads for Women’s History Month; a studio canevaluate whether its content meets DE&I benchmarks; or abrand can identify and target the most inclusive content to
inform its advertising investment decisions.
Gracenote Inclusion Analytics has already revealed compellinginsights around representation in media. Our second
Being seen on screen: The importance of quantity andquality representation on TV report, released in December
2021, leveraged the data to uncover notable disparities
in representation across cable, broadcast and streaming
platforms. Key insights from the report concluded that:• Black talent was above on-screen parity in the 2020-21 TV
season, yet 58% of Black audiences said there was still notenough representation.
• Hispanic/Latinx broadcast share of screen appeared close
to population parity at 22%, with Spanish-language TV beinga key driver.
• South and Southeast Asian on-screen representation
remains far below their share of the population, while East
Asians have the highest proportion of screen time among
Asian Americans.
• Native American cultures continue to be inaccurately
represented or are missing altogether from the mostwatched genres in the U.S.—including dramas, action
adventure and reality.
• While LGBTQ+ representation increased slightly, from 26%
to 29% in the top 300 programs, measuring intersectionality
within this group and which platforms they appear on is key
to measuring progress.

25

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Harnessing the power of our data through Gracenote
Inclusion Analytics (continued)

Supporting new opportunities for diverseowned media

Throughout 2021, we continued to evolve and deepen our
analysis, in an effort to uncover more nuanced insights. For
example, recognizing that any given race and ethnicity groupis not a monolith, we expanded the number of intersectional
identity groups within Gracenote Inclusion Analytics to 65,
including mixed race identities such as Black/Asians andspecific cultural groups like Afro-Latinos. We’re currently
looking deeper within demographic groups to report onoften overlooked subgroups, like women over 50 and Black
Americans living in rural areas.

In early 2022, we took a major step toward elevating thevisibility of diverse-owned media in the U.S., with the launchof our Diverse-Owned Media Equity program. The first-ofits-kind initiative brings diverse-owned media companies
and distributors—which have historically seen lower rates ofinvestment from advertisers—under the umbrella of Nielsen
measurement, helping to illustrate the true power of theirreach into diverse communities and markets. Since November
2021, the Nielsen local TV service has included audienceestimates of full-power, non-subscribing minority-owned
and nonprofit TV stations. Additionally, minority-owned radio
stations that qualify for exempt status are also reported in
the Nielsen Audio in Summary Data Sets, regardless ofsubscriber status.

Nielsen employees across the company have played an
integral role in shaping Gracenote Inclusion Analytics. For
example, prior to the product launch in early 2021, we heldinternal coding marathons with employee volunteers todevelop an intersectional content tagging system.
Our Gracenote Inclusion Analytics solution builds uponprevious research, like our Diverse Intelligence series
reports, which we have been publishing since 2011. The
series leverages Nielsen’s data on diverse audiences’ unique
media and consumption habits, to better inform advertisersand content producers, and to illustrate the power of theseunderserved markets. In 2021, our reports, Seeing andbelieving: Meeting Black audience demand for representationthat matters and Hope and action: The growing influenceof Asian Americans, brought attention to the richness andcomplexity of the Black community and explored the rise ofanti-Asian rhetoric and attacks on Asian and PacificIslander communities.

Nielsen has also seeded a reimbursement program with the
National Minority Supplier Development Council (NMSDC)
to help cover the certification fees for diverse-owned media
suppliers that qualify. The fund, which will be administeredby the NMSDC, aims to provide nearly 200 diverse publishers
with the benefits of Minority Business Enterprise (MBE)
certification, which is frequently required by large companies
to qualify for diverse investment.
As part of this initiative, Nielsen also released the Diverseowned media: Audience reach and profiles report.

Appendix

How the industry can help elevate diverseowned media
Nielsen
Discover and elevate ad supported diverse-owned
media, pricing/policy edits, report benchmarks, pro
bono expertise (MBE certification, measurement
landscape, etc.)
Publishers
Digital certification (Digital Ad Ratings, or DAR),
dialogue with Nielsen to monitor and watermark
content, leverage Nielsen custom capabilities (e.g.,Brand Lift Studies, Nielsen Scarborough), to show
value for brands
BrandsInvest, longer-term commitments, feedback, reevaluate effective efficiency planning, useaggregate profiles, leverage Nielsen DAR
collaborative optimization
Industry groups
Educate brands and publishers on owned vs.
targeted and advantages of each, study spend,
distribute investment guides, advocate longerterm and upfront investment

26

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Expanding identity options and removing
exclusionary language
We continue to challenge ourselves to ensure our tools
provide inclusive measurement options.
In 2021, we worked to expand respondent options forsexual orientation and gender identity through Nielsen
Scarborough. This platform captures local and national
consumer insights in the U.S. across over 2,000 categories,
including leisure activities, shopping behavior, purchasing
patterns and media consumption. As the additional response
options roll out in 2022, this will be a significant step toward
helping advertisers and media companies better equipthemselves to meet their customers’ expectations, while also
uncovering new strategic possibilities. We remain focusedon representation of sexual orientation and gender identity
taxonomies across our products, including Gracenote,audience measurement and custom surveys.
Nielsen’s engineers also joined an effort across thetechnology industry to strike out racist terminology intechnology and engineering, such as “whitelist” and“blacklist,” to replace them with neutral terminology suchas “allow list” and “blocklist.” These efforts were part of ourrenewed commitment in 2021 to fight racism with action,and remove sources of unconscious bias. In addition, as
part of our new brand launch, we added an “inclusive
language” section in our Nielsen voice and style guidelines toencourage employees to become more conscious of nuanceand word choice in all their communications.

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

PeopleInclusion and representation are foundational to our
workforce. We believe that fostering a diverse, equitable
and inclusive workforce and team culture is imperative,
and so do our employees. Our people bring an unmatchedlevel of passion and commitment to Nielsen’s DE&I efforts.
This includes efforts such as voluntarily coding and labeling
content to support the launch of Inclusion Analytics;
organizing educational webinars and panel events on diverse
communities; and self-starting new Business Resource
Groups (BRGs) based on opportunities to celebrate various
aspects of their identities.
At the same time, Nielsen works to ensure that DE&I
principles are interwoven into all aspects of our culture,from recruiting to retention and development. Since 2016,
we have required diverse slates for all open positions. In the
United States, we define “diverse slates” as including at least
one ethnically diverse candidate and at least one female
candidate. Globally, diverse slates focus on having at least
two female candidates in the set for consideration.
In February 2021, Nielsen launched an internal DE&I Global
Council, made up of 58 members whose role is to act as anextension of the Nielsen DE&I team. The Council is helping toadapt and integrate DE&I principles into local context; they
provided input during 2021 about how to globalize Nielsen’s
DE&I strategy.
All our employees are held accountable to Nielsen’s Codeof Conduct and to all Nielsen policies, including our global
non-discrimination policy, which precludes discrimination in
our workforce and our employment decisions on the basis ofrace, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression,sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability status,
age, marital status, protected veteran status or any otherprotected class. This policy covers these protected classes
in every market in which we do business worldwide.

AppendixTraining and development
Building a more inclusive and equitable future takes longterm commitment. We recognize that a culture driven by
Inclusion, Courage and Growth requires ongoing learning anddevelopment at various levels of the organization. We offer
a range of resources to our employees to build knowledge
around the importance of DE&I in our culture and business,while also encouraging and developing the next generationof diverse leadership.
In 2021, we launched Dialogues, a training module focusedon foundational DE&I principles. The course, offered throughour e-learning platform in four modules and 11 languages,
is open to all employees and reached almost 1,200
unique learners in 2021. It covers topics such as culturalcompetence, diplomacy and fostering an environment ofdignity and respect. We also continue to offer internallycreated professional development trainings, including:• Breaking Through Bias on unconscious bias, for people
managers across the company• Inclusive Interviewing to reduce bias in hiring processes• From Witness to Advocate, on how to identify andcounteract microaggressions
Fostering future leaders from underrepresented
backgrounds is another key component of our DE&I strategy.
Our leadership programs help us to retain, engage andaccelerate the development of our diverse talent throughincreased visibility, expanded networks and leadershipdevelopment training for leaders across different levels andlocations. In 2021, we introduced several new programs,
including the relaunch of the Diverse Leadership Network, an
ongoing MBA-like program for high-potential, diverse teammembers that helps build our internal talent pipeline.

27

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Training and development (continued)
We also launched development cohorts for female andHispanic leaders. The Leadership Circles program included
around 60 participants across two cohorts at the mid-careerlevel—one for women and the other for Hispanic employees.
Run in collaboration with Landit, a DE&I-focused engagementand development platform, the program provides resources
and networking opportunities, including one-on-one coachingand discussion circles.
In addition, the Him For Her program is aimed at accelerating
diversity on corporate boards and investing in our senior
female talent. In 2021, we had 12 women at the Senior Vice
President level or above participate in this external program
offering onboarding sessions, board opportunity referrals andtargeted webinars.

Advancing pay equity and an inclusive
cultureAll of our compensation decisions take gender
equity into consideration, and with each of
our annual compensation planning processes,
we review employee pay for gender balance
and fairness. We are committed to measuring
and closing any gender pay equity gaps thatexist within our company, and these efforts
are reviewed with the Compensation andTalent Committee of the Board of Directors. In
addition, a portion of each employee’s annual
performance review is based on how they
demonstrate key behavior in delivering results,
including our Nielsen values of Inclusion,
Courage and Growth.

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Bringing DE&I to life through our BRGs
Including the addition of two new groups in 2021—Believe,
our inter-faith BRG, and our Native American, Tribal andIndigenous Voices (NATIV) BRG—Nielsen offered a total of
13 BRGs during 2021. A 14th, Marhaba (meaning "hello" in
Arabic), was launched in early 2022 to support and connect
our community of co-workers who are of Arab descent. Our
network of BRGs offers an opportunity for employees to formbonds over shared identities, to network across the company
and to drive a culture of inclusivity and impact. Over 300 BRG
leaders globally served more than 3,500 members in 2021,
helping to build more programming and advocacy aroundinclusive culture. Each BRG has an Executive Committeesponsor, and two Executive Sponsors are asked to serve asambassadors for each group, supporting the BRG leaders,
individual members and associated programming at thehighest level of the organization. Over 30 Nielsen executives
currently serve as BRG sponsors.
Some of our BRG highlights in 2021 included:• Offering distinct programming and events for all heritage
months throughout the year, including SABLE-sponsored
events during Black History Month, and programming for
ALL-IN (Asian learning, leadership and innovation) during
Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
• Holding the first-ever Women in Nielsen (WIN) global andvirtual leadership summit in September, called WIN Rising
Leaders. The event featured keynote presentations, panels,
micro-mentoring and skill development workshops for over
1,000 Nielsen employees from 37 countries.
• Celebrating the 15th anniversary of Hispanic Organizationof Leaders in Action (HOLA), the company’s first businessresource group. HOLA launched in 2006 to empower
Hispanic employees interested in creating a more inclusive
work environment and to make an impact on Nielsen’sbusiness.

AppendixNielsenʼs Business Resource Groups

28

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capitalBusiness diversity
As a global company with significant buying power, weunderstand that we have a role to play in creating alevel playing field for business owners from marginalized
backgrounds. Given that 82% of our global supplier spend
was disbursed in the U.S. in 2021, our Business Diversity
efforts centered on expanding our diverse vendor pipeline
and spending, and on encouraging small business growththrough external collaborations.
Our commitment to business diversity has accelerated
since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, whichdisproportionately impacted minority-owned businesses in
the U.S. In 2020, we exceeded our corporate goal of 10% of
U.S. sourceable spend on diverse suppliers and subsequently
set a new goal of 15% by 2022. In 2021, we met that 15%
with $104 million in spending with diverse suppliers. Ourcontinued goal is to maintain our 15% target through 2024,with a stretch goal of 18%.
In 2021, our spending on diverse firms was focused on
new and existing suppliers in the areas of technology,
professional services and marketing and communications.
We added nine new diverse firms to our supply chain,representing the greatest increase in new diverse firms in asingle year.
We also continued our efforts to connect our employees’skills and experience with diverse-owned small businesses
that are either already in our supply chain, or have thepotential to become part of it. Our Next Level Suppliers
program enlists Nielsen employees to volunteer their time
helping diverse suppliers solve specific business challenges.
In 2021, four teams of Nielsen employee volunteers
supported four diverse-owned suppliers by providing pro
bono consulting on strategic needs such as marketing andsales strategies.

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

External and industry relationships play a key role in ourability to expand our business diversity pipeline. Our Global
Procurement team collects diversity and sustainability
information from new suppliers during the request for
proposal (RFP) process. We continue to work closelywith industry groups like the National Minority Supplier
Development Council (NMSDC) and Women’s BusinessEnterprise National Council to share our procurement needs
and understand the challenges facing diverse businesses.

Community engagement
Nielsen could not exist without the people and communities
we interact with and measure. We work to empower
diverse communities through external relationships and pro
bono work. We also integrate community and stakeholder
perspectives into our core business wherever possible.
Our External Advisory Council (EAC) is an important
touchpoint in our efforts to better serve multiculturalcommunities. The EAC, composed of marketers, media
professionals and business and community leaders, acts
as a sounding board and guiding force on our approach tomeasuring and representing the viewing habits of diverse
communities.
With the addition of IllumiNative and RespectAbility, we
have further diversified the EAC in 2021 and early 2022.
IllumiNative, a Native-led nonprofit focused on shifting
negative narratives around Native Nations and peoples in
American society, provides invaluable perspective on thisunderrepresented group. RespectAbility, a diverse anddisability-led nonprofit, offers its experience working to shiftsociety’s perceptions of people with disabilities.
In addition to bringing these important leaders andperspectives together through our EAC, we’re keenly focused

Appendix

on how our work can benefit diverse communities. For
example, we had over 100 engagements with clients, clientbusiness resource groups and community organizations
to share our multicultural insights in 2021. We also worked
with the Alliance for Inclusive and Multicultural Marketing(an initiative of the Association of National Advertisers)
and Media Framework, to provide aggregated metrics on
the reach and audience profiles of diverse-owned media.
The ultimate goal of this work is to increase investments inmedia owned by underrepresented groups who are often
overlooked by advertisers and brands.
For more on how Nielsen is working to better serve ourcommunities through pro bono work, volunteerism and otherinitiatives, see the Communities section of this report.

29

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Leveraging data to support Native andIndigenous communities
In the U.S., Native cultures have been reduced
to cultural caricatures in the world of sports inways that few other minorities have endured.
After decades of protests, considerable
progress has been made to reverse thesedecisions as professional and college-level
sports teams have dropped offensive monikers.
Yet, these shifts have often been surrounded by
fan outrage and controversy.
In 2021, Nielsen worked with IllumiNative
to conduct a comprehensive survey around
fan perceptions of team name changes,
as well as other issues around Native andIndigenous representation in popular culture.
Our Fan Insights Survey found that 46%
of fans surveyed agreed with decisions tochange culturally insensitive team names andmascots, and nearly the same percentage
supported teams going further to end all
appropriation from Native cultures. The same
survey found that half of respondents felt
Native and Indigenous communities were

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

underrepresented in TV and popular culture.
According to Nielsen data, Native peoples’
share of screen, excluding team names andlogos, stands at just 0.27% —about one-sixth of
the Indigenous share of the U.S. population.
We hope that sharing these types of insights
can help meaningfully inform conversations,policies and approaches to prominent social
issues to root out cultural insensitivities.

Appendix30

Human capitalHuman capital
The integrity, curiosity and creativity that our people bringto Nielsen are what makes us unique. These qualities are an
essential component of our enduring success as a global
leader in the media industry. Our people represent our greatest
sources of pride and strength, and they remain committed toour purpose of powering a better media future for all people.
This determination has been even more visible in the last few
years, during a period when we had to navigate not only acompany transition but also the global pandemic, by continuing
to innovate, adapt and grow.
As a business, we are acutely aware of the competitive
landscape for talent and the changing dynamics that haveresulted from the shift toward hybrid work models. That is why
cultivating our workforce is such a top priority. We are focusedon promoting the health, wellness and safety of our employees
while building an inclusive and engaging culture, where
everyone has an equal opportunity to reach their full potential.

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

2021 highlights• Launched a new Smart Work framework for our approach toremote and virtual work, as part of our philosophy of flexibility for
purposeful, productive work locations• Announced our company values of Inclusion, Courage and Growth,which guide everything we do. We also outlined the behavior andmindset embedded in our Growth Culture to power our strategic
business goals and our purpose• Began offering a new Emotional Health Support program to all
employees globally, and expanded paid sick benefits to part-time
employees in the U.S.
• Pivoted to a new employee listening and continuous feedback
strategy with a new survey tool
• Built a new summer internship class in the United States to attract
talent, with 75% of eligible interns transitioning to full-time positions• Broadened our mentorship program to all employees, reaching 560
participants in 2021 and generating about 2,700 hours in mentoring
activities• Distributed almost $60,000 across 28 grants in four countries
through the Nielsen Global Support Fund, which allows Nielsen
employees to donate to fellow employees in need and to apply forsupport in times of personal hardship or natural disaster

Data privacy & security

Communities

Appendix

33

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

2024 goal• Track and increase our Employee
Net Promoter Score (eNPS) tomove from “good” to “great”
according to external benchmarks

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Appendix

34

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Building and growing a strong talent foundation
After the sale of Nielsen Global Connect in March 2021, we
refocused and reorganized our people management approach,to reflect our new structure as a media-focused company. We
centralized our Talent Strategy, Acquisition and Development
functions under a new Chief Talent Officer position that was
created in early 2022. The new role is designed to foster amore holistic approach to attracting, retaining and developing
talent. For example, we are building an inventory of skills andcapabilities needed to strengthen the company for future
success, allowing us to be more intentional and strategic in our
hiring and development priorities. This holistic approach is also
reflected in our Talent Review discussions, conducted annuallywith a mid-year checkpoint to track progress. The main
objective is to ensure our talent strategy is continually aligned
to our business strategy and operational plan. Specifically, thefocus is on succession planning for key roles, identification anddevelopment of key talent, and assessment of skills required
for future success. This enables us to hone in on areas ofstrength as well as vulnerabilities, to prioritize our investmentof time and resources. We have also instituted dashboards
with real-time human capital data for managers to be able to
make fact-based decisions more quickly.
In 2021, we launched a summer internship program in the
U.S. to help attract a new class of talent to Nielsen. All of ourinterns successfully graduated from the program, and 75%
of eligible interns converted to full-time positions. We also
streamlined our onboarding resources for recent hires, offering
online learning and function-specific toolkits to help our
newest employees find their footing faster.
To ensure that we consider and hire more diverse candidates,
we continue to require diverse candidate slates. In the UnitedStates, we define “diverse slates” as including at least one
ethnically diverse candidate and at least one female candidate.
Globally, diverse slates focus on having at least two female
candidates.

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

We also make efforts to help new employees feel integrated
into their team and Nielsen community from day one. Our 90day onboarding program includes an orientation session thatprovides a virtual welcome from our CEO, an overview of thecompany, its strategy and our culture—including our focus
on diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I)—an introduction
to growing their careers, and an overview of our corporate
citizenship, among other topics. It also emphasizes the valueof integrity in everything we do.
Once employees join Nielsen, we have an employee listening
and continuous feedback strategy through the 2021 launch ofa new tool designed to enhance our employee engagement,
experience and overall culture. Our employee listening
strategy is part of our effort to constantly improve the Nielsen
employee experience. By proactively engaging with ourpeople across all functions and geographies to identify both
successes and shortfalls, we believe we can build a better
Nielsen—together. Our new employee listening platform alsoenables dynamic reporting for managers and teams, with theability to filter feedback to identify key themes and inspire
responsive action-planning.
Our pulse and Census surveys, which are available inmultiple languages, include questions that tie to measurable
performance outcomes proven to demonstrate effective
employee engagement, including a focus on our Employee Net
Promoter Score (eNPS). We share detailed survey results withsenior leaders and managers, and overall performance with all
employees through our company newsletter, global town halls
and manager-led team discussions. Managers are expected
to develop team-specific action plans based on their survey
results, focusing on areas important to their teams, where they
can make meaningful progress.

Appendix

We also regularly deploy confidential surveys tomeasure progress on our employee engagement andculture goals, and to better understand the Nielsen
employee experience. These include:• Periodic “pulse” surveys of all employees• Census surveys of all employees• Surveys of our new joiners to understand theirexperience at key milestones during their onboarding• Exit surveys to understand the views of ourdeparting employees

35

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Our values guide everything we do and power
our Growth Culture

Inclusion

Courage

GrowthTransformation obsessed
Laser-focused on action to transform for the streamingled future• Act with speed and purpose• Bring your grit and passion• Ruthlessly prioritize what helps us grow
Learn-it-alls, not know-it-alls
Curiosity and humility to learn, not proving what we know
• Reframe challenges as opportunities• Ask for feedback; embrace it as a gift
• Find a learning moment every day
Outside-in
Deep understanding of customers, audiences andcompetitors• Start with the customer or audience and work backward• Include diverse perspectives to uncover a bigger picture• Experiment with unconventional ideas
One company
We do it together• Put "we" ahead of "me"• Help everyone reach their full potential• Show respect, care and candor

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Our Growth Culture is a key enabler of our strategic
business goals and our purpose to power a better media
future for all people. This culture is rooted in our core valuesof Inclusion, Courage and Growth. In 2021, we defined
the elements of our Growth Culture as: Transformation
obsessed; Learn-it-alls, not know-it-alls; Outside-in; andOne company. These four areas help guide our people topractice and adopt the behavior and mindset that we see
as a critical focus for Nielsen in 2022 and beyond.

Powering our Growth Culture through training
and development
Our culture is made up of our shared values—Inclusion,
Courage and Growth—and the attitudes and behavior
that we need to achieve our strategy together. We’ve
defined the principles of our Growth Culture to ground thisconcept in everyday behaviors and attitudes to guide our
employees.
One example of how we connect our people around ourshared values and Growth Culture is through our ongoing,monthly “Culture Connect” events. The series is designed
to give us an opportunity to share our unique perspectives,
learn from each other, practice and cultivate our growthmindset, and stretch ourselves to meet the demands of a
dynamic industry. Our first Culture Connect event, hosted in
2022, was attended by more than 1,300 people across morethan 40 countries.
As the media industry continues to adjust rapidly to newtechnologies and market shifts, training and development
are more important than ever. At Nielsen, we are building
a “learn-it-all” culture and encouraging the key skills our
employees need to be “transformation-ready”—that is,prepared to meet current and future challenges of thecompany head on.

Appendix

Our philosophy for ongoing training and development
follows the 70/20/10 model of learning, which reflects
research that shows that 70% of learning happens in theflow of job-specific tasks, 20% occurs when engaging withcolleagues and through manager interventions, and 10%
happens in structured formal classes and coursework.
We launched several new training initiatives in 2021. For
example, we began offering a Data Science Academy
through Coursera’s online learning platform, to help upskill
our data scientists in core areas like machine learningand probability and statistics. We also launched a salesspecific e-learning training program focused on negotiation
techniques and prospecting for new clients.
At a time of evolution and adaptation, especially in acompetitive talent market, the role of our people leaders iseven more critical. We make a concerted investment in ourpeople leaders, including through our Lead cohort program
to grow foundational leadership skills and tools. Lead waspiloted with our Content Ops team in 2021, reaching 115
leaders across 12 countries, with a program net promoter
score of 60. Additionally, we empower our leaders withmore access to data and resources on demand, so thatthey have the ability to take proactive action to develop andretain their teams as needed.
As DE&I continues to be integrated more deeply into all
our work, we launched Dialogues, a foundational learning
course on DE&I concepts, in 11 languages across thecompany in 2021. In addition, 125 employees participatedin career development programs targeted on diverse
talent, including Him For Her, the Diverse Leadership
Network (DLN) and Leadership Circles. DLN is an MBAlike program for mid-career talent, coupled with mentoring
and real-life Nielsen case studies to help foster new
skills and capabilities, raise visibility and offer networking
opportunities.

36

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Powering our Growth Culture through training
and development (continued)
Another program, GROW, is designed for employees in ourfield and call-center teams who are interested in progressingin their careers, by transitioning to a role within anotherbusiness function.
We also reinstated a performance management approachto our employee review process in 2021, to align with ourcommitment to a meritocracy. This approach, which is a shift
from the one-time “on-track or off-track” framework of 2020,is geared to generating honest and growth-oriented feedback.
In addition, we relaunched our “Fuel Your Growth” careerdevelopment portal, to empower all employees with tools andresources to guide their career trajectory.

We’re modernizing our global ERP (Enterprise
Resource Planning) tools across Finance and
HR. In doing so, we are consolidating enterpriseapplications we use across a variety of processes,
such as Manager and Employee Self Service,
Payroll, Planning and Analytics, Recruitment andmore. Our internal branding, myDigital Experience(mDX), provides employees a new avenue forcompleting tasks like updating their HR employee
data or easily sourcing office supplies andequipment from one of our diverse suppliers.

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Appendix

The Talent Acquisition team’s new recruiting system, Lever, was launched in March 2022. The platform offers
many enhancements to improve the candidate experience, increase automation and make effective, impactfulhires. Lever helps our Talent Acquisition teams and hiring managers bring top talent to Nielsen with streamlined
processes, real-time data and a user-friendly, contemporary user interface. It also gives employees a quick andeasy way to share job posts on social media, refer applicants and apply for open roles at Nielsen.
We are also committed to a number of projects and initiatives as part of our talent retention strategy, to address
important focus areas in the highly competitive talent marketplace.

Employee focus
and well-being

Career growth
opportunities

Prioritizing the physical,
social and emotional
well-being of our people

Building clear, skills-based
career paths and internal
mobility opportunities

Market-driven
compensation/rewards

Great culture
and managers

Leveraging up-to-datemarket data and investing in
critical skills

Driving a growth mindset
culture led by strong,inspiring leaders

37

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Appendix

Talent spotlights

Expanding our mentorship program

Human capital snapshot

In 2021, we focused on spotlighting the diverse perspectives
and voices of our talent across Nielsen, through frequentfeatures on external social media and internal channels.

We know that some of the most impactfullearning can come through our peers andmanagers. In 2021, we broadened eligibility
for our myMentor program to include alllevels and part-time employees. Now, allNielsen employees are able to benefit froma mentorship experience, and over 560
participants logged approximately 2,700 hours
in the program in 2021.

• Approximately 15,000 people were employed worldwide asof Dec. 31, 2021, which includes approximately 1,000 parttime employees.

The program had a net promoter score of 67 in
2021, with participants reporting that it helped
to “improve my resilience,” “increase my
confidence” and “gain a better understandingof Nielsen and the challenges and cultureof another region in the world,” according todirect feedback.

• Total turnover for 2021 was 27.1%, including 18.5%
voluntary and 5.2% involuntary.
• Approximately 4,000 new employee hires were madeglobally in 2021.
• In 2021, 12.2% of all females were promoted and 11.6% of
all males were promoted.
• 100% of employees have access to comprehensive careerdevelopment resources, including training and performance
reviews.
• In 2021, 78% of our employees accessed our Learning
Management System and Degreed platforms, completingover 73,000 learning activities.
• Our global Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) was 25
as of our Q4 2021 pulse survey, which falls in the “good”
range, according to external benchmarks.

38

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

A focused approach to our Smart Work
framework
Office workplaces connect people and inspire our Growth
Culture. At the same time, flexibility is central to who we are,and we believe in the power of bringing people together,both in person and virtually, for new ideas, perspectives andinnovations.
In April 2021, after over a year of pandemic restrictions
and with careful consideration of the continued COVIDrelated concerns, Nielsen began evaluating a return-to-workplan for our employees. The new framework, called Smart
Work, began in 2021 with the goal of retaining some of theflexibility associated with remote work, while maintaining
productive connections to the office, field and client sites for
key roles.
Smart Work plans were developed for flexible, hybrid, onsite and/or field roles across the company. We continue toplan for a future where most of our office-based employees
move to a flexible Smart Work profile. Fully flexible roles havethe option for full-time remote work, with on-site visits asneeded. Employees can continue to use our offices for teamcollaboration, culture-building or client activities.
Globally, all of our offices are already partially or fully open
as of Q2 2022.

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Appendix

39

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Appendix

Caring for our people
For our employees to perform at their best, they first needto feel their best. The ongoing pandemic created increased
urgency to protect the mental and physical health of all our
employees, but the health and well-being of our people has
always been, and will remain, a core focus of our approachto human capital management. We measure the impact of
our efforts through the periodic employee pulse surveys. In
Q4 2021, 90% of Nielsen employees reported that they feeltreated with respect at work, a 4% increase from Q2 2021.
At Nielsen, we work to meet the changing needs of a diverseand global workforce through traditional benefits and otherwelfare programs. For example, our “Whole You” platform
offers online resources covering physical health, as well as
emotional, financial, social and environmental well-being. In
early 2021, we also began offering paid sick and safe leave
for part-time employees in the U.S.
We offer a range of on-demand resources and tools tomanage emotional health, from online therapy appointments
to crisis helplines and stress-relief apps. For the second
year in a row, we offered a companywide “Mental HealthDay Away” to rest and recharge in May 2021, prioritizing our
employees’ well-being. In October 2021, we introduced a
new mental benefit for U.S. employees through a partnershipwith Spring Health, a mental health services platform. In
addition, the Emotional Health Support program, similar
to a traditional employee assistance program, offers eight
free therapy sessions each to every employee and theirspouse and dependents, as well as other online resources.
In January 2022, we expanded this program, including six
free therapy sessions, to 39 additional countries throughout
Europe, the Middle East and Asia, reaching all countries
where we have Nielsen employees.

2021 Gold Level recognition in the American
Heart Association’s Workplace HealthAchievement Index in recognition of ourworkplace health programs2022 recognition by the Business Group on
Health’s Best Employers for Excellence in
Health and Well-Being, Excellence in Mental
Health, Excellence in Health Equity, andExcellence in Global Health & Well-Being,marking Nielsen’s 7th year of recognition by
Best Employers

Named one of the 2021 Top 100 U.S.
Companies Supporting Healthy Communities
and Families by JUST Capital, recognizing
companies that treat their workers withrespect, give them what they need to takecare of their families, and be good neighbors2022 Platinum certification for the Mental
Health America Bell Seal for Workplace Mental
Health, a distinction awarded by Mental
Health America recognizing our outstanding
commitment to employee mental health andwell-being“Our culture is shaped by our long-standing
values, sits at the center of our businessand drives us all to set new standards andachieve more together. Driven by courage
and opportunity, our teams work every day tocreate a diverse, inclusive and collaborativeenvironment where we can grow and transform,
both as individuals and as a company.”— Laurie Lovett, Chief People Officer

40

Environment

Environment
Communities and ecosystems around the world are facing
existential threats posed by climate change—from more severe
weather events to historic droughts, wildfires and biodiversity
loss, among other impacts. As a responsible company, Nielsen
cannot separate itself from this escalating crisis. The present
and future health of our business and people is tied to that of thecommunities and markets where we live and operate.
Climate change and our environmental impact are key ESG areasfor us. As a professional services company, our environmental
footprint may be lower than more resource-intensive industries,
but we know that climate change will continue to affectevery region and most industries, with a knock-on impact on
our clients’ needs and on audience needs and behavior. We
recognize that we have a role to play in addressing the climate
crisis, and remain committed to our efforts to create moreenvironmentally sustainable outcomes for all our stakeholders.

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

2021 highlights• More than 6,400 employees across 17 countries organized,
participated and led Earth Week events to advocate forenvironmental justice.
• We began providing only recycled or Forestry Stewardship Council(FSC)-certified paper product options in our online catalog for U.S.
office supplies purchasing.
• We engaged with our fleet suppliers globally to evaluate
opportunities to bring in lower-emission cars into our portfolio by
converting to electric or hybrid vehicles as leases are renewed.
• We engaged 90% of our major travel suppliers on their ESG
practices and formally assessed 70%, covering all three major
categories of Nielsen’s travel spend (air travel, auto travel andhotels/accommodations).
• In early 2022, we completed a full supply-chain assessment ofgreenhouse gas emissions of our new company footprint, making
progress toward long-term emissions reductions goals.
• In early 2022, we completed our second global climate risk
assessment, evaluating the physical and transition climate-changerelated risks that may impact Nielsen’s business strategy
and operations.

Data privacy & security

Communities

Appendix

43

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

2024 goals• Reduce our on-premises application
server footprint to 10%• Reduce our business travel spend by 25%
from our 2019 pre-COVID baseline, andimplement a travel policy that will maintainthe reduced travel emissions• Ensure all of Nielsen’s e-waste managed
through our global field operations team isrecycled, reused or refurbished

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Appendix

44

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Our strategic approach
Our sustainability approach is focused on minimizing theimpact of our products, services and business operations
on the environment. We seek to identify opportunities topositively contribute to sustainability efforts, by finding
ways to use our data and products for environment-relatedcauses, and by helping our clients meet shifting consumer
demands and expectations from companies.
We also recognize that the impact of climate change
disproportionately affects marginalized communities globally,
including low-income, LGBTQ+, women and Black andIndigenous communities. We are attuned to the intersectionof environmental and social issues and continue to apply a
climate justice lens to our work.

Managing our environmental impacts
Our environmental management strategy focuses on theimpact areas most relevant for our operations: waste,business travel and energy. We also recognize that water
stewardship and sustainable forestry—while not assignificant for Nielsen’s direct operations at present—aresocietal issues that affect our employees, suppliers andother stakeholders around the world, and we remain mindfulof their footprint.
We also look across our supply chain to measure ourenvironmental impact, and actively work with suppliers
to understand and improve their ESG performance. In
early 2022, we completed our second assessment of ourgreenhouse gas (GHG) footprint across our supply chain, tohelp us better understand our product life-cycle impacts andestablish long-term emissions reduction goals.
After the company’s sale of Nielsen Global Connect, we
worked on streamlining our operations and processes as

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

a media-focused Nielsen. This has allowed us to gain an
updated understanding of our environmental footprint andcreate a new baseline upon which we can set new goals. In
2021, we established clearer ownership and controls for theenvironmental data collection processes from the varied data
sources and teams across the company. These efficiencies
have enabled faster and more complete data collection,
while furthering our work to consider long-term, sciencebased emissions reductions goals.
Responsibility for sustainable decisions and actions sitswith each team and individual. Integrating environmentallyfriendly options across Nielsen functions is part of ourclimate change mitigation efforts. More details on our overall
approach to environmental management can be found in
the Nielsen environmental policy and guidelines, which was
updated and streamlined in 2022. Our environmental datacollection and reporting methodology, time-based data
updates and assurance statements can be found in the
Appendix of this report.

Waste management
Among our various waste streams, some of ourenvironmental impact occurs in the creation of electronic
waste (e-waste) and the consumption of paper. Along with
common sources of e-waste from our internal operations—such as computers, phones and data servers—we also
produce and distribute metering equipment to measure
TV and audio consumption among our panelists. Over theyears, we have focused on ensuring that virtually none of
our e-waste goes to landfill, and we have set a 2024 goal
to ensure that all our e-waste from global field operations
is recycled, reused or refurbished. We are also committed
to expanding our opportunities for responsible end-of-life
management of electronic devices and equipment, to reduce
emissions from this source.

Appendix

In June 2021, our U.S. procurement team finalized a change
in paper supply options to include only recycled or FSCcertified products. This shift applies to all paper purchasedby U.S. employees through official purchasing channels,
helping to support sustainable forestry practices andresponsible sourcing.

From rebrand to recycle and reuse
Nielsen’s rebranding in October 2021 madeobsolete items that carried the previous
Nielsen logos and colors. Since pandemicrelated office closures made centralized
management of these items difficult, wesought creative ways to minimize waste
by engaging and enabling our people toact responsibly. We ran awareness drives,
providing ideas on how to recycle andupcycle items, and provided opportunities
for donations to local nonprofits to help
vulnerable populations. For items in ourwarehouse, we also offered employees
the chance to buy “vintage” Nielsenmerchandise at deep discounts.

45

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Energy management
Our data centers and our offices are among the greatest
contributors to our energy consumption footprint. To
manage the environmental impacts of this consumption, we
have focused on designing energy-efficient office spaces,
identifying opportunities with our electronic equipment
and mitigating energy use at our data centers throughtechnology and infrastructure optimization.
Our data centers
As the amount of data generated and processed acrossindustries continues to surge, the environmental impacts ofphysical data centers have also increased. Nielsen works
to limit our data center footprint through continued server
optimization, virtualization, storage refresh, and data andserver room consolidations. Between 2020 and 2021, these
efforts have reduced energy consumption across our presplit data center portfolio by 70%. In 2021, as we establishedour new media-only data center footprint, we set a goal toreduce our on-premises application server footprint to 10%
of our overall servers by 2024.
While our 2021 data center efficiency efforts primarily
focused on supporting and managing the business split, an
overall on-premises (on-prem) hardware reduction initiative
was undertaken by continuing our migration to the cloud.
Our Infrastructure team has worked to increase overall
operational efficiencies that match Nielsen’s needs, using
several methods. These include rebuilding the on-premhardware environment to increase density of our overall hostcount, rightsizing virtual machines and our storage footprint
and optimizing utilization across our server farms.

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Two local examples of where we were able to reduce our onprem footprint include:• In the Lebanon, Ohio, office (U.S.): 55% reduction to theserver count, from 4,000 to approximately 1,800 by the endof the year
• In the Sentrum office (U.K.): 60% reduction to the servercount, from 1,200 to approximately 400 by the end of theyear, reducing the average power needed to operate theon-prem infrastructure by approximately 50%
As more of our data centers shift to the cloud, we plan tocontinually work with our technology suppliers to understandtheir own environmental targets and goals, and strive todecrease net emissions from Nielsen data servers acrossboth on-prem and in-cloud servers.
Our electronic devices
Nielsen’s Global Procurement team has engaged with ourpreferred suppliers for electronic devices to understand thefootprint of our certified energy-efficient copiers, laptops,
desktops, workstations and monitors, to name a few. From
this data foundation, we set a goal to increase or maintainthe percentage of energy-efficient electronic devices usedin our office operations, consistent with our Environmentally
Preferable Purchasing Policy. We met or exceeded this goalin 2021 and follow EPA Energy Star and EPEAT certifications
to classify energy efficient equipment. For example:• Copier fleet° 2021 target: 90% EPEAT Certified/90% Energy Star
Certified° 2021 result: Achieved—97% EPEAT or Energy Star
CertifiedAppendix• Electronic devices—desktops/workstations° 2021 target: Maintain 98% EPEAT Certified/Maintain
100% Energy Star° 2021 result: Exceeded—100% EPEAT Certified/100%
Energy Star Certified
In addition, our continued innovation in technology, suchas the new Wearable Portable People Meter, our mobile
measurement metering device, can bring energy efficiencies
into Nielsen offerings. These devices will use less power andincrease usability.
Our facilities
Nielsen’s Real Estate team has continued to focus its efforts
on reestablishing our new global portfolio as a media
company following the sale of Nielsen Global Connect,
including investigating energy consumption reduction
and cost-reduction opportunities. In addition to ongoing
structural investments in opportunities such as LED lights,
Nielsen has continued to follow a strategy throughout 2021
of achieving energy and cost efficiencies through portfoliochanges, including office closures, consolidations anddownsizing to smaller spaces.
For example, between 2020 and 2021, we:• Realized a net energy savings of approximately 727,700
kWh through leased site closures• Continued to transition to LED lights in our offices,
parking lots and other facilities, leading to ongoing energy
efficiencies. Our Santa Fe, Mexico, location is an exampleof this initiative, with an annual reduction of over 21,400
kWh of electricity usage

46

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Our fleet
Our field employees use Nielsen’s global fleet to recruit andmaintain relationships with our research panelists. Throughout
2021, our Procurement and Field leads engaged with our fleet
suppliers globally to evaluate opportunities to bring loweremission cars into our portfolio, by converting to electric or
hybrid vehicles as leases are renewed.
Keeping guidelines around field personnel safety in mind andconsidering the challenges of infrastructure availability insome regions, our leads continue this due diligence, acting on
opportunities where feasible and contracting accordingly.
With the U.S. and Europe making up 88% of our global fleet
footprint, we are starting our work in these regions. By theend of 2022, 19% of Nielsen’s U.S. technician fleet and 18% of
our European technician fleet will be converted to electric or
hybrid vehicles. We will continue to actively engage our fleet
suppliers to increase these efficiencies going forward.

Greening our meetings
As Nielsen has gradually undertaken returnto-the-office initiatives, we have also sought
to be mindful of how we utilize our sharedspaces. To foster eco-friendly behavior
in a world of hybrid work, our Corporate
Citizenship team worked with our Content
and Experiences team to update our “Green
Meetings Guidelines.” These guidelines provide
organizers with a range of criteria to consider,from transportation logistics to on-site greener
options and local food sourcing, when planningfor more sustainable meetings and events.

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

AppendixBusiness travel impacts

Understanding and managing climate risks

While travel restrictions from COVID-19 have significantly
reduced our business travel footprint in the last two years,
we remain committed to responsibly managing our travel
impacts; as a professional services company, we consider thisa key long-term area of focus. In 2021, we set a 2024 goal
to reduce our business travel spend by 25% from our 2019
pre-COVID baseline, and to implement a travel policy that will
maintain these reduced emissions.

In 2018, Nielsen conducted our first climate risk assessment,
to identify and review climate change risks faced by thecompany. This assessment highlighted potential climate risks,such as exposure of physical infrastructure to rising seas,
intensifying storms and carbon pricing in some locations, aswell as opportunities like driving awareness of the climate
crisis across industries and helping clients meet evolving
consumer needs.

Choosing sustainable suppliers is another part of ourcommitment to reducing the impact of business travel. We
have ongoing long-term goals for our travel management:

To further this understanding, in early 2022, we completed
an updated assessment of climate-related physical andtransition risks to reflect our new global footprint. This helped
us better understand our current relationship with a variety
of climate-related risks to our facilities and our business.
The results of these analyses, which were conducted withan external consulting agency, will help inform our climaterelated risk management strategy. This will guide ourwork to proactively identify and implement risk mitigation
opportunities that can build a more resilient business future.

• Include sustainability criteria in 100% of our major, centrally
managed, global travel requests for proposals (RFPs).

° Status: There were no travel RFPs in 2021, due to thecontinued COVID-related travel restrictions. Our Master
RFP template includes sustainability language as astandard operating procedure, and it will continue to be
used when RFPs are reissued.

• Engage 100% of our procurement-managed travel supplierson overall sustainability practices. Also, formally assess
80% of our major, centrally managed travel suppliers on
environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices
through our third-party sustainability scorecard process.

° Status: In 2021, we engaged 90% of our major travel

suppliers on their ESG practices, and formally assessed
70%, covering all three major categories of Nielsen’s
travel spend (air travel, auto travel and hotels/
accommodations).

Our current transition risk assessment—which looked at
the business implications associated with the organization’stransition to a lower-carbon economy—considered issues
including current and emerging regulation, such as carbon
pricing mechanisms; shifts toward lower-emissions
technology; market changes, including changing consumer
behavior; and reputational risks from increasing stakeholder
expectations. The assessment considered three climate
scenarios under the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP)
framework, with varying levels of collective global action andtemperature rise. It also reviewed risk impacts over the short,medium and long term and assigned estimated financial
impacts to Nielsen for relevant risks.

47

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Understanding and managing climate risks

Activating climate change awareness through pro
bono data

The physical risk assessment evaluated our exposure toclimate impacts from acute and chronic events such as
drought, hurricanes or sea level rise, on our assets including
data centers, offices and field operations around the globe.
Like the transition risk assessment, this analysis covered
three common climate scenarios across multiple timeframes,and provided a scored risk rubric, along with opportunities
for risk mitigation.

Beyond mitigating our operational environmental impacts and risks, we
also recognize opportunities to leverage our data for good as part of ourclimate change work. One way we seek to make a positive contribution
is through data donations and skills-based volunteering for nonprofit
organizations actively engaged in climate work.

(continued)

Climate change is recognized as a stand-alone risk in ourformal Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) process, and isreviewed by Nielsen’s senior management. Findings from ourclimate risk assessment continue to guide our evaluation,
dialogue and strategy related to climate change risks during
the ERM process.
More information about our physical and transition risk
assessment can be found in the Task Force on Climaterelated Financial Disclosures (TCFD) index, located in the
Appendix of this report.
Our Corporate Citizenship team continues to work withteams across the company to ensure relevant climate changerisks mitigation plans and opportunities are integrated into
our operational strategy. The Nomination and Corporate
Governance Committee of the Board of Directors oversees
the Company’s overall ESG matters, except to the extent
reserved for the full Board or another committee. For moreon our approach to governance and risk management, please
see the Governance section of this report.

Since 2019, we have donated Nielsen data to the Potential Energy
Coalition, a new, nonpartisan nonprofit that aims to dramatically increase
public support for climate action using the data-driven marketing
techniques that are employed by the world’s most effective marketers.
Potential Energy has served and measured over one billion ads anddeployed more than 100,000 in-field surveys, with the aim of increasingawareness and action around climate change. Nielsen has provided pro
bono data and access to insights, including Local TV Ratings, Radio
Ratings and Nielsen Scarborough, which captures local and national
consumer insights across over 2,000 categories.
Nielsen’s data has helped fuel Potential Energy Coalition’s mission, byenabling the organization to identify audiences that might be receptive to
new messaging around climate change.
The group’s analytics show that smart, targeted campaigns can movethe needle on perceptions and understanding of climate change. After
identifying moderate mothers in suburban areas as a high-potential
demographic for greater climate awareness, the group launched theScience Moms campaign. The campaign utilized a network of apolitical
women and climate scientists and touched a variety of social andtraditional media channels, to connect with around 5.4 million people
across ten large markets.

Employee engagement and environmental
actionOur employees are critical drivers of change within thecompany, along with the communities where they live andwork. Our Green Business Resource Group (BRG) acts as aninternal focal point for employee leadership, engagement andadvocacy for environmental action throughout the year. The
group, which is led by the Corporate Citizenship team andAppendix

was integrated into Nielsen’s BRG structure with the DE&I
team in late 2020, takes an intersectional lens to the issueof climate change, with a focus on climate justice for underrepresented communities and others disproportionately
affected by climate change.
In April 2021, we celebrated Earth Week, our signature annual
event around climate action, for the eighth consecutive year.
Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Earth Week
events were again held virtually. That did not stop over 6,400
people across 17 countries from taking one or more green
actions throughout the week. Through online volunteeringand awareness-building activities, Earth Week 2021 focusedon environmental justice and the intersection of social andenvironmental advocacy. For example, we worked with anonprofit to organize three global webinars focusing on
climate justice, environmental justice and energy justice.
We also shared resources like documentaries and books onenvironmental racism and inequities, inspired ideas on ways
to be green at home and encouraged employees to volunteer
with organizations that are working to achieve a more justand sustainable world.
Beyond Earth Week, Nielsen employees continued theirgreen activism at the grassroots level. As an example, theemployees from the Netherlands office took up the Eevie
challenge for six months, to track and reduce their personalcarbon footprints. Our Green leaders at Florida’s Global
Technology and Innovation Center (GTIC) continued tokeep on-site gardens growing throughout 2021, even when
the office remained closed. The U.S. BRG leaders hosted
a webinar as an educational opportunity about the role ofgovernment actions and policies in environmental
justice work.

48

Data privacy and security

Data privacy and security
Data is core to Nielsen’s work to enable audience insights and analytics
that help to shape the future of media. As a result, maintaining data
privacy, security and integrity is a top priority and a key ESG issue forour company, especially given the sensitive or proprietary informationthat we handle. Now, more than ever, consumers and clients want toknow how companies like ours handle data collection and protection.
We take this responsibility seriously, and we work to honor the trust
consumers and clients have placed in us.

Home2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

2021 highlights• Facilitated training and education events through our Privacy
Awareness and Cybersecurity Awareness programs• Over 1,600 employees participated in Privacy Awareness Monthactivities in January 2021, including awareness training and apanel discussion event• Updated our Global Cybersecurity Policy, including the newly
independent publication of the Acceptable Use Policy, in April
2021• Over 2,600 employees participated in Cybersecurity AwarenessMonth activities in October 2021, which included awarenesstraining, live sessions and a company-wide Phishing Tournament• Achieved 80% attestation from employees, contractors andconsultants to the Acceptable Use Policy• Updated our Global Privacy Policy in January 2022

Data privacy & security

Communities

Appendix

51

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

2024 goals• 100% of eligible employees are held
accountable for completing required
privacy training• Continue to track internally and growNielsenʼs National Institute of Standards
and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity
Framework Maturity score

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Appendix

52

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Privacy
Our data privacy efforts are rooted in internationallyrecognized protection practices and comply with applicablelaws and regulations around the world. Among other key
principles, we also incorporate the concept of Privacy by
Design—a commitment to include appropriate privacy
protections in the design and implementation of our products
and services.
We believe in responsible stewardship of data andcontinually work to improve our practices and meet thehighest industry standards. In January 2022, we updated our
Global Privacy Policy to reflect updates to common principles
and privacy laws and more clearly communicate employee
responsibilities.

Data collection and management
Nielsen collects demographic and aggregated data frompanelists, survey respondents, website browsers, mobile andother devices measured by our digital and mobile products,
and other sources. We rely primarily on demographic andaggregated data from which we cannot directly identify
people, and we offer accessible privacy controls to allow for
greater consumer choice around data collection.
Examples of our efforts and commitments to data privacy
and protection include:• We abide by the concept of data minimization, to limit thecollection of personal consumer data wherever possible,
while still maintaining our ability to deliver meaningful
insights.
• In cases where direct identifiers are used, we limit bothinternal and external access to such information.

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Appendix• When identifying elements of data have been removed,
we have processes in place to prevent data from being reassociated with identifying features.

Privacy and cybersecurity management
at Nielsen• We restrict access to, and use of, personal data to Nielsen
employees and service providers with a legitimate business
requirement.

Our Chief Privacy Officer oversees the companyʼs global
privacy compliance program and manages the Nielsen
Privacy Team, which sits within Nielsen Legal and Corporate
Affairs. Nielsen also has an EU Data Protection Officer
who oversees Nielsen’s compliance with the General Data
Protection Regulation (GDPR).

We have established policies around records retention tolimit how long we keep personal data.
For more information on the types of data we collect andhow we manage consumer data, please see our Privacy
Statement, available in 20 languages.

Cybersecurity
Nielsen’s Cybersecurity team works to protect Nielsen’s data,systems and networks around the globe through leadingedge security technologies and industry best practices. Our
Cybersecurity program aligns with the National Institute ofStandards and Technology (NIST) Cybersecurity Framework,
a voluntary set of risk management guidelines and principles.
We implement multilayered organizational, technical andadministrative measures designed to protect personal
data under our control and align with a range of legal
requirements. The Cybersecurity team also continuallyreviews our practices and makes necessary adjustments toensure we operate under current best practices to identify,
detect, prevent and respond to cybersecurity threats.

Our Cybersecurity team of qualified data security
professionals reports to the Chief Information Security
Officer (CISO), who reports, in turn, to our Chief Legal
Officer. Our cybersecurity policies are subject to oversightfrom our Corporate Policy Governance Council, are reviewed
annually under the Governance team and require annual
approval from the CISO. We provide publication of ourpolicies and translation in multiple languages and issue
emergency policies as required.
The Audit Committee of Nielsen’s Board of Directors has
primary oversight for the management of key enterpriserisks, including its Compliance and Integrity, Cybersecurity
and Privacy programs. The Audit Committee is briefed
on data security and privacy at each regularly convened
meeting and receives ad hoc updates as needed.

53

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Appendix

Ongoing employee training

Nielsen ONE progresses toward the new future of media

Our employees play a key role in our data privacy andsecurity performance. All new employees are required
to take cybersecurity and privacy training as part of theonboarding process. In addition, all employees, contractors
and consultants granted access to Nielsen’s systems mustcomplete the annual Acceptable Use Policy attestation.
Those who have access to databases with sensitive
information must undergo additional, job-specific training.

The global media industry continues to become more fragmented each year, as the proliferation of streaming services anddevices continues to change the way people consume and engage with content. This trend has left content creators andpublishers, as well as marketers, without a reliable way to standardize, deduplicate and measure performance across linear,digital and streaming.

We hold our employees accountable to maintain safe data
handling practices and offer ongoing education and training.
Through our e-learning platform, we provide resources on
privacy topics such as personal data definitions, records
management, survey best practices and social media
privacy concerns. Every year, we also run month-longprivacy and cybersecurity awareness-building events.
Privacy Awareness Month, held in January, spotlights habits
and practices to ensure Nielsen and employee personal
data is protected, while Cybersecurity Awareness Monthin October offers resources and tools to protect against
phishing and hacking attempts.

Data privacy and security remain a foundational component of Nielsen ONE, and the platform builds on key advances in data
handling, like our ID Resolution System, launched in late 2020. The ID Resolution System replaced third-party cookies withpeople-based data sets calibrated to our panels. In 2021, we also unveiled a new approach to eliminating our reliance on digital
identifiers and measuring authenticated and unauthenticated web traffic to produce more accurate results for our clients. Bothof these adjustments enable us to produce deduplicated dynamic measurements across the media spectrum.

Nielsen ONE, expected to launch in December 2022, is our solution to close this gap. By providing a cross-platform
measurement tool across linear programming, streaming, connected TV (CTV) and digital, it will enable users on both the buy
and sell sides of the media industry to use a single metric that is trusted, independent and standardized.

In late 2021, we took a meaningful step toward our new future of media measurement with the launch of Nielsen ONE Alpha.
The initiative is specific to ad campaigns, offering the first cross-platform measurement system of its kind that offers bothcomparability and audience deduplication across all screens (linear TV, CTV, computer and mobile). The deduplicated admeasurement metrics account for age and gender information. Nielsen ONE Alpha participants are representative of both buy
and sell-side clients.

54

Communities

Communities
The data that Nielsen collects, and the analytical skills of ouremployees across more than 55 countries, are powerful. They not only
drive insights for clients and the industries we serve and help powera better media future for all, but also have the potential to create
positive social impact across our communities. We strive to leverage
our unique assets—our powerful data capabilities and the passionof our employees—to energize and uplift the work of nonprofits,
academic institutions and community groups around the world.

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Data privacy & security

2021 highlights• Employees across 43 countries logged 14,500 total volunteer hours.
• 20% of Nielsen’s employees participated in community-oriented
programs.
• An estimated $23.6 million in kind was donated through pro bono
projects and skills-based volunteering.
• The Nielsen Foundation, a separate private foundation, provided
more than $1.97 million in grants to 49 nonprofit organizations.

Communities

Appendix

57

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

2024 goals• Increase employee participation incommunity-oriented programs to 30%• Continue to contribute at least $30
million in total in-kind value for pro bonodata donations, public reports, and othersupport for organizations and topics thatare powering a better media future forall people

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Appendix

58

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Community strategy and approach
Our community efforts utilize both the talents of ouremployees and the power of our data to effect change inour communities around the world. Through our volunteering
program, Nielsen employees are eligible to use 24 hours ofannual volunteer time to support nonprofit organizations thatmatter to them. And through our Data for Good pro bono
projects, we strategically donate Nielsen data, time andexpertise to help address critical social and environmental
challenges, while also engaging our employees andexpanding our capabilities in new ways across ourcommunities.
Nielsen’s Corporate Citizenship team oversees, manages
and supports our global volunteering program, working
with more than 60 leaders from around the world of theCares and Green Business Resource Groups, who drive
programs regionally and locally. Our Corporate Citizenshipcommunity work is focused on three priority areas of socialand environmental need that are strategically importantto our business and present an opportunity for us to add
meaningful value through our core competencies of our data,
analysis and our people’s talent:• Representation in media and technology• Education• Responsibility for the environment

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Powering academic research and diversity indata-driven careers
We believe we have an important role to play in furthering
academic research that helps to power a better media future
for all people. We also work with educational and industry
organizations to inspire students with the power of data andsupport the next generation of diverse data professionals.
We continue our relationship, established in 2009, with theKilts Center for Marketing at the University of Chicago Booth
School of Business. As part of this relationship, academic
researchers around the world can access Nielsen’s Ad Inteldata for application in a wide variety of disciplines, including
economics, marketing, and social sciences. As of December
2021, almost 500 active users across almost 90 institutions
have used Ad Intel data for their research projects.
In January 2022, Nielsen began a partnership with the
Wharton Customer Analytics (WCA) program as a corporate
sponsor, in line with our efforts to help prepare the next
generation of data-driven decision-makers. The WCA, anacademic research center focused on the development andapplication of business analytics methods, will leverage
Nielsen data to develop a practicum research project ondiversity, equity and inclusion in late 2022.
In 2021, Nielsen also continued to support the American
Advertising Foundation’s (AAF) National Student Advertising
Competition, to provide statistical data for use in a collegelevel competition that provides students with real-world
client experience.
Finally, we also continued our sponsorship and pro bono
support of AI4ALL. This nonprofit trains talent from
historically excluded groups to become ethical leaders in
the artificial intelligence (AI) industry, through educationand mentorship, to ensure that AI can benefit all. In 2021,

AppendixNielsen employees and interns hosted a workshop for AI4ALL
students to learn about securing internships and pursuing
careers in data professions.

Nielsen Global Impact Day
After a pause in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
Nielsen employees came together again in 2021 to continue
our Nielsen Global Impact Day (NGID) tradition, donating
their time and talents to their local communities. For the
ninth NGID, organized by our Cares Business Resource Group
leaders and volunteer champions around the world, morethan 3,000 employees across 40 countries participated inover 360 events or individual actions, collectively logging
more than 9,700 hours of volunteer time.
While the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic presented logisticalchallenges, Nielsen volunteers organized and adapted todeliver a collaborative day of community impact. Dozens
of virtual volunteering events were held around the world
for actions like designing educational posters for children
and vulnerable adults in India, recording children’s books
for under-resourced students in the United States, learning
about environmental conservation, and more.
Nielsen also partnered with Common Impact, a nationallyrecognized nonprofit that connects corporate employees
to nonprofit organizations with proven models to tackle thegreatest challenges communities face, to host a virtual skillsbased pitch competition. Over 50 employees participated,using their skills and expertise to help provide solutions
to challenges faced by five nonprofits working to advance
representation in media and technology, including the
Asian American Journalists Association, the Think Tank for
Inclusion & Equity, INCLUDEnyc, Inevitable Foundation and
the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media.

59

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capitalOver 3,000 employees across 40 countries
participated in Nielsen Global Impact Day,
logging more than 9,700 hours of volunteer
time in 2021.
Advancing representation and inclusion throughour core business
Beyond direct volunteering and philanthropy, Nielsen
employees also engage with nonprofits through our coreproducts and services. These engagements help us tostrengthen our value proposition and advance representation
in media and technology, in turn supporting our corporate
purpose of powering a better media future for all people.
For example, our Gracenote Inclusion Analytics team has
actively sought out connections with diverse nonprofit
groups in the U.S. to elevate their work and ensure thatmedia measurement reflects the highest standards ofrepresentation and equity. In 2021, the Gracenote Inclusion
Analytics team expanded its work with community partners,
including IllumiNative, a Native-led organization working
to dispel negative and stereotypical representations of
Native peoples in the media. As part of this relationship, wereleased an in-depth study on fan perceptions of culturally
insensitive sport mascots, bolstering IllumiNative’s ongoing
campaign on the issue. The Gracenote Inclusion Analytics
team also works closely with partners like RespectAbility,
GLAAD and the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media to
inform data collection practices around marginalized groups
on screen.
To read more about our Inclusion Analytics and our work on
DE&I, please refer to the DE&I section of this report.

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

Using data to better understand media’s
influence on society and culture
The media landscape and consumption patterns arechanging rapidly, including in ways that reveal divisions
in societies and democracies. To better understand thesechanges, Nielsen’s data on audience measurement andbehavior is helping academic researchers, advocates andstorytellers better understand the media landscape and how
it impacts human behavior. In 2017, Nielsen began working
with Harmony Labs, a nonprofit media research studiothat builds communities and tools to reform and transform
media. The relationship began with Project Ratio, a research
initiative aimed at improving the news information ecosystemthrough the study of the “news information funnel,” asnews moves through the cycle of production, distribution,
discovery, consumption and absorption.
Project Ratio, along with Nielsen’s data contributions
to the project, have since migrated to the Penn Media
Accountability Project (PennMAP), a multidisciplinary
initiative of the University of Pennsylvania’s Computational
Social Science Lab. PennMAP takes a data-driven approachto understand troubling aspects of the media landscapeand has covered a variety of pressing topics, including thecycles of “fake news,” the consumption of radical content on
YouTube and partisanship in news consumption.
The Nielsen-Harmony Labs relationship continues today with
the Narrative Observatory, a purpose-built, multi-disciplinary,cross-institutional infrastructure for understanding audiences
relative to their place in culture; identifying, measuring,and tracking media narratives over long time scales; andoptimizing media effects by surfacing audience-specificstory opportunities and threats. Since its launch in 2020, theNarrative Observatory has used Nielsen’s audience panel
data to help more than a dozen civil society organizations
sharpen their cultural and narrative strategies around criticalsocial issues including immigration reform and racial justice.

Appendix

60

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
We recognize the importance of the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to encourage thecreation of a more equitable world. While we consider
each of the 17 SDGs to be important, we are mindful of theunique role that individual sectors and companies can playto advance them. We align our ESG efforts with key SDGs
in areas where we can make a relevant and meaningful
contribution. These are:• SDG 4: Quality education• SDG 5: Gender equality• SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth• SDG 10: Reduced inequalities• SDG 13: Climate action
Examples of our work in 2021 and early 2022 that align with
our priority SDGs include the following:• SDG 4 Quality education: The Nielsen Foundation
continued to fund the Discover Data program, whichempowers students to understand real-world uses of dataand potential careers in the field.
• SDG 5 Gender equality: David Kenny renewed the LEAD
Network CEO Pledge to increase the number of womenin leadership at Nielsen to 46% by 2024, in line with ourcompany’s DE&I goals.
• SDG 8 Decent work and economic growth: We met our
spending goal with diverse businesses and continued toleverage our team’s talents to support small and diverseowned businesses in their needs. See the DE&I section ofthis report for more.

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities• SDG 10 Reduced inequalities: Nielsen launched theDiverse-Owned Media Equity program, an innovative
program to boost the profile of diverse media outlets. In
addition, through a three-year grant to the Local Initiatives
Support Corporation (LISC), the Nielsen Foundation has
provided $450,000 to date in grants and support to nearly
270 Black-owned small businesses that have limitedaccess to traditional business financing in historicallydisinvested neighborhoods in four U.S. cities.
• SDG 13 Climate action: We continue to work to reduce theenvironmental impact of our operations and our supply
chain, while also leveraging our pro bono data to support
nonprofits working to motivate public action on the climate
crisis.

Appendix

61

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

The Nielsen Foundation, a private foundation established andfunded by Nielsen in 2015, works to build a more equitableworld where everyone counts. The Nielsen Foundation’s
mission is to support organizations that give voice andopportunities to historically underrepresented groups andcommunities, with all grantmaking firmly grounded in acommitment to advance diversity, equity and inclusion.
In 2021, the Nielsen Foundation refocused and refined its
grantmaking priority areas to advance:• Educational access and persistence• Economic mobility and well-being• Representation in media and technology
The Nielsen Foundation provided more than $1.97 million in
grants in 2021 to 49 nonprofit organizations across thesepriority areas. Looking ahead, the foundation plans to sustain
its grantmaking with $6 million in total grants from 2022
through 2024.

Nielsen Foundation 2021 grant total:$1.97 million
Encouraging educational access and persistence
In 2021, the Nielsen Foundation began a new three-year
partnership with Teach for America, committing $375,000
to help the nonprofit recruit the next generation of equityoriented educators from diverse backgrounds to serve in lowincome public schools across the United States.

Environment

Data privacy & security

Communities

The Nielsen Foundation also continued its Discover Datasignature initiative, in partnership with Discovery Educationand the National AfterSchool Association. Discover Data
aims to empower the next generation of data-driven problem
solvers by providing students and educators with relatable,
real-world resources around data science and its applications.
To date, Discover Data has reached approximately 600,000
students.

Promoting economic mobility and well-being
In 2021, the Nielsen Foundation made a three-year, $250,000
commitment to Year Up, a nonprofit providing job training foryoung adults—the majority of whom identify as Black, Latinoor Latina, or other people of color—seeking living-wage
careers. The funds will be used to develop and expand Year
Up pilot programs to reach more young adults in a way that iscost-effective, replicable and scalable.
For the fifth year running, the Foundation again sponsored the
TechDiversity Accelerator at Tampa Bay Wave, a three-month
mentoring, training and network program for underrepresented
entrepreneurs. Over the last four years, cohort companies
have raised an average of $5.1 million each in funding to growtheir businesses.
The Nielsen Foundation also continued the Data for Good
grants program, which is designed to support projects
that use data in innovative ways and help bridge divides tocatalyze long-term change. Recognizing the serious systemic
inequities and racial disparities in today’s philanthropic
funding environment, the Nielsen Foundation focused the2021 program on smaller, diverse-led organizations to help
build their capacity and support their work to use data to
inform decision-making, improve their programs and expand
their support and impact. In 2021, the Nielsen Foundationcommitted $250,000 in grants to five diverse-led organizations

62

Appendix

working to advance economic mobility: Aurora-St. Anthony
Neighborhood Development Corporation, Inclusive Action for
the City, Native American Community Development Institute,
RespectAbility and the Young, Black & Giving Back Institute.

Advancing representation in media andtechnology
In 2021, the Nielsen Foundation continued to support theimportant work of nonprofit partners advancing representation
in media and technology. For example, for the fifth year in arow, the Foundation supported the Geena Davis Institute on
Gender in Media (GDIGM) to advance its work to use data andresearch to uncover insights about on-screen representation.
With support from the Nielsen Foundation, GDIGM hasdeveloped media measurement tools and amassed asignificant body of research on gender prevalence and diverse
representation in entertainment.
The Nielsen Foundation also continued funding for the Ad
Council, a nonprofit dedicated to public service campaigns
that inspire action. Foundation funding helped to support
dozens of research-based campaigns on important social
issues ranging from vaccine education to diversity andinclusion efforts. The Nielsen Foundation also provided grants
to support the growth of diverse future leaders in the media
industry through the International Radio and Television Society(IRTS) Foundation, the National Association of Broadcasters
Leadership Foundation and the Advertising Research
Foundation’s WIDE initiative.

Appendix

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

GRI index

Performance data table
Governance
Board of Directors

2020

2021

2022
(after Annual Meeting)Female4 of 13

5 of 10

5 of 10

Racially/ethnically diverse

4 of 13

2 of 10

2 of 10

Mean tenure

4.8

4

5.3

Independent

11 of 13

9 of 109 of 10

2019-2020 cycle

2021-2022 cycle1

Political contributions1
The Nielsen Company (U.S.), LLC Federal
Political Action Committee (Nielsen PAC)

$13,000

Lobbying expenses2

20193

Lobbying, interest representation or similar
Trade associations$380,000$172,500

1

Data through Q1 2022. For more information, visit the Federal Election Commission website.

2

Links to detailed reports of Nielsen’s lobbying activities can be found at these links: Senate
Office of Public Records—lobbying reports; Clerk of the House of Representatives—lobbying
reports.

3

For 2019, 20% of the $35,000 contribution made to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce wasused for lobbying. Of the $125,000 in membership dues paid to the Information Technology
Industry Council, 17.5% was attributable to lobbying. Of the $12,500 in membership dues paid
to the US-ASEAN Business Council, 1% was attributable to lobbying.

4

In 2020, we contributed $35,000 to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 25% of which relates
to lobbying and is not tax deductible as a business expense. We also paid $125,000 inmembership dues to the Information Technology Industry Council, of which 17.5% was
attributable to lobbying. We paid $13,500 in membership dues to the US-ASEAN BusinessCouncil in 2020, of which 1% was attributable to lobbying.

5

In 2021, we contributed $35,000 to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 25% of which relates
to lobbying and is not tax-deductible as a business expense. We also paid $98,300 inmembership dues to the Information Technology Industry Council, of which 17.5% was
attributable to lobbying. We paid $33,200 in membership dues to the Insights Association in
2021, of which 6% was attributable to lobbying.

$12,000
20204$440,000$172,500

20215$400,000$166,500

64

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

GRI index

Human capital6
Head count by type

2020

2021

Total workforce

14,63914,830Full-time head count13,465

13,783Part-time head count

1,174

1,047

Temporary workers

243

219

Americas

7,887

7,389

Americas %

53.9%

49.8%

Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa

4,207

4,541

Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa %

28.7%

30.6%

Europe

2,545

2,900

Total by region

6

Europe %

17.4%

19.6%

Workforce data is reported for 2020 (Nielsen only) and 2021 for comparability. Historic
data that includes data prior to the sale of Nielsen Global Connect can be found in our 2021
Interim Responsibility Report and previous Global Responsibility Reports. 2021 data reflectsNielsen’s workforce as of December 31, 2021, with data pulled as of February 17, 2022.

65

2022 ESG Report |Home

Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

GRI index

Human capital
Diversity by gender, age and race/ethnicity

Communities

2020

2021

Female

6,247

6,496

Female %

42.7%

43.8%

Male

8,372

8,334

Male %

57.2%

56.2%

Unknown

20—

Unknown %0.1%—

Under 30 years

27.8%

28.0%

30-50 years

53.4%

52.9%

Over 50 years

18.8%

19.1%

Total workforce by gender

Total workforce by age

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

66

2022 ESG Report |Home

Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

GRI index

Human capital
Diversity by gender, age and race/ethnicity

Communities

2020

2021

Total U.S. workforce

6,783

6,191

Total diverse U.S. workforce

2,919

2,669

Total diverse %

43.0%

43.1%

Diverse female %

47.3%

50.1%

Diverse male %

52.3%

49.9%

Black

8.6%

9.5%

Asian

12.6%

12.7%

Latino

18.2%

17.8%

White

57.0%

56.9%

All other

3.7%

3.2%

Diverse females as % of total U.S. head count

20.4%

21.9%

U.S. diversity

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

67

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

GRI index

Human capital
Diversity by gender, age and race/ethnicity

Communities

2020

2021

Diverse % (U.S.)

40.0%

33.0%

Female %

50.0%

50.0%

Diverse % (U.S.)

24.7%

26.4%

Female %

37.9%

41.5%

% women in revenue-generating management

48.1%

50.6%

% women in junior management

40.1%

41.0%

% women in entry-level positions

44.1%

45.0%

% women in enterprise IT and engineering

20.4%

21.0%

Executive (C-suite) diversity

Senior management diversity

Additional gender diversity

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

68

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

GRI index

Human capital
Exits and turnover rate by gender

2020

2021

Female %

20.2%

30.9%

Male %

22.0%

24.2%

Absolute turnover rate7

21.0%

26.4%

Voluntary turnover rate

14.9%

18.5%

Involuntary turnover rate

6.1%

5.2%

Promotions, new hires and retention

2020

2021

% of promotions that were women

47.0%

44.6%

% of women promoted

4.3%

12.2%

% of men promoted

3.6%

11.6%

Total number of new employee hires

421

3,936

% of new hires that were women

47.3%

52.6%

Promotions

New hires

Female turnover7% of overall exits

40.8%

49.6%

Retention rate

89.2%

79.5%

Absolute turnover rate includes voluntary and involuntary exits during the time period divided
by average headcount during the time period.
Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding. Please note that for the purposes of our
10-K reporting, we use full-time equivalents, whereas for this more detailed reporting on our
workforce, we have used total head count.

69

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

GRI index

Supply chain
Business diversity spend

2018

2019

2020

2021

Overall (Tier 1 and 2) spent with diverse firms (Womenowned, minority-owned, veteran-owned, LGBT-owned or
disabled-owned businesses)

$98M

$111M

$118M

$104M

% of U.S. sourceable spend

9%

8%

10%

15%

Supply chain ESG

2018

2019

2020

2021

Completed sustainability scorecards of Tier 1 suppliers

101

1038

106

108

% critical supplier base

—

67%

67%

54%

% managed spend

—

90%

90%

87%
8

Includes 100% of high-risk suppliers.

70

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

GRI index

Social/communities
2019

2020

2021

$25,421,145$26,581,095$26,141,898

132,0009

5,15010

14,500$1,710,300$2,179,240$1,971,456

Community investment
Corporate contributions (including pro bono and inkind value, as well as corporate cash contributions)
Employee volunteering
Overall hours logged
Nielsen Foundation
Grants in $Grants in # of organizations

56

64

49

9

Data includes employee hours logged by employees of Nielsen Global Connect, prior to its
sale in 2021.

10

Nielsen was unable to hold its annual day of service, Nielsen Global Impact Day, in 2020,
due to the COVID-19 pandemic. These hours reflect what employees logged in our
optional volunteer tracking software, but do not reflect the full scope of volunteering acrossNielsen employees.

71

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

GRI index

Environment
Scope 1 GHG emissions11
2021• Nielsen’s 2021 data represents only Nielsen (Media) data from January 1, 2021 December 31, 2021
• Historical performance tables:

Absolute emissions (metric tons CO2e)

13,637.09◦ All represent data from before the sale of Nielsen Global Connect in March 2021.
◦ With a methodology change in Nielsen’s environmental data calculations, starting in
2019, all data reported represents 100% of Nielsen’s global facility portfolio.

Intensity (metric tons CO2e/sq. ft.)

◦ In 2020, COVID-19-related global Nielsen office closures and travel restrictions
reduced the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and utility consumption in our facilities.
This is reflected in any data decreases in our numbers reported.

0.006• 2021 performance tables

Scope 1 GHG emissions by gas (tonnes)

11

Carbon dioxide (CO2)Methane (CH4)◦ Facility-based data represents 100% of Nielsen’s global footprint in 2021 =2,205,183 sq. ft.

2021◦ All environmental data, except Scope 3 emissions, have been verified by an external
third party, Apex Companies, LLC (formerly known as Bureau Veritas North America(BVNA)). The limited assurance letters are included in the Environmental data—
Methodology and verification section of this Appendix.

11,333,640.58◦ We collect and report GHG emissions data according to the Greenhouse Gas Protocol
Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard. Please see the Environmental data
Methodology and verification in this Appendix for full details.

268,269.10
11

Nitrous oxide (N2O)

102,347.27

Nielsen Scope 1 emission numbers include fleet data for the first time. This is the leased
company fleet used by field employees who recruit and maintain relationships with our
research panelists. This change (and the sale of Nielsen Global Connect) will explain the data
swings or trend breaks between all historical data (reporting 2020 data and before) and the2021 Scope 1 emissions data in this 2022 ESG report.

72

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

GRI index

Scope 2 GHG emissions
Location-based
Absolute emissions (metric tons CO2e)
Intensity (metric tons CO2e/sq. ft.)

2021
19,697.88
0.009

Market-based
Absolute emissions (metric tons CO2e)
Intensity (metric tons CO2e/sq. ft.)

20,442.73
0.009

Scope 2 GHG emissions by gas
Location-based (tonnes)
Carbon dioxide (CO2)2021
19,635.83

Methane (CH4)

5.72

Nitrous oxide (N2O)

29.33

Market-based (tonnes)
Carbon dioxide (CO2)

Communities

20,442.73

Methane (CH4)

2.68

Nitrous oxide (N2O)

17.70

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

73

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

GRI index

Scope 1 + Scope 2 emissions intensity
Location-based2021

Scope 1 + Scope 2 (metric tons CO2e/sq. ft.)

0.015

Market-based
Scope 1 + Scope 2 (metric tons CO2e/sq. ft.)

0.015

Scope 3 GHG emissions12
Category

Emissions (tCO2e)

Contribution %Evaluation status13

1. Purchased goods and services

62,82460%

Relevant, calculated

2. Capital goods

14,11914%

Relevant, calculated

3. Fuel and energy related activities

7,668

7%

Relevant, calculated

4. Upstream transportation and distribution

4,486

4%

Relevant, calculated

5. Waste generated in operations

349

0%

Not relevant, calculated

6. Business travel

1,136

1%

Relevant, calculated

7. Employee commuting

700

1%

Not relevant, calculated

8. Upstream leased assets

12,641

12%

Relevant, calculated0%

Not relevant, not calculated

9. Downstream transportation and distribution

12

Nielsen’s 2021 Scope 3 comes from a complete 2021 supply chain assessment done by
Nielsen in engagement with a third-party expert. The team evaluated the relevance of eachof the 15 categories for Nielsen, and calculated the final 2021 Scope 3 emissions.

13

The evaluation status threshold is set at 1% of Scope 3 emissions.

742022 ESG Report |Home

Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Scope 3 GHG emissions
Category

Emissions(tCO2e)Contribution %Evaluation status13

10. Processing of sold products0%

Not relevant, not calculated

11. Use of sold products0%

Not relevant, not calculated

12. End-of-life treatment of sold products0%

Not relevant, not calculated

13. Downstream leased assets0%

Not relevant, not calculated

14. Franchises0%

Not relevant, not calculated

15. Investment0%

Not relevant, not calculated

Total

103,924

Energy use
Electricity consumption
Absolute consumption (kWh)Intensity (kWh/sq. ft.)

2021
48,795,847.91
22.128

Fuel consumption (MWh)DieselNatural gas

627.55
12,720.53

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

75

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

GRI index

Waste generation14
2021
Absolute generation (short tons)

4,186.74

Intensity (short tons/sq. ft.)

0.002

Paper management
Sheets purchased

2021

North America

2,952,500

Latin America

35,000Europe, Middle East, Africa

250,324

Asia Pacific15

923,501

Water consumption
2021
Absolute consumption (cubic meters)
Intensity (cubic meters/sq. ft.)

14

Our reported waste metrics consist primarily of landfill waste, excluding composting andrecycling. Nielsen continues to look at the local and regional infrastructure available to us
to establish responsible waste management (such as setting up and/or properly separating
different waste streams) in our global offices. However, for data collection and reporting
purposes, all waste is assumed to be landfill in locations where recycling and/or composting
are not yet set up or clearly separated.

15

China and India included in APAC for 2021 paper purchase data (compared to historical data).

113,677.17
0.052

76

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

GRI index

Historical environmental data
Environmental data is not directly comparable to 2021 data because of the sale of Nielsen Global Connect in 2021, so this historical
data is reported as a separate section. See Environmental data-Methodology and verification section for details.

Scope 1 GHG emissions
Scope 1 emissions

201716201817

201918202019Absolute emissions (metric tons CO2e)709.52861.386,781.80

6,058.74

Intensity (metric tons CO2e/sq. ft.)

0.00050.00070.00130.0012

Scope 1 emissions by gas (tonnes)

2017

2018

2019

2020

—

—

6,766.00

6.053.03

Carbon dioxide (CO2)Methane (CH4)

—

—

0.12

0.11

Nitrous oxide (N2O)

—

—

0.01

0.01

16

Area represented by data in 2017: 1,471,979 sq. ft. (26% of total Nielsen sq. ft.). 2017 data
represents North America, Latin America and Europe.

17

Area represented by data in 2018: 1,201,174 sq. ft. (19% of total Nielsen sq. ft.). 2018 data
represents all Nielsen regions.

18

Area represented by data in 2019: 5,224,928 (100% of total Nielsen sq. ft.). 2019 data
represents all Nielsen regions, including estimates for 100% representation of the
global portfolio.

19

Area represented by data in 2020: 5,134,972 (100% of total Nielsen sq. ft.). 2020 data
represents all Nielsen regions, including estimates for 100% representation of the
global portfolio.

77

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

GRI index

Scope 2 GHG emissions
Location-based

201720201821

20192220202329,099.90

24,301.62

49,840.00

37,627.95

Intensity (metric tons CO2e/sq. ft.)

0.010

0.008

0.010

0.007

Market-based

201720201821

20192220202329,965.77

25,662.55

51,963.00

39,302.58

0.010

0.009

0.010

0.008

2017

2018

2019

2020

Carbon dioxide (CO2)——49.607.70

35,450Methane (CH4)

—

—

2.43

0.68

Nitrous oxide (N2O)

—

—

0.63

0.29

Absolute (metric tons CO2e)

Absolute (metric tons CO2e)
Intensity (metric tons CO2e/sq. ft.)

Scope 2 emissions by gas
Location-based (tonnes)

Market-based (tonnes)
Carbon dioxide (CO2)

—

—

—

39,232

Methane (CH4)

—

—

—

0.41

Nitrous oxide (N2O)

—

—

—

0.21

20

Area represented by data in 2017: 3,020,328 sq. ft. (53% of total Nielsen sq. ft.). 2017 data
represents North America, Latin America and Europe.

21

Area represented by data in 2018: 3,003,265 sq. ft. (49% of total Nielsen sq. ft.). 2018 data
represents all Nielsen regions.

22

Area represented by data in 2019: 5,224,928 (100% of total Nielsen sq. ft.). 2019
data represents all Nielsen regions, including estimates for 100% representation of the global
portfolio. A previous version of this report listed 2019 Absolute Scope 2 GHG emissions as
48,840.00, and it has been corrected to 49,840.00, aligned with our previous reporting.

23

Area represented by data in 2020: 5,134,972 (100% of total Nielsen sq. ft. in 2020). 2020 data
represents all Nielsen regions, including estimates for 100% representation of the
global portfolio.

78

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

GRI index

Scope 1 + 2 emissions intensity24
Location-based

2017

2018

2019

2020

Scope 1 + Scope 2 (metric tons CO2e/sq. ft.)

0.00800.00410.01080.00850.00820.00430.01120.0088

2017

2018

2019

2020

Waste (Category 5 GHG protocol scope 3 standard)——

1,152.44

671.74

Business travel (Category 6 GHG protocol scope 3 standard)——

18,415.98

4,563.97

Employee commuting (Category 7 GHG protocol
scope 3 standard)——

54,022.00

12,091.00

Market-based
Scope 1 + Scope 2 (metric tons CO2e/sq. ft.)

Scope 3 GHG Emissions
Category

Total (metric tons CO2e)——73,590.42

17,326.71

24

Intensity reported has been normalized to metric tons CO2e per square foot for North
America, Latin America and Europe in 2017; all Nielsen regions in 2018; all Nielsen regions,
including CO2e estimates in 2019 and 2020.

79

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

GRI index

Energy use
Electricity consumption
Absolute (kWh)Intensity (kWh/sq. ft.)

20172520182620192720202863,611,467.87

60,027,815.03

105,755,155.00

85,358,281.00

21.06

19.99

20.24

16.62

Fuel consumption (MWh)Diesel29483.53432.36

53.35

Natural gas30

4,077.81

36,139.49

33,371.94

Waste management

Absolute (short tons)
Intensity (short tons/sq. ft.)

25

Area represented by data in 2017: 3,020,328 sq. ft. (53% of total Nielsen sq. ft.). 2017 data
represents North America, Latin America and Europe.

26

Area represented by data in 2018: 3,003,265 sq. ft. (49% of total Nielsen sq. ft.). 2018 data
represents all Nielsen regions.

27

Area represented by data in 2019: 5,224,928 (100% of total Nielsen sq. ft.); 2019 data
represents all Nielsen regions, including estimates for 100% representation of the
global portfolio.

28

Area represented by data in 2020: 5,134,972 (100% of total Nielsen sq. ft. in 2020). 2020 data
represents all Nielsen regions, including estimates for 100% representation of the
global portfolio.

29

For self-generation of electricity for generators.

30

For self-generation of heat for our offices.

31

Area represented by data in 2017: 242,527 sq. ft. (4% of total Nielsen sq. ft.). 2017 data
represents North America, Latin America and Europe.

32

Area represented by data in 2018: 139,707sq. ft. (2% of total Nielsen sq. ft.). 2018 data
represents all Nielsen regions.

201731

201832

201933202034782.94612.653,226.09

1,880.4433

0.000434

0.00320.00440.0006

Area represented by data in 2019: 5,224,928 (100% of total Nielsen sq. ft.); 2019 data
represents all Nielsen regions, including estimates for 100% representation of the global
portfolio.
Area represented by data in 2020: 5,134,972 (100% of total Nielsen sq. ft. in 2020). 2020
data represents all Nielsen regions, including estimates for 100% representation of the global
portfolio.

802022 ESG Report |Home

Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

GRI index

Paper management
Sheets purchased

2017

2018

2019

2020

North America

6,483,500

4,729,000

31,173,500

842,000

Latin America

6,559,570

4,989,172

3,309,000

1,111,208

India

1,688,500

1,599,500

1,564,000

396,500

Europe, Middle East, Africa

30,046,723

13,189,995

12,540,650

4,456,427

Asia Pacific35

33,296,150

9,515,713

5,491,500

3,504,500

Greater China—

2,220,338

4,568,500

2,070,000

Water consumption
35

201736
Absolute (cubic meters)
Intensity (cubic meters/sq. ft.)

201837

201938202039130,685.17

154,197.03

667,623.66

292,115.60

0.07

0.10

0.13

0.06

Japan and Korea included in APAC for 2020 paper purchase data.
Area represented by data in 2017: 1,766,073 sq. ft. (31% of total Nielsen sq. ft.). 2017 data
represents North America, Latin America and Europe.

36

37

Area represented by data in 2018: 1,531,346 sq. ft. (25% of total Nielsen sq. ft.). 2018 data
represents all Nielsen regions.

38

Area represented by data in 2019: 5,224,928 (100% of total Nielsen sq. ft.). 2019 data
represents all Nielsen regions, including estimates for 100% representation of the
global portfolio.

39

Area represented by data in 2020: 5,134,972 (100% of total Nielsen sq. ft. in 2020). 2020 data
represents all Nielsen regions, including estimates for 100% representation of the
global portfolio.

812022 ESG Report |Home

Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

2022 SASB Standards Index
The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) Standards overseen by the Value Reporting Foundation guide the disclosure of financially material sustainability information by companies to theirinvestors. SASB has developed industry-specific reporting recommendations, including accounting and activity metrics, to guide businesses’ public reporting.
This index includes our responses to SASB’s reporting recommendations for Professional Commercial Services, Nielsen’s industry classification according to SASB’s Sustainable Industry Classification
System®. SASB has identified three topics as most material to our industry—data security, workforce diversity and engagement and professional integrity—as well as specific quantitative andqualitative indicators for each topic.
Topic

Code

Accounting metricResponse

Data Security

SV-PS-230a.1

Description of
approach toidentifying andaddressing data
security risks

Nielsen is committed to protecting the security of all client and consumer information. Our Cybersecurity program is grounded
in internationally recognized data protection principles, and we use a variety of security technologies and procedures to protect
client and consumer information. We deploy and utilize innovative custom-built and commercial solutions at a global scale. Nielsen’s
Cybersecurity program aligns with the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cyber Security Framework (NIST CSF), which
includes five core functions: identify, protect, detect, respond and recover.
Identifying data security threats and vulnerabilities: We use a threat and vulnerability management and penetration testing program
to detect new vulnerabilities and help assign priority to remediation. This program leverages a combination of appliance-based andsoftware agent-based scanners to detect vulnerabilities across our operations. Where possible, we integrate tools for automationand to facilitate CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery) processes. We have defined remediation periods based on theseverity of the findings, which in turn drives the prioritization and implementation of remediation actions.
Nielsen contracts with leading security firms to provide penetration testing services for identified high-risk applications. Additionally,
it conducts internal penetration tests to supplement third-party tests and to meet internal or client requirements. We operate a 24/7
Cybersecurity Operations Center, which includes threat defense operations and threat intelligence to detect and respond to malicious
behavior and to identify incidents through monitoring, alerts and analysis of network activity, as well as through cyberintelligence
findings. We continue to invest in technology, alerting capabilities and enhanced processes to assist us in staying on top of threatsfacing our environment. Continuous improvement capabilities include periodic Red and Purple team exercises, and incident response
tabletop exercises.
Policies and governance: Nielsen uses a principles-based approach to deliver specific control areas in the Nielsen Acceptable Use
Policy, Cybersecurity Policy and Cybersecurity Standards. Combined, these policies and standards define the minimum set of controlsthat are necessary to uphold the company’s reputation and protect sensitive information. The Acceptable Use Policy, Cybersecurity
Standards and Cybersecurity Policy are reviewed annually to ensure appropriate controls and implementation across the company.

82

2022 ESG Report |Home

Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Topic

Code

Accounting metricResponse

Data Security

SV-PS-230a.1

Description of
approach toidentifying andaddressing data
security risks(continued)

The controls within the Acceptable Use Policy are tiered, to ensure that appropriate protection is provided for every level of information
classification. Nielsen’s information classifications are: public, proprietary, confidential and confidential-restricted.
Governance for these policies includes:• Oversight from the Corporate Policy Governance Council• Review directed by Cybersecurity Governance• Approval from the Chief Information Security Officer• Publication and translation into multiple languages• Emergency releases as required
We have a defined exception process in place for deviation from data security controls. The process requires a review of businessjustifications and impact while considering additional or alternative mitigating controls, before approval is considered.
Risk management: The Cybersecurity team focuses on identifying cybersecurity risks throughout business streams, educating
business owners about risks and providing consultation on requirements for alternative mitigations. Control attestations are completed
to determine how implementation has occurred across specific services, products or business processes. The Cybersecurity team
maintains a constant feedback loop with our Chief Legal & Corporate Affairs Officer and other members of our senior leadership teamon our cybersecurity risk. We also undertake additional risk management procedures in the following special circumstances:• Contracts: In coordination with Legal, the Cybersecurity team regularly reviews and provides recommended information security
language for client and third-party contracts, to include specific security-control requirements where applicable, specialized
reporting and response procedures in the event of an incident, self-certification procedures and audit rights definitions.
• New product development: The Cybersecurity team employs engineers and security architects who work side by side with
infrastructure, networking and application development teams, to embed security in the design of new products that are eitherpurchased or built in-house. This coordinated approach allows teams to identify risks more easily, based on the capabilities, featuresand use cases of the new products brought into our secure environment.
• Acquisitions and divestitures: The Cybersecurity team engages with acquisitions and divestitures to ensure that security isestablished or maintained throughout these transactions. The acquisition and divestiture processes include due diligence measures,
integration requirements and other processes that ensure compliance with the Nielsen Cybersecurity Policy and Standards. Joint
ventures whose technology is hosted by Nielsen fall under our cybersecurity program and practices.

832022 ESG Report |Home

Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Topic

Code

Accounting metricResponse

Data Security

SV-PS-230a.1

Description of
approach toidentifying andaddressing data
security risks(continued)

Assessments of third parties that collect, process or store Nielsen confidential or confidential-restricted information: The
Cybersecurity team performs in-depth cybersecurity assessments on third-party security controls and their security technologies
before allowing any data-sharing to occur. Vendors are tiered according to the classification of information they are collecting,processing or storing, and reassessments are conducted on a recurring basis.

SV-PS-230a.2

Description of policies
and practices relating
to collection, usage,
and retention ofcustomer information

We take seriously our commitment to keeping all personal and confidential data private. We follow an approach of Privacy by Design
to ensure that our privacy principles—which align with globally accepted fair information practices—are embedded in the design ofour products and services during the development stage. Our Global Privacy Policy addresses Nielsen’s collection, use, disclosure andretention of data about unique individuals. The policy is generally applied to all Nielsen services, processes and technologies—whether
client-facing or internal—that utilize personal data, including during the development or assessment of new processes or technology, as
well as by all Nielsen affiliates, subsidiaries, employees and contractors.

SV-PS-230a.3(1) Number ofdata breaches,(2) percentage
involving customers’confidential businessinformation(CBI) or personallyidentifiable
information (PII), (3)number of customers
affected

Nielsen had no reportable data breaches in 2021.

Insurance: Nielsen procures insurance for cybersecurity incidents, with limits applicable to the anticipated risk.

842022 ESG Report |Home

Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Topic

Code

Accounting metricWorkforce
Diversity &Engagement

SV-PS-330a.1

Percentage of genderand racial/ethnic
group representationfor (1) executive
management and (2)all other employees

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response
Diversity metric

2020

2021

Full-time head count by gender

Male – 7,974 (59.2%)
Female – 5,475 (40.7%)
Unknown – 16 (0.1%)

Male – 7,963 (57.8%)
Female – 5,820 (42.2%)% diversity in U.S. headcountDiverse - 2,919 (43.0%)
White - 3,864 (57.0%)

Diverse – 2,669 (43.1%)
White – 3,522 (56.9%)

Racial/ethnic representation at executive(C-suite) level

40.0%

33.0%

Racial/ethnic representation at
management level

24.7%

26.4%

% women in total head count

42.7%

43.8%

% women in executive (C-suite) head count

50.0%

50.0%

% women in top management head count(maximum 2 levels from CEO)

53.6%

51.0%

% women in management head count

37.9%

41.5%

Number of female named executive officers

2 – Chief Financial Officer, Chief People
Officer

2 – Chief Financial Officer, Chief People
Officer

Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding. Please note that for the purposes of our 10-K reporting, we use full-time equivalents, whereas for this more detailed reporting on our workforce, we haveused total headcount. 2021 data is year-end data for Dec. 31, 2021, pulled as of Feb. 17, 2022.

85

2022 ESG Report |Home

Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Topic

Code

Accounting metricResponse

Workforce
Diversity &Engagement

SV-PS-330a.2(1) Voluntary and (2)involuntary turnoverrate for employees

Turnover metric

2020

2021

Absolute turnover rate

21.0%

26.4%

Voluntary turnover rate

14.9%

18.5%

Involuntary turnover rate

6.1%

5.2%

Percentages may not sum to 100 due to rounding. Absolute turnover rate includes voluntary and involuntary exits during the time period divided by average headcount during the time period. 2021 data is
year-end data for Dec. 31, 2021, pulled as of Feb. 17, 2022.

SV-PS-330a.3

Employeeengagement as apercentage

Employee engagement—the emotional and psychological connection our employees feel to their workplace and the work we do—is central to both individual and business success. We are committed to strengthening employee engagement through our Growth
Culture and our values (Inclusion, Courage and Growth), which are at the core of who we are at Nielsen. Employee engagement is a key
strategic priority because of disruptive industry changes that require us to transform and because of the critical role our people play infulfilling our mission to power the future of media.
We engage employees through:• Regular employee/manager one-on-ones;• A learning experience platform, myLearning, powered by Degreed• Business Resource Groups (BRGs)• Transition programs to support our people as they onboard to Nielsen, as well as evolve and grow in their careers with us; examples
include our internships, conversion from intern to full-time, new managers and executive onboarding programs• Corporate Citizenship calls to action like Nielsen Global Impact Day and Earth Day• Regular town hall meetings that encourage dialogue between leaders and employees• Ongoing pulse surveys for global and local leaders to hear from our employees and plan specific actions based on their feedback• Slack channels, which enable employees to connect on a variety of topics, including career growth, learning and development,
diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) and business strategy, as well as to pose questions directly to our CEO and senior management
We continue to prioritize our employee engagement and support efforts that help employees address their unique challenges,
including COVID-19 impacts. This includes providing additional virtual resources, support for remote workers and enhanced mental
health support.

862022 ESG Report |Home

Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Topic

Code

Accounting metricResponse

Workforce
Diversity &Engagement

SV-PS-330a.3

Employeeengagement asa percentage(continued)

Once employees are at Nielsen, we have an “always on” employee listening and continuous feedback strategy with a new tool welaunched in 2021, designed to enhance our employee engagement, experience and overall culture. Our employee listening strategy ispart of our effort to constantly improve the Nielsen employee experience. By proactively engaging with our people across all functions
and geographies to identify both successes and shortfalls, we believe we can build a better Nielsen—together. Our new employee
listening platform also enables dynamic reporting for managers and teams, with the ability to filter feedback to identify key themes andinspire responsive action-planning.
We also regularly deploy confidential surveys to measure progress on our employee engagement and culture goals, and to better
understand the Nielsen employee experience. These include:• Periodic pulse surveys of all employees• Census surveys of all employees• Surveys of our new joiners to understand their experience at key milestones during their onboarding• Exit surveys to understand the views of our departing employees
Our pulse and Census surveys, which are available in multiple languages, include questions that tie to measurable performanceoutcomes proven to demonstrate effective employee engagement, including a focus on our Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS). We
share detailed survey results with senior leaders and managers, and overall performance with all employees in our company newsletter,
global town halls and manager-led team discussions. Managers are expected to develop team-specific action plans based on theirsurvey results, focusing on areas important to their teams where they can make meaningful progress.
We achieved a global eNPS of 25 as of our Q4 2021 pulse survey, which falls in the “good” range according to external benchmarks.
We’ve set a target to track and increase our eNPS from “good” to “great,” according to external benchmarks, by 2024.

Professional
Integrity

SV-PS-510a.1

Description of
approach to ensuring
professional integrity

Our global Compliance & Integrity program is dedicated to ensuring legal and ethical behavior across Nielsen—from the C-suite throughto the most junior employees all over the world. While upholding our high ethical standards is the responsibility of all our employees,functional responsibility for managing our Compliance & Integrity efforts sits with our Global Head of Compliance & Integrity within our
Legal & Corporate Affairs team, reporting directly to our Chief Legal & Corporate Affairs Officer and with oversight from our Boardof Directors.
Our Code of Conduct is a core element of this program. The Code establishes clear expectations and guidelines for all employees,
prohibiting corruption, bribery, facilitation payments, fraud, discrimination, antitrust/anti-competitive practices, money laundering,insider trading and more. It also requires associates to avoid and disclose conflicts of interest. The Code also sets forth expectations
and guidelines for positive behavior, including treating everyone with respect, valuing diversity, protecting human rights and speaking up
to report Code violations without fear of retaliation. We initiated an update to Nielsen’s Code of Conduct in 2022, published in May 2022;
it is available in more than 10 languages. In all jurisdictions where it is legally permissible, employees are required to complete Code of872022 ESG Report |Home

Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Topic

Code

Accounting metricResponse

Professional
Integrity

SV-PS-510a.1

Description of
approach to ensuring
professional integrity(continued)

Conduct training annually and as part of that training, they must certify their understanding of, and compliance with, the Code.
Underlying the Code are more-detailed internal policies—for example, a Global Anti-Corruption Policy—to guide employees in their dayto-day activities. The Compliance & Integrity program coordinates the Corporate Policies Governance Council, a cross-functional teamof stakeholders that ensure global, internal Nielsen policies are up to date and relevant for current business activity.
The Code applies to everyone at Nielsen, including our subsidiaries and affiliates that we control. The Code also applies equally to themembers of our Board, our senior officers and every employee, whether full-time, part-time or temporary. We choose to do businesswith other companies that follow these same principles. Nielsen suppliers are expected to know and follow the guidelines in our Supplier
Code of Conduct and in turn to hold their suppliers and subcontractors to the same high standards.

Activity Metrics

SV-PS-510a.2

Total amount ofmonetary losses
as a result oflegal proceedings
associated withprofessional integrity

There were no cases or fines during the reporting period as a result of legal proceedings associated with professional integrity, including
negligence, malpractice, breach of contract, fraud, corruption, and bribery.

SV-PS-000.A

Number of employeesby: (1) full-timeand part-time, (2)temporary, and (3)contract

Employees by type

2020

2021

Total head count

14,63914,830Full-time head count13,465

13,783Part-time head count

1,174

1,047

Temporary head count

243

219

Please note that for the purposes of our 10-K reporting, we use full-time equivalents, whereas for this more detailed reporting on our workforce, we have used total headcount. Total headcount includes fulltime and part-time head count. Temporary head count includes consultants and interns.

SV-PS-000.B

Employee hours
worked, percentage
billable

Not applicable. We do not track employee time through a single, centralized system.

88

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures Index
The Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) is a project of the Financial Stability Board that developed disclosure recommendations to help companies provide the informationthat investors, lenders, insurance underwriters and others need to appropriately assess and price climate-related risks and opportunities. Nielsen has developed this index based on the TCFD’s
recommended disclosures, organized in order of the TCFD’s four key areas of focus: governance of climate-related risks; strategy for identifying climate-related risks and opportunities; risk
management; and metrics and targets.
Nielsen’s 2022 ESG Report includes additional detail about our approach to addressing our environmental impact. This TCFD index provides an additional level of disclosure for stakeholders interested
specifically in the TCFD’s recommended disclosure areas. Nielsen has been included among the TCFD’s Supporters since the publication of our last Global Responsibility Report in June 2020, which alsoaligned with the TCFD’s recommendations.

Governancea) Describe the Board’s
oversight of climate-relatedrisks and opportunities.

At the Board level, Nielsen’s Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee (NCGC) oversees the company’s overall environmental, social and governance (ESG)
matters, including overall ESG strategy, except to the extent reserved for the full Board or another Committee.
As part of its ESG oversight role, the NCGC’s charter includes:• Review management of the company’s strategy, initiatives, risks and opportunities with respect to significant ESG matters, in coordination with the Board andother Board committees, as appropriate, and provide updates and make recommendations on such matters to the full Board, as needed.
• In this context, the Committee:◦ Will periodically review and receive updates on the company’s ESG management and disclosures, including the company’s progress and performance;◦ Will periodically review and receive updates from management on the Company’s global community and social responsibility policies, programs and activities;◦ Will periodically review ESG emerging trends, best practices and regulatory developments.

b) Describe management’s rolein assessing and managing
climate-related risks andopportunities.

Nielsen’s formal Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) process regularly tracks three risk categories that are explicitly related to ESG issues: Climate Change; Health,
Safety & Human Rights; and Business Continuity. Climate change, a stand-alone risk in this process, is reviewed by senior management, including the CEO, toaddress the risk, effectively respond to it and identify ongoing opportunities for the business.
Results and considerations from our annual effort are incorporated in the Risk Factors section of our Annual Report on 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021,
and these Risk Factors may be updated as required in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.

89

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Strategya) Describe the climate-relatedrisks and opportunities theorganization has identified overthe short, medium andlong term.

Climate risk assessment
Building on our last climate risk assessment in 2018, in early 2022, we engaged a third-party expert to focus our efforts on the physical and transition risks we may
be exposed to across our global footprint.
The climate change risk assessment details the impacts of physical risks—focusing on the potential impact of extreme weather events and sea level rise to ourphysical assets and operations—and transition risks—covering potential regulatory pressures and reputational risks. The assessment reviewed three climate
scenarios aligned with the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSP):• SSP1-2.6—Aggressive action scenario resulting in holding temperatures to an average 1.5oC increase as a result of immediate and aggressive action to limit
greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions• SSP2-4.5—Delayed action scenario resulting in holding temperatures to an average 2oC increase• SSP5-8.5 (referred to as “business as usual”)—Scenario anticipating that GHG emissions will continue to increase at the current rate, resulting in at least a 3.5oC
average temperature increase
Varying degrees of average global temperature rise were looked at:• Transition risks—Focused on all three scenarios for their impact across three time periods of 2030, 2040 and 2050
• Physical risks—Focused on the two scenarios likely to cause larger impacts to physical assets, namely SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5. Timescales for projections
focused on two main horizons, the 2030s (the period of 2020–2040) and 2050s (the period of 2040–2060)
The physical risk assessment used a heat map approach to review potential climate change impacts in the distinct global regions in which we operate. Looking at
the “likelihood” and “consequence” of the risk, current and future physical climate change impacts—namely, extreme heat, extreme cold, flooding, drought, tropical
cyclones, sea level rise and warming average temperatures—were given a risk rating and ranked as a “low,” “medium” or “high” risk to Nielsen in each region.
The risks were evaluated against four consequence criteria represented by the following categories:• Reputational: Its impact on Nielsen’s ability to deliver core services and conduct business• Asset integrity: The possible damage to assets and data storage that Nielsen depends on to deliver services and conduct business• Financial: Financial costs incurred due to exposure to climate hazards• Health and safety: Impact on employee and panelist health and safety

90

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Strategya) Describe the climate-relatedrisks and opportunities theorganization has identified overthe short, medium andlong term. (continued)

Under a “business as usual” (SSP5-8.5) scenario that anticipates at least a 3.5°C temperature increase, flooding, tropical cyclones and sea level rise are the mostprevalent risks for Nielsen assets in the regions where we operate. For most regions linked to these issues, the risk is ranked as “medium” at present, with “high” infuture projections for the 2050s period. Extreme heat and drought were also found to be “medium” or “high” risks in the future, but are less prevalent.
Examples of physical risk mitigation measures and opportunities identified include:
Extreme heat, increasing average temperature and drought:• Provide training and awareness for field staff on how to stay safe in extreme heat
• Ensure locations and operations have business continuity plans• Ensure access to clean water for staff operating in the field
Tropical cyclones/hurricanes, sea level rise and flooding:• Consider locations in less hurricane-prone regions and areas less likely to be impacted by flooding or future sea level rise
• Continue to move critical operations to less impacted locations and/or use third-party data centers• Create efficient at-home setups for employees in high-risk areas• Consider proximity of real estate to flood zones and sea level rise projections when renewing leases
The transition risk assessment considered the impact of potential current and future risks associated with the shift toward a lower-carbon economy. The transition
risks studied were categorized as the following:• Policy and legal: Impact of current and emerging regulations; carbon pricing mechanisms; enhanced reporting obligations; mandate on, and regulation of, existingproducts and services• Technology: Potential risk from substitution of existing products/services with lower-emission options; cost to transition to lower-emission technology• Market: Impact of changing customer behavior; uncertainty in market signals; inability to attract investors due to uncertain climate-related risks; increased costof raw materials/services• Reputational: Response to increased stakeholder concern or negative shareholder feedback; stigmatization of sector; negative press coverage
The majority of risks studied under the transition risk assessment were found to have a “low” or “negligible” financial impact on Nielsen. However, reputational risks
related to climate impacts were found to have a “medium” or “high” impact in the 2030s to 2050 timeframe.
Examples of transition risk mitigation measures and opportunities identified include:• Decarbonization strategies, including but not limited to use of renewable fuels, efficiencies in technology such as workstations and laptops, a greener fleet,remote workforce and cloud-based services

91

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Strategya) Describe the climate-relatedrisks and opportunities theorganization has identified overthe short, medium andlong term. (continued)• Potential to incorporate the cost of carbon in the return-on-investment for energy efficiency• Continued responsible sourcing and vetting of vendors• Thought leadership, using data to help clients understand consumer perspectives on climate change/sustainability related content and advertising• Investigate setting targets and/or commitments to net zero
Our approach, practices and considerations in managing energy and emissions across Nielsen functions is described in our Nielsen environmental policy
and guidelines. We do not currently use an internal price on carbon, but have included carbon pricing in our latest climate change risk-related scenario analyses, andwe will continue to evaluate whether or how Nielsen may use this practice in the future.
Just as Nielsen has put more focus on environmental, social and governance issues in recent years, so have our clients. More companies seek to make theiroperations—and their products and services—increasingly sustainable and responsible. We conduct and publish research for our clients about perceptions, issues
and concerns relating to ESG topics, particularly diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I), as we work to power a better media future for all people. We also share key
insights with the broader public about consumer trends and new innovations in the industries we support via Nielsen Insights.

b) Describe the impact
of climate-related risks
and opportunities on theorganization’s businesses,
strategy and financial planning.

The findings from our updated 2022 climate risk assessment will be considered across our business, including Corporate Citizenship, Real Estate, BusinessResiliency, Global Procurement and Infrastructure. At the time of this report’s publication, we are in the process of reviewing and integrating the results of thisrisk assessment across relevant functions of the organization. We understand that the assessment will inform any necessary changes in strategy, approach andimplementation of responsive policies and actions.
Following our last climate risk assessment in 2018, we focused on improvements and mitigation actions across Nielsen areas, and continue to consider how to adjust
our approach as we move forward. Some ways we have incorporated our last risk assessment findings include:• Using the findings to continue guiding the risk discussion in our Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) process. Climate Change is a stand-alone risk category in our
ERM process, so it is a fundamental part of the business-level risk assessments conducted by our global operational leads.
• Incorporating the heat map from the physical risk findings into our real estate-related plans, to inform our understanding of relevant risks associated with ourcurrent facilities and potential risks with new or updated real estate considerations.
• Identifying synergies with Nielsen’s business resiliency plans, focusing on risk mitigation across locations, where needed.
• Continuing to understand the carbon risk-adjusted pricing through these risk assessments, to incorporate consideration of present and potential future climaterelated risks in return on investment.
• Keeping the efforts going for a responsible footprint, reducing our global emissions, investigating green technology and other solutions, including a corporate
supply chain assessment to evaluate the relevance and impact for Nielsen of each of the 15 emissions categories within Scope 3. (Scope 3 data can be foundin the Performance Data Tables of this ESG Report.) The results of our updated supply chain assessment, completed early 2022, will be considered for future
updates to our energy, waste and travel-related approach, as well as our consideration of science-based emissions targets.

92

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Strategyb) Describe the impact
of climate-related risks
and opportunities on theorganization’s businesses,
strategy and financial planning.
(continued)

See Nielsen environmental policy and guidelines for more on how we manage climate change-related issues.

c) Describe the resilience of theorganization’s strategy, taking
into consideration different
climate-related scenarios,
including a 2°C or
lower scenario.

Adaptation to climate change
We recognize that our people, suppliers, facilities and product lines are all in some way impacted by climate change, requiring us to adapt and mitigate impacts.
Climate change adaptation efforts, along with other business resilience efforts, are considered a part of our Business Resiliency Program, which includes business
continuity, disaster recovery and crisis management processes. Our Business Resiliency team works with mission-critical platforms to ensure that whenever any kindof incident occurs—including weather, civil unrest and climate-related incidents—our platforms continue to function, or are able to recover as quickly as possible.
The Business Resiliency team uses tools such as risk assessments to understand the potential effect of risks specific to a team, platform or organization, and toplan mitigation steps for minimizing the impact of those risks. The team also employs business impact analysis to look at the key processes that take place within aplatform or organization. Both exercises help ensure that our strategies in these areas are comprehensive and coordinated. The team also ensures that the plans that
support our mission-critical platforms/products are updated, approved and validated on an annual basis. In addition, this team works with other teams across theorganization, including People, Communications, Corporate Citizenship and others, to ensure we are all coordinated in our ongoing preparation and incident responseplans. To that end, our Crisis Management team is on point when a disaster does occur, to ensure that the right teams are taking action as needed.
The findings from our 2022 climate risk assessment further highlight our identification, adaptation and mitigation efforts across our global footprint and operations.
Our updated physical risk assessment found that, for all three climate scenarios studied, the majority of potential risks were classified as “low.” For all scenarios, thenumber of risks classified as “high” increased in the 2050s timeline. Overall, the large number of low and moderate risks is reflective of the resiliency of Nielsen’s
physical assets. This is a direct result of the global nature of the company and the leasing of Nielsen’s footprint. The highest overall risks with asset integrity, healthand safety and financial implications are related to tropical cyclones, which are relatively rare events.
The transition risk assessment found the potential cost of carbon impacts both direct operations and the supply chain. In addition, the changing stakeholder andconsumer expectations of our company could potentially be a higher risk in the future.
Using some of the following assumptions and rationale for the carbon pricing model, the assessment looked at the annual carbon cost associated with our direct
operations and supply chain across the scenarios and timeframes:• Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries and non-OECD countries had different carbon pricing.

93

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Strategyc) Describe the resilience of theorganization’s strategy, taking
into consideration different
climate-related scenarios,
including a 2°C or
lower scenario. (continued)• SSP5-8.5 carbon pricing was set at zero for all time frames across both OECD and non-OECD countries.
• Non-OECD countries’ SSP2-4.5 pricing is based on expectations of an initial $4 per metric tonne (USD) price of carbon, rising to $25 (USD) per metric tonne in
2030. Medium-term pricing is extrapolated to 2050 based on 2022 and 2030 predictions.
• SSP2-4.5 costing under SSP2-4.5 followed the CDP scenario of $140 (USD) per metric tonne in 2040; costs were extrapolated to determine carbon pricing forrelevant years through 2050.
• SSP1-2.6 carbon pricing was four times the cost of SSP2-4.5 across all timeframes and country status.
Reputational risks included potential impacts of negative stakeholder perceptions and the costs associated with the risk, which would be highest in the 2050
timeframe.
Scope 3: In addition, with an updated Scope 3 supply chain assessment, we continue to build on a comprehensive understanding of our overall footprint, which isvital to the science-based emissions target model that we are investigating.
Enterprise Risk Management (ERM): Climate Change is also a standalone risk in Nielsen’s formal ERM process, so it is a fundamental part of the business-level risk
assessments conducted by our global operational leads.

Risk Managementa) Describe the organization’s
processes for identifying andassessing climate-related risks.

Nielsen recognizes both the imperative reality of climate change and the opportunities for increased efficiency and effectiveness that it presents. We are working
with teams and leaders across our organization to continue to ensure that climate change risks and opportunities are integrated into our business strategy and that
we are taking meaningful action to drive continuous improvements where needed.
The process of identifying, assessing and managing climate-related issues is integrated into our overall, company-wide Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) process.
Climate change was added as a standalone ERM risk in early 2018, and includes adverse financial, strategic or operational impacts as a result of—among otherrisks—an inability to provide climate-focused solutions to address the needs of businesses in a world impacted by environmental change.
Our ERM framework brings in a range of different perspectives across Nielsen to help identify, evaluate and manage financial and nonfinancial risks related to climatechange and our other ERM risks.
Through our climate risk assessments, we consider a range of climate-related risks, including but not limited to: current and emerging regulations; technological,
legal, market-based and reputational risks; acute and chronic physical risks; and both downstream and upstream impacts. Climate-related risks are monitored on an
ongoing basis by teams.

94

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Risk Managementa) Describe the organization’s
processes for identifying andassessing climate-related risks.
(continued)

In early 2022, we conducted a global climate risk assessment, looking into both the physical and transition-related risks of climate change on our business andoperations through 2050. We are working to integrate the results of this assessment across relevant functions of our business, as discussed above. This built upon
our last climate risk assessment in 2018.
Also in early 2022 we conducted an update of our Scope 3 emissions assessment to better understand the climate-related risks and impacts in our supply chain.
This built upon our last value chain assessment in 2019.
Working with a third-party expert, our updated value chain assessment determined the relevance of each of the 15 Scope 3 categories and estimated the GHG
emissions of those identified as material to Nielsen operations. The methodology was based on an Environmentally Extended Input-Output (EEI-O) model, along withprimary data, where available, for selected upstream and downstream impact categories. Primary data used in the analysis included, but was not limited to, supplierspend, energy consumption, business travel, employee headcount and an employee commuting survey. The final analysis has provided a comprehensive view into
emissions sources in our supply chain. At the time of publication of this ESG report, we are in the process of integrating the results of this updated assessment into
our ongoing work on climate change mitigation, including investigating setting long-term, science-based emissions targets across the organization.
For more information on how we assess climate-related risks, risks identified and management approaches, please see:2021 10-K, pp. 22, 25
2022 Proxy, pp. 18-19, 21-23b) Describe the organization’s
processes for managing
climate-related risks.

We manage climate-related risks in our own operations through our Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) process and through environmental practices andconsiderations adopted across Nielsen functions, described in our Nielsen environmental policy and guidelines. Specific management efforts include preparing for,and adapting to, climate-related physical risks, including extreme weather and reducing our own environmental footprint.
Through our climate-risk and supply chain assessments, we further create visibility and oversight of how climate-related events play out across our entire value
chain, and modify our strategy and approach to best address the urgency of climate change.

c) Describe how processes
for identifying, assessing andmanaging climate-relatedrisks are integrated into theorganization’s overall risk
management.

Climate change is considered a standalone risk in our formal ERM process. Our ERM framework helps us to identify, evaluate, manage and develop mitigation plans
for financial and nonfinancial risks across Nielsen. The twin goals of our ERM program are to:• Ensure that leaders are well-informed about Nielsen’s risk landscape so they can make educated, strategic decisions that lead to sustainable growth• Facilitate cross-functional discussion and information sharing about key risks facing Nielsen in order to strengthen risk mitigation efforts
The framework is built to facilitate information gathering and sharing, while also promoting collaborative discussions across all levels of the company to identify andassess risks.

95

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Risk Managementc) Describe how processes
for identifying, assessing andmanaging climate-relatedrisks are integrated into theorganization’s overall risk
management. (continued)

The Board is responsible for overseeing Nielsen’s risk and enterprise risk management practices and seeks to foster a risk-aware culture, while encouraging
appropriate and balanced risk-taking in pursuit of company objectives. The Board exercises its oversight both directly and through its four committees, each of which
has been delegated oversight responsibilities for specific risks. Each committee keeps the Board informed of its oversight efforts through regular reporting to the full
Board by the committee chairpersons.
Management is accountable for day-to-day risk management efforts. The Board and committees’ risk oversight and management’s ownership of risk are foundational
components of our ERM program. This program is designed to provide comprehensive, integrated oversight and management of risk and to facilitate transparent
identification and reporting of key business issues to senior management and the Board and its committees.
ESG matters, including overall ESG strategy, are overseen at the Board level by the Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee (NCGC), except to the extent
reserved for the full Board or another Committee.
For reporting on additional climate-related risks, please see:2021 10-K, pp. 22, 25
2022 Proxy pp. 18-19, 21, 22-23

Metrics and Targetsa) Disclose the metrics usedby the organization to assessclimate-related risks andopportunities in line with its
strategy and risk management
process.

In addition to the metrics used in our climate risk assessment, we also assess climate-related risks by measuring our own greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions footprint
as well as our supply chain’s GHG emissions.

b) Disclose Scope 1, Scope 2
and, if appropriate, Scope 3
greenhouse gas emissions, andthe related risks.

See the Environmental data section of this report for our Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 GHG emissions data. The methodology for this data and the externalverification statements can be found in the Methodology and verification section of the Appendix. All our GHG emissions and resource usage data reported here,with the exception of our updated 15 category supply chain Scope 3 assessment by a third party, have been verified by Apex Companies, LLC.
The greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data collection and measurement methodology is reported in the Methodology and verification section of the Appendix.

96

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Metrics and Targetsc) Describe the targets usedby the organization to manage
climate-related risks andopportunities and performanceagainst targets.

Nielsen continues to review our operations to set forward-looking environmental goals and KPIs across waste, energy and travel management. In 2021, we set thefollowing new or updated targets:• Energy: By 2024, Nielsen has committed to reduce our on-premises application server footprint to 10%.
• Travel: By 2024, Nielsen has committed to reduce our business travel spend by 25% from our 2019 pre-COVID baseline, and implement a travel policy that will
maintain the reduced travel emissions.
• Waste: Through 2024, Nielsen has committed to ensure that all of our electronic waste managed through the global field operations team is recycled, refurbishedor reused.
We also continue tracking our ongoing travel targets:• Travel: Include sustainability criteria in 100% of our major, centrally managed, global travel requests for proposals (RFPs).
Status: There were no travel RFPs in 2021, due to the continued COVID-related travel restrictions. The sustainability language is included in our Master RFP
template as a standard operating procedure, and it will continue to be used when RFPs are reissued.
• Travel: Engage 100% of our procurement-managed travel suppliers on overall sustainability practices. Also, formally assess 80% of our major, centrally managed
travel suppliers on ESG practices through our third-party sustainability scorecard process.
Status: In 2021, we engaged 90% of our major travel suppliers, and formally assessed 70%, on their ESG practices, covering all three major categories of Nielsen’s
travel spend (air travel, auto travel and hotels/accommodations).

97

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

2022 GRI Content Index
This report was developed to align with the GRI Standards including the recently updated GRI 2 General Disclosures (2021) and GRI 3 Material Topics (2021). We are also reporting disclosures from
GRI topical standards that are relevant for our business. The following index provides readers with references showing where they can find information in this report and other public documents that
address these GRI disclosures, as well as the titles of the related GRI Standards. Please visit the GRI website for the full text of the disclosures and other information on the GRI reporting framework.

GRI Standard

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

2-1 Organizational details

2021 10-K, p.3

2-2 Entities included in theorganization’s sustainability
reporting2021 10-K, Exhibit 21.1

2-3 Reporting period, frequency
and contact point

Introduction > About this report

2-4 Restatements of information

Turnover rates are calculated through the number of exits during the time period divided by average headcount during the same time period,
rather than the head count at the end of the time period, as noted in footnotes of the 2021 Interim Responsibility Update.

2-5 External assurance

Our Apex Companies, LLC verification statement for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions data for Scope 1 and Scope 2 (market-based andlocation-based) data, and our verification statement for water and waste, are available in this Appendix.

General Disclosures
GRI 2: General
Disclosures 2021

2-6 Activities, value chain, andother business relationships

Supply chain description and changes
We have approximately 4,000 active suppliers in our procurement system, and spend approximately $1 billion with our suppliers annually.
Nielsen’s supply chain consists of purchases in three high-level categories: professional services, technology, and measuring equipment.

98

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

2-6 Activities, value chain, andother business relationships(continued)

Close to half of our spend is with professional services (consulting, human resources, marketing, legal, finance, real estate, travel, etc.)
suppliers, which tend to be large, global companies headquartered in the U.S. or Europe. Another 40% of our spend is with technology andtelecommunications suppliers. They are predominantly large, global enterprises based in the U.S. and Europe and, to a lesser degree, smallto medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in emerging markets. The balance of our spend is on marketing research and related services, primarily
with small- and medium-sized firms located in many of the regions where we operate. A relatively small subset of our suppliers are contract
manufacturers who manufacture Nielsen-designed electronic measurement devices to track television viewership and radio listening, with
our research panels. These suppliers tend to be SMEs, primarily producing these devices in Asia. In 2021, the suppliers manufacturing ourelectronic devices were operational, with sporadic, pandemic-related shutdowns throughout the year.

General Disclosures

2021 10-K, pp. 3-13
2-7 Employees

Performance data table

2-8 Workers who are not
employees

Performance data table

2-9 Governance structure
and composition

Governance > Board independence
Governance > Board diversity
See our Corporate Governance Guidelines, our Code of Conduct and the charters of each of our Board committees, all of which provide theframework for corporate governance at Nielsen. All employees* and Board members are required to certify annually to the Code of Conduct.
The Code establishes clear expectations and guidelines for all employees, prohibiting corruption, bribery, facilitation payments, fraud,
discrimination, antitrust/anti-competitive practices, money laundering, insider trading and more. It also requires employees to avoid anddisclose conflicts of interest. The Code sets forth expectations and guidelines for positive behavior, including treating everyone with respect,valuing diversity, protecting human rights and speaking up to report Code violations without fear of retaliation. All of our standard supplier
agreements include a requirement to abide by our Supplier Code of Conduct.
*Except where not permitted by local laws

99

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

2-9 Governance structure
and composition (continued)

See also:
2022 Proxy, p. 11-14

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

General Disclosures

Board diversity
Our Corporate Governance Guidelines require the Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee to consider all factors it deems
appropriate, which may include age, gender, nationality, ethnic and racial background, gender identity or expression and sexual orientation,and disability status, in nominating Directors and to review and make recommendations, regarding the composition and size of the Board toensure the Board has the requisite expertise and its membership consists of persons with sufficiently diverse and independent backgrounds.
Currently, half of our directors are female, and two of our directors are racially/ethnically diverse. Over time, the Nomination and Corporate
Governance Committee and the Board as a whole will assess the effectiveness of this policy and determine, how, if at all, our implementationof the policy, or the policy itself, should be changed.
Our 2022 Proxy includes our Diversity Policy (p. 2) and details on the diversity of our Board (p. 9).
2-10 Nomination and selection of
the highest governance body2022 Proxy, pp. 2-3

2-11 Chair of the highest
governance body

Governance > Board independence
2022 Proxy, p. 4

2-12 Role of the highest
governance body in overseeing
the management of impacts

Governance > Board oversight of ESG issues
Environment > Understanding and managing climate risks
Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee Charter
2022 Proxy, pp. 11-16, 20-21

2-13 Delegation of responsibility
for managing impacts

Governance > Board oversight of ESG issues
Environment > Understanding and managing climate risks

Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee Charter

100

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

2-14 Role of the highest
governance body in sustainability
reporting

A multifunctional team of senior executives reviews this report, including members of our Executive Committee. The Nomination andCorporate Governance Committee is briefed on Nielsen’s responsibility and ESG reporting plans, as part of its role overseeing the Company’s
overall ESG matters, but does not directly approve this ESG report.

General Disclosures

Our Board committees have direct oversight responsibilities for a range of ESG issues, including:• The Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee oversees the Company’s overall ESG matters, including overall ESG strategy,
except to the extent reserved for the full Board or another Committee.
• Our Compensation and Talent Committee oversees Nielsen’s human capital management strategies and programs, including overall
employee wellness and engagement; strategies in support of DE&I; talent development and employee experience.
• The Audit Committee has primary oversight for the management of key enterprise risks, including its Compliance & Integrity, Cybersecurity
and Privacy programs, and reviews external reporting on ESG in the Company’s financial reports, as appropriate.
2-15 Conflicts of interest

Code of Conduct
2022 Proxy, pp. 20, 24-25

2-16 Communication of criticalconcerns

Governance > Code of Conduct, ethics and integrity
2022 Proxy, pp. 24-25
Corporate Governance Guidelines

2-17 Collective knowledge of thehighest governance body2022 Proxy, p. 9

2-18 Evaluation of theperformance of the highest
governance body2022 Proxy, p. 14
Corporate Governance Guidelines

101

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

2-19 Remuneration policies

Governance > Executive compensation and ESG

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

General DisclosuresCompensation approach
Nielsen is committed to providing appropriate, competitive and equitable pay and benefits for all associates, commensurate with the work
being performed and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. Our associates are rewarded and promoted based on performanceagainst priorities and how they demonstrate the Nielsen values. Our pay philosophy is to provide a total compensation package that ismarket-competitive based on data provided by independent third parties and that also provides an opportunity for pay growth and role
progression based on individual contribution and company performance.
2022 Proxy, pp. 33-66, Annex A, Annex B
Corporate Governance Guidelines
2-20 Process to determine
remuneration

Governance > Executive compensation and ESG
2022 Proxy, pp. 51-54

2-21 Annual total compensation
ratio

2022 Proxy, pp. 65-66

2-22 Statement on sustainable
development strategy

Message from the CEO

2-23 Policy commitments

Global Commitment to Human Rights
Corporate Governance Guidelines
Code of Conduct
Supplier Code of Conduct
Environmental Policy and Guidelines
2022 Modern Slavery Statement
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policy
Global Non-Discrimination Policy

102

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

2-24 Embedding policy
commitments

Global Commitment to Human Rights

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

General Disclosures
Corporate Governance Guidelines
Code of Conduct
Supplier Code of Conduct
Environmental Policy and Guidelines
2022 Modern Slavery Statement
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policy
2-25 Processes to remediate
negative impacts

Governance > Code of Conduct, ethics and integrity
Global Commitment to Human Rights
2022 Modern Slavery Statement
Environmental Policy and Guidelines

2-26 Mechanisms for seeking
advice and raising concerns

Governance > Code of Conduct, ethics and integrity
We offer multiple options for our associates to speak up and raise any concerns or questions they may have. One option is our Helpline, which
is managed by an outside service provider, NAVEX Global Inc., and provides a mechanism for anyone with a concern to connect anonymously
by phone or through their dedicated website for Nielsen. This independent reporting service ensures that all concerns are heard and, as
needed, investigated through the proper channels.
Global Commitment to Human Rights
Grievance mechanisms training/compliance
All employees have access to our grievance process and related policies, including our Code of Conduct, on our company intranet site,
Nielsen Now. The Code of Conduct is available to employees in more than 10 languages.

103

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

2-27 Compliance with laws andregulations

Nielsen had no known material instances of noncompliance with environmental, social or economic laws or regulations during thereporting period.

2-28 Membership associations

External initiative endorsements on economic, environmental and/or social issues and business ethics

General Disclosures

Nielsen is involved with many initiatives and trade associations that have a social or environmental component. Examples include:• LEAD Network CEO pledge• Valuable 500• CROWN Act• CEO Action for Diversity & Inclusion• The Hispanic Promise
Memberships in industry and advocacy associations, as well as funding of research organizations
The following is a representative, though not exhaustive, list of associations Nielsen was a member of, or affiliated with, during the reporting
period. Where appropriate and relevant to our business strategy, Nielsen may also fund research or donate pro bono data in collaboration withrespected industry bodies such as these.
• Advertising Council• Associação Brasileira de Anunciantes• Advertising Club of New York• Associação Brasileira de Estudos Populacionais• Advertising Research Foundation• Association of National Advertisers• ALF Insights• Audience Measurement Coalition• Alianza por el Valor Estratégico de las Marcas (AVE)• Australian Association of National Advertisers• AMAI (Mexico)• Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship• American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union• Business-Government Relations Council• Americans for Tax Reform Foundation• Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM)• Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies• Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose

104

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

General Disclosures
2-28 Membership associations(continued)• China Advertising Association• Major Events International (MEI)• China Advertising Association of Commerce• Marketing Club—Köln-Bonn• Commercial Communications Council• Media & Entertainment Services Alliance (MESA)• Conference Board• MMA Global (Mobile Marketing Association)• Congressional Black Caucus Foundation• MPA – The Association of Magazine Media• Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute• Multicultural Media Correspondents Association• Consumer Technology Association• Music Business Association• Dansk Markedsføring• NationSwell• Deutsche TV-Plattform• National Association of Broadcasters• Digital Dialogue Forum• National Hispanic Caucus of State Legislators• ESB Marketing Netzwerk• New Democrat Network• European Internet Forum• Paley Center for Media• European Sponsorship Association• Responsible Business Alliance• Financial Communications Society (FCS)• Responsible Labor Initiative• Information Technology Industry Council• Taipei Association of Advertising Agencies• Insights Association• Taiwan Digital Media and Marketing Association• Interactive Advertising Bureau• US-ASEAN Business Council• International Advertising Association• U.S. Chamber of Commerce• Kilts Center for Marketing, University of Chicago Booth Schoolof Business• Wharton Customer Analytics Corporate Program• World Economic Forum

105

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

2-28 Membership associations(continued)

Participation in recognized human rights initiatives and collaboration

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

General Disclosures
To create industry change and impact beyond our own operations and supply chain, we have joined our efforts and our purchasing power withlike-minded corporate peers in the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council, Responsible Business Alliance, Responsible Labor Initiative,
and the Responsible Minerals Initiative. We are represented on the leadership body of the Sustainable Purchasing Leadership Council.
Our Global Commitment to Human Rights and Supplier Code of Conduct were developed to align with the United Nation’s Guiding Principles
on Business and Human Rights, the International Labour Organization’s Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and the
U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
2-29 Approach to
stakeholder engagement

Process for soliciting and incorporating stakeholder feedback, and primary stakeholders engaged
Because of the nature of our business—collecting and analyzing audience measurement, data and analytics, to empower our clients withindependent and actionable intelligence to connect and engage with their audiences—we uniquely understand the importance of hearing
from a diverse group of stakeholders about all aspects of our business and operations, in order to continue to drive improvements.
Nielsen interacts with a variety of external individuals and organizations in our regular course of business, as described in the examples
below, as well as through the process of conducting our regular ESG issue assessments. These opportunities to proactively listen to ourstakeholders are key to our strategic and evolving ability to directly and indirectly create value through our business and in our communities,
today and into the future. We’re committed to incorporating stakeholder feedback into our processes, business strategy and responsibility
and sustainability programs. Beyond seeking to better understand how stakeholders view Nielsen today, we also use this feedback to identify
future potential risks and opportunities, including emerging issues that could affect Nielsen’s business success and stakeholder relationships.
In order to conduct our ESG issue assessments, we engage stakeholders directly or through proxies across all aspects of our value chain. The
results of these assessments inform our strategic approach, including our ongoing communications about Nielsen’s overall commitments; how
we proactively respond to ESG-related inquiries from shareholders, clients and other stakeholders; and how we allocate resources to areasof greatest impact and importance to Nielsen. These areas cut across all aspects of our business, operations and value creation through ourclient and industry relationships, our employee base and our communities.

106

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

2-29 Approach to stakeholder
engagement (continued)

The following describes the primary types of stakeholders with whom we engage across our business operations, and how we engage
with them:

General Disclosures

Clients: We engage with clients on a regular basis, both individually and through client committees, to gain direct input and insights thatwill enhance the quality of our measurement and methodologies for the industries we serve. These committees advise the relevant Nielsen
business units on industry issues and concerns, provide insight on technological advances and help Nielsen improve the utility of its dataand products.
Suppliers: We engage with key suppliers on ESG issues multiple times a year—through written correspondence and requests for reporting,in person at their facilities (when possible, due to the pandemic), on conference calls and at conferences. We require standardized, thirdparty assessments of suppliers’ ESG performance, which then serve as catalysts for meaningful engagement and discussion via our sourcing
managers, in an effort to drive continuous improvement. We’ve also developed a Supplier Toolkit as a resource for suppliers to help improvetheir sustainability performance.
Consumers: We have extensive contact with individuals and families all over the globe as we collect data to better understand consumer
behavior. Our field and membership representatives visit panelists’ homes worldwide to collect data. We are committed to acting in the bestinterest of those consumers, especially in terms of protecting the privacy and security of their information.
Shareholders: Our Investor Relations team engages regularly with investors through individual meetings, conferences, non-deal roadshows,quarterly earnings calls and other investor marketing events. Details about our investor engagement can be found in the shareholder
engagement disclosures of our 2022 Proxy (p. SUMM2, 15, 38) and on our Investor Relations site, where we also provide information forinvestors about our ESG efforts through resources such as our ESG Highlights.
Creditors: Senior management periodically meets with key creditors in person or via conference calls, and has hosted multiparticipant
meetings. Through our Investor Relations and Treasury functions, we respond, as appropriate, to inbound inquiries from both debt analysts
and key creditors. As a levered company, it is important that Nielsen has access to the various debt markets and on reasonable terms at all
times. This allows Nielsen to fund growth initiatives including capital expenditures and potential acquisitions, and provides the company withappropriate liquidity cushions through the economic cycle.

107

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

2-29 Approach to stakeholder
engagement (continued)

Industry associations: We recognize the importance of engaging with industry trade organizations, strategic business partners, industry
influencers, value-added resellers, and nongovernmental and community organizations. As it relates to ESG-related charters, principles or
initiatives, we take an open view and may join new or other initiatives as they emerge. Some examples for Nielsen include our alignment
with the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the Global
Reporting Initiative (GRI). We have also committed to a variety of pledges, including our CEO’s commitment to the LEAD Network CEO Pledge
to advance women in leadership at Nielsen. Additionally, as mentioned in our Global Commitment to Human Rights, we have aligned ourapproach with the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International
Labour Organization’s Conventions, and the human rights-related recommendations set forth in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation
and Development’s Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises. We are also members of the Responsible Business Alliance, Responsible Labor
Initiative and the Responsible Minerals Initiative.

General Disclosures

Communities: We mobilize our data, expertise and time to positively impact our communities and ensure every voice counts. We regularly
volunteer and donate pro bono data to non-profit organizations in an effort to make a tangible difference in our communities. Nielsen also
produces the Diverse Intelligence Series, an annual collection of insights dedicated to multicultural consumers, veterans, LGBT+ and disabledconsumers. In 2021, these series included insights on new communities: Native Americans and people living with disabilities.
Employees: Nielsen continues to work hard to keep in close communication with our employees around the world, to ensure they feel
supported and that we are working toward common goals. Company-wide, we conduct an employee engagement survey every year, withperiodic “pulse” surveys to provide additional opportunities for feedback. These surveys include questions on engagement, compensation
and work-life balance, among other topics. The health and wellness of our employees and their families is of the utmost importance to us. All
Nielsen employees are encouraged to engage across functions and geographies through companywide resources, such as our Mental HealthHub, a single global platform for employees and their families to find resources to support their physical, emotional and mental health; Slackchannels of online communities for collaboration and information sharing; as well as through regular global town hall meetings and otherevents held virtually to offer the opportunity for everyone to connect. We also have a variety of employee engagement platforms, including
our Business Resource Groups.
Supplier engagement and capacity building, including external supply chain industry initiatives
Nielsen has long-term, multiyear agreements in place with our major suppliers globally. These long-term contracts lead to mutual relationshipsthat allow us the opportunity to build awareness and capability to meet our expectations for supply chain responsibility.
Much of our supply chain work seeks to increase positive impact, such as business diversity, environmentally preferable purchasing, impact
sourcing and multistakeholder collaboration.

108

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

2-29 Approach to stakeholder
engagement (continued)

We specifically engage suppliers who are crucial to our core business, encompass the largest percentages of our spend and have particular
exposure to environmental, social or governance (ESG) risk. We engage suppliers in all of the major sectors of our supply chain: technology,
professional services, contract manufacturing of measuring equipment and market research.

General Disclosures

We engage with our key suppliers multiple times a year with a focus on ESG issues, including through the following:
Measurement and disclosure: Once a key supplier enters our supply chain, we require a standardized supplier assessment on ESG
performance (provided by a third party), which benchmarks our suppliers according to their industry, size and country or countries ofoperation, along with ESG updates during regular business reviews. The assessments and regular business reviews serve as catalysts formeaningful supplier engagement.
Based on our Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policy, we measure the performance of our real estate facilities management, paper,
printing, electronic devices and fleet suppliers on 50 environmental, supplier diversity and social metrics.
Continuous improvement: Through meaningful supplier engagement, we ensure visibility into ESG risks and opportunities and drive
higher standards within our own supply chain. Our sourcing managers engage with our suppliers with the goal of quantitatively improving
sustainability performance at both the supplier and product/service level.
Capacity building: We have developed a Supplier Toolkit as a resource for our suppliers to improve their sustainability performance. The
Supplier Toolkit includes guidance for developing social, ethical and environmental policies, practices and reporting. Additionally, the toolkit
includes a comprehensive list of 150 performance indicators that suppliers can use to track ESG performance.
Collaboration: We also combine our purchasing power with other institutions and seek to address these issues systemically, through thememberships noted in 2-28 Membership associations.
Stakeholder engagement regarding human rights risks and impacts
We proactively engage our internal and external stakeholders to better understand their views and recommendations in order to incorporate
an informed respect for human rights in all aspects of Nielsen’s business. Our approach is aligned with external standards and best practices
in a number of specific ways, including respect for the individual; care for our communities; nurturing a diverse and inclusive environment; andsafeguarding our meritocracy, among others. For more, see our Global Commitment to Human Rights and our key ESG issues assessment.
Suppliers are a key stakeholder with whom we engage on human rights issues. Our Supplier Code of Conduct explicitly forbids forced labor,child labor, human trafficking and discrimination, and requires suppliers to respect the right to freedom of association.

109

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

2-30 Collective bargaining
agreements

We fully support workers’ right to freely associate and bargain collectively. Following the sale of Nielsen Global Connect, which was finalized
in 2021, approximately 4% of Nielsen employees are covered under collective bargaining agreements. Approximately 7% are covered
under works council agreements in Europe. We consult with the European Works Council (EWC) regularly and request their opinions and/or
recommendations about significant business decisions.

General Disclosures

In some countries, we have multiple agreements to cover works councils and unions. In other countries, we may have no written agreements
but follow all laws and government regulations.
In Europe, to ensure collective bargaining rights, we periodically review freedom of association and share the results with the EWC.
Freedom of expression
We recognize that it is a right of everyone to associate freely and bargain collectively. We are committed to ensuring an open environment at
Nielsen where all views are respected and where dialogue about our business and its operations is encouraged.
Material Topics
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-1 Process to determine material
topics2021 key ESG issues assessment

3-2 List of material topics• Anti-corruption• Supplier environmental assessment• Non-discrimination• Anti-competitive behavior• Employment• Supplier social assessment• Emissions• Occupational health and safety• Public policy• Waste• Training and education• Customer privacy• Environmental compliance• Diversity and equal opportunity• Socioeconomic compliance

The impact boundary for each of the relevant GRI Standards is both inside and outside the organization, with the exception of the following,
for which the impact boundaries are limited to inside the organization: GRI 206: Anti-Competitive Behavior, GRI 403: Occupational Health and
Safety, GRI 404: Training and Education, GRI 405: Diversity and Equal Opportunity, and GRI 406: Nondiscrimination.

110

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Economic PerformanceGRI 201: Economic
Performance 2016

201-1 Direct economic value
generated and distributed

2021 10-K, pp. 33-66

GRI 201: Economic
Performance 2016201-2 Financial implications andother risks and opportunities due
to climate change

Environment > Understanding and managing climate risks
TCFD Report
Supply chain environmental engagement, including engagement on climate change strategies and green procurement initiatives
Our supply chain risk assessment includes the assessment of risks related to ESG in our own operations and our suppliers' operations. In early
2022, we contracted with a third-party expert for an updated assessment of Nielsen’s supply chain GHG emissions. The assessment helped
determine upstream Scope 3 categories as most relevant to our operations, and the contribution of each category to our overall supply chainbased GHG emissions. We have found that 74% of GHG emissions in our supply chain are from purchased goods and services and capital
goods. See Disclosure 305-3 for more on our Scope 3 GHG emissions.
Alignment with our Supplier Code of Conduct, which addresses environmental management and sustainability information, is required for
100% of suppliers newly added through our supplier registration system. In 2021, we engaged 90% of our major travel suppliers on their ESG
practices, and formally assessed 70%, covering all three major categories of Nielsen’s travel spend (air travel, auto travel andhotels/accommodations).
Our ongoing supplier sustainability assessment process includes a range of environmental issues, including energy consumption, energy
efficiency and climate change mitigation strategies.
See also the Supplier Environmental Assessment section of this GRI report.

GRI 201: Economic
Performance 2018

201-3 Defined benefit plan
obligations and other retirementplans

2021 10-K, pp. 37, 84-90

111

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Indirect Economic Impacts
GRI 203: Indirect
Economic Impacts
2016203-2 Significant indirect
economic impacts

Communities > Community strategy and approach
Communities > Nielsen Foundation
Communities > Nielsen Global Impact Day
Diversity, equity and inclusion > Community engagement
Diversity, equity and inclusion > Business diversity
Investing in our communities through our corporate citizenship and philanthropy efforts is a significant part of our indirect economic
impact. Guided by these priorities, Nielsen invests in communities through pro bono and in-kind donations, employee volunteering anddirect corporate donations. The Nielsen Foundation, a private foundation, also makes grants to nonprofit organizations in the focus areas ofeducational access and persistence, economic mobility and well-being, and representation in media and technology.
We continued our efforts to connect our employees’ skills and experience to support diverse-owned small businesses that are either alreadyin, or have the potential to become part of, our supply chain. We also started the Diverse Media Equity program, a first-of-its-kind offering toaccelerate the growth and impact of diverse-owned media businesses.

Anti-corruption
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topicsOur global Compliance & Integrity program is dedicated to ensuring legal and ethical behavior across Nielsen—from the C-suite through tothe most junior employees all over the world. While upholding our high ethical standards is the responsibility of all our employees, functional
responsibility for managing our Compliance & Integrity efforts sits with our Global Head of Compliance & Integrity within our Legal & Corporate
Affairs team, reporting directly to our Chief Legal & Corporate Affairs Officer and with oversight from our Board of Directors.
Our Code of Conduct is a core element of this program. The Code establishes clear expectations and guidelines for all employees, prohibiting
corruption, bribery, facilitation payments, fraud, discrimination, antitrust/anti-competitive practices, money laundering, insider trading andmore. It also requires associates to avoid and disclose conflicts of interest. The Code also sets forth expectations and guidelines for positive
behavior, including treating everyone with respect, valuing diversity, protecting human rights and speaking up to report Code violations
without fear of retaliation. We initiated an update to Nielsen’s Code of Conduct in 2022, published in May 2022, and it is available in more than
10 languages.

112

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

3-3 Management of material
topics (continued)

Underlying the Code are more-detailed internal policies—for example, a Global Anti-Corruption Policy—to guide employees in their dayto-day activities. The Compliance & Integrity program coordinates the Corporate Policies Governance Council, a cross-functional team ofstakeholders that ensure global, internal Nielsen policies are up to date and relevant for current business activity.

Anti-corruption
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

The Code applies to everyone at Nielsen, including our subsidiaries and affiliates that we control. The Code also applies equally to themembers of our Board, our senior officers and every employee, whether full time, part time or temporary. We choose to do business withother companies that follow these same principles. Nielsen suppliers are expected to know and follow the guidelines in our Supplier Code of
Conduct and in turn to hold their suppliers and subcontractors to the same high standards.
GRI 205: Anticorruption 2016

205-1 Operations assessed forrisks related to corruption

Governance > Enterprise risk management program and Code of Conduct, ethics and integrity
2021 10-K, pp. 27
GRI 204-1
Our formal Enterprise Risk Management process and supply chain risk assessments include the assessment of risks related to ethics andcorruption in our own operations and our suppliers’ operations.
Our Compliance & Integrity team and Corporate Audit Staff (CAS) work together to assess and inform local business contacts acrossfunctions such as Legal, Finance, People, Operations and Sales regarding anti-corruption risks and obligations. This is done through detailed
questionnaires to local business contacts regarding their knowledge of anti-corruption risks and obligations. This global approach toaddressing risks at the local level enables our teams to put in place new processes and procedures for operations or functions at higher riskof corruption, wherever this more tailored approach may be needed.
To mitigate sourcing risk in our accounts payable process, new vendors are vetted by Global Procurement before being entered into ourvendor master database. Nielsen uses external data sources to ensure, among other things, that there are no sanctions or law enforcement
activity against the vendor and no regulatory enforcement actions in progress during our comprehensive vetting process.
As part of its risk-based audit process, CAS leads an anti-corruption training to review the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) and U.K.
Bribery Act. Additionally, CAS distributes an FCPA questionnaire, which requires local business contacts from Finance, People, Operations
and Sales to provide input on their knowledge regarding the FCPA and any potentially corrupt payments. CAS reviews the responses andescalates any concerning responses. CAS also performs disbursement reviews at selected locations to ensure there are proper controls inhigh-risk areas such as travel and expenses, auditor advances and panel incentives. This oversight helps to ensure that our operations andactivities align with government laws and regulations everywhere we operate. We do not operate in any country without the legal right todo so.

113

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

205-1 Operations assessed
for risks related to corruption(continued)

CAS remains engaged throughout post-audit remediation processes as relevant to ensure solutions are efficient and sustainable in the longterm. CAS uses its audit expertise to partner on strategic initiatives and drive region-wide control improvements when risks or gaps are
identified.

Anti-corruption
GRI 205: Anticorruption 2016

CAS also provides internal audits of company financial information, independently reviewing the accuracy of that information, assessing
financial processes and evaluating the effectiveness of financial controls for Nielsen’s global business units. The audits are split into two
sections: Sarbanes-Oxley and risk-based reviews. Through this approach, CAS ensures coverage of Nielsen’s largest entities as well as
high-risk entities that are selected based on several criteria, including but not limited to integrity concerns, turnover, growth and other risk
indicators identified by management. The CAS team’s audits and reviews substantially cover our global revenue and assets, and overall
coverage has increased year over year. The results of the CAS team’s reviews are reported quarterly to the Chief Financial Officer and theBoard’s Audit Committee.
In addition to CAS, our operational internal audit teams perform independent assessments of critical operational controls to determine
compliance and effectiveness against established standards and benchmarks. For example, our internal audit team reviews sample design,
including universe estimates, to ensure that our data collection processes are sound and our data is accurate. Our team also periodically visits
panel households, verifying household demographics and television channel reception. We design and conduct these audits based on any
known or potential risks inherent to our services.
We have also invested in an overall global Financial Controllership organization. Maintaining strong financial controls helps to ensure that
our financial statements are materially accurate. We have many employees dedicated to financial controllership around the world, including
general accounting associates, billing/credit/collections associates, consolidation teams, operational controllers, revenue controllers, market
controllers, corporate controllers and our Global Financial Controlling Center of Excellence leaders. This vast network provides Nielsencoverage over all the countries in which we operate, from both a statutory and a U.S. Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) pointof view. This team is responsible for closing the books on a monthly basis, reconciling all general ledger accounts, ensuring that financial
systems align, and reviewing and understanding balance sheet movements. Our controllers also support various audits each year, including
local GAAP audits, internal audits and Sarbanes-Oxley Act audits. It is important that our controllers be connected to the businesses they
support as well. This allows the team to be better business partners, assisting in various process improvement and simplification projects.

114

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

205-1 Operations assessed
for risks related to corruption(continued)

Anti-bribery/anti-corruption measures with business partners, including due diligence

Anti-corruption
GRI 205: Anticorruption 2016

We assess risks for bribery and corruption in our supply chain as part of our supply chain risk assessment process. All suppliers are requested
to comply with our Supplier Code of Conduct, and in turn to hold their suppliers and subcontractors to the same high standards. Our Supplier
Code includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption commitments as part of our standard contractual obligations. When appropriate based onrisk, we conduct extensive due diligence on potential suppliers’ internal programs for managing ethics and avoiding corruption. Nielsen’s anticorruption and bribery policies and requirements are also communicated to all suppliers as part of our procurement supplier registration.
Materials and conflict minerals
Nielsen purchases electronic measuring devices through subcontracted manufacturers. Through electronics contract manufacturing, Nielsen
is exposed to risks relating to the extraction and use of conflict minerals. A group of four mined metals and their derivatives—tungsten,tin, tantalum and gold (3TG)—are the most commonly mined conflict minerals. The 3TG minerals are widely used in both consumer andcommercial electronics. While these metals are mined across the world, they pose particular risk when extracted from Africa, where there is agreater likelihood that their sale may result in financing warfare or the subjugation of people. Nielsen undertakes due diligence and publishes
the results of our due diligence measures annually in a Dodd-Frank Conflict Minerals disclosure, as required by the U.S. Securities andExchange Commission.
The products requiring 3TG data collection and disclosure in our supply chain are the Portable People Meter family of meters and encoders
designed by Nielsen Audio and manufactured by contract manufacturers. An internal management team with representatives fromEngineering, Global Procurement, Legal and Finance ensures compliance with our conflict mineral reporting requirements. We utilize a
specialized, third-party provider to collect information from our direct suppliers with respect to the origin of the 3TG metals contained incomponents and materials supplied to us. We also include sources of 3TG that are supplied to them from lower-tier suppliers.
Our third-party provider:• Utilizes the Conflict Minerals Reporting template developed by the Responsible Minerals Initiative (formerly the Conflict-Free Sourcing
Initiative) to determine the usage of 3TG by suppliers• Assists suppliers in filling out the template• Validates and corrects templates• Alerts Nielsen if any necessary 3TG originated in covered countries• Generates an aggregated 3TG report based on bills of materials• Provides a collection report with hyperlinks to each template

115

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

205-1 Operations assessed
for risks related to corruption(continued)

Nielsen assesses the responses received from our suppliers and engages with them on their particular responses. Supplier responses should
contain all required data in the template. If responses are incomplete or inconsistent, the supplier is contacted and asked for missing or
supplemental information. Our third-party provider conducts most of this validation process. Nielsen checks 3TG data collected by ourthird-party provider against the complete list of materials within each component disclosed to us by our suppliers of our components, toverify metal content matches. Nielsen checks smelter status claims received in templates to known smelter information. If template responses
are insufficient or absent, Nielsen examines each case individually and determines a response based on the likelihood of 3TG being present,
the specific component and the availability of the component from other sources. Possible responses include suspending purchase of thecomponent from that supplier, working with the supplier to obtain the 3TG data necessary for a determination of its sourcing, or designing outthat particular component from our products going forward.

Anti-corruption
GRI 205: Anticorruption 2016

Compliance with our conflict minerals due diligence is specifically included within our Supplier Code of Conduct.
Finally, as a corporate member of the Responsible Business Alliance and the Responsible Minerals Initiative, Nielsen adds its purchasing
power to an industry coalition to influence change and encourage responsible sourcing systemically within the electronics industry.
GRI 205: Anticorruption 2016205-2 Communication andtraining about anti-corruption
policies and procedures

Ethics and anti-corruption communication, training and certification
We require our Board and 100% of employees—except where not permitted by local laws—to certify annually that they understand and will
abide by our Code of Conduct. All employees—except where not permitted by local laws—are also held accountable for completing required
Code of Conduct training. Other targeted training is provided to employees as appropriate, including on topics such as anti-corruption,
protecting human rights, complying with the General Data Protection Regulation, and data integrity. We also provide training for employees
whose roles involve greater risk exposure and those who can most effectively detect and prevent misconduct as a function of their day-today responsibilities.
We require compliance with the Code as a condition of employment, and thus this compliance is linked directly to employee compensation.
Nielsen takes all violations of the Code seriously. If, following an investigation, a violation is found, Nielsen will determine the appropriate
consequences in accordance with local laws, which may include disciplinary action up to and including termination.
We offer multiple options for our employees to speak up and raise any concerns or questions they may have. One option is our Helpline, which
is managed by an outside service provider, NAVEX Global Inc., and provides a mechanism for anyone with a concern to connect anonymously
by phone or through its dedicated website for Nielsen. This independent reporting service ensures that all concerns are heard and, as
needed, investigated through the proper channels.

116

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

205-2 Communication andtraining about anti-corruption
policies and procedures(continued)

We enhance the reach of our Compliance & Integrity program with the Integrity Leader program. Twelve Integrity Leaders, most of whom sit
within the Legal & Corporate Affairs team, are spread across five regions around the globe. Integrity Leaders serve as “diplomats” of integrity
to our employees, spreading the word about Nielsen’s expectations for ethical behavior, how to find answers to questions about doing theright thing and how to raise a concern when something doesn’t seem right. Integrity Leaders also help to investigate and resolve misconduct
when it occurs.

Anti-corruption
GRI 205: Anticorruption 2016

Our Compliance & Integrity program communicates regularly with Nielsen employees around the world through information included withinglobal Nielsen communications.
Anti-bribery/anti-corruption measures with business partners, including due diligenceNielsen’s anti-corruption and bribery policies and requirements are also communicated to all suppliers as part of our procurement supplierregistration. All suppliers are requested to comply with our Supplier Code of Conduct, and in turn to hold their suppliers and subcontractors
to the same high standards. Our Supplier Code includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption commitments as part of our standard contractual
obligations. When appropriate based on risk, we conduct extensive due diligence on potential suppliers’ internal programs for managing ethics
and avoiding corruption.
GRI 205: Anticorruption 2016

205-3 Confirmed incidents ofcorruption and actions taken

There were no cases or fines associated with corruption during the reporting period. Whether an incident is a confirmed case of corruption
involves legal determinations and privileged and confidential legal advice. We also did not have any fines from the Federal Trade Commission
during the reporting period. No business partners’ contracts were terminated for corruption violations during the reporting period.

Anti-competitive Behavior
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topicsCode of Conduct

GRI 206: Anticompetitive
Behavior 2016

206-1 Legal actions for anticompetitive behavior, anti-trust,and monopoly practices

Per the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Regulation S-K, Item 103, there are no material proceedings to which any Director, officer
or affiliate of the registrant, any owner of record or beneficiary of more than 5% of any class of voting securities of the registrant, or any
associate of any such Director, officer, affiliate of the registrant, or security holder is a party adverse to the registrant or any of its subsidiaries
or has a material interest adverse to the registrant or any of its subsidiaries.

2022 Proxy, p. 20, 24-25

1172022 ESG Report |Home

Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

207-1 Approach to Tax

We are committed to complying with tax laws in a responsible manner and to having open, constructive and transparent relationships with
tax authorities everywhere we operate around the globe. We have a publicly available Tax Strategy that applies to Nielsen Holdings plc andall subsidiary Nielsen entities; it is composed of five key components: tax planning, relationships with governments, transparency, tax risk
management and governance.

Tax
GRI 207: Tax 2019

Taxes paid and effective tax rate
The effective tax rates in December 31, 2021, and 2020 were 0% and 41%, respectively.
Our effective tax rate of 0% in December 31, 2021, was lower than the U.K. statutory rate, primarily as a result of decreases in valuation
allowances attributable to the utilization of foreign tax credits and the utilization of net operating losses. Our effective tax rate in December
31, 2020, was higher than the U.K. statutory rate, primarily as a result of withholding and foreign taxes as well as state and local income taxes.
2021 10-K, pp. 25-26, 30-31, 36, 42, 44, 98, 100
GRI 207: Tax 2019

207-2 Tax governance, control,
and risk management

Tax Strategy

GRI 302: Energy
2016302-1 Energy consumption within
the organization

Performance data table

GRI 302: Energy
2016302-2 Energy consumption
outside of the organization

Nielsen does not track energy consumption outside the organization, but will investigate the feasibility of this for future reports.

GRI 302: Energy
2016302-3 Energy intensity

Performance data table

GRI 302: Energy
2016302-4 Reduction of energy
consumption

Performance data table
Environment > Energy management

GRI 302: Energy
2016302-5 Reductions in energy
requirements of products andservices

Environment > Energy management

Energy118

Home2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

GRI 303: Water
and Effluents2018

3-3 Management disclosure

Environment > Managing our environmental impact

GRI 303: Water
and Effluents2018

303-1 Interactions with water asa shared resource

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Water and Effluents
Nielsen environmental policy and guidelines
While water stewardship is not as significant for Nielsen’s direct operations at this time, we nevertheless recognize that access to potablewater is a societal issue and a fundamental human right for everyone, and affects our employees, suppliers and other stakeholders around theworld. With this in mind, we strive to minimize the impact of our daily operations on the availability of collective water resources.
Our approach to resource management across functions is described in our Nielsen environmental policy and guidelines.
GRI 303: Water
and Effluents2018

303-2 Management of water
discharge-related impacts

Nielsen uses (withdraws and discharges) local municipality water that is treated locally and in accordance with all local regulations.

GRI 303: Water
and Effluents2018

303-3 Water withdrawal

Performance data table

GRI 303: Water
and Effluents2018

303-4 Water discharge

Nielsen uses (withdraws and discharges) local municipality water that is treated locally and in accordance with all local regulations.

GRI 303: Water
and Effluents2018

303-5 Water consumption

Performance data table

3-3 Management of material
topicsEnvironment > Managing our environmental impacts

Emissions
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

Environment > Understanding and managing climate risks
Nielsen environmental policy and guidelines

119

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

3-3 Management of material
topics (continued)

Approach to environmental management, including ownership of environmental issues and commitments at each level of the company;
approach to managing environmental compliance; environmental sustainability policy; and environmental
management system

Emissions
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

We take a comprehensive and holistic approach to responsible environmental management, considering the direct impact of our operations,as well as collaborating with our clients and other stakeholders. In our own operations, through our assessment of our key ESG areasand climate-related business risks, we drive action with environmental impacts that are most critical to our business. Through our supply
chain sustainability program, we engage and collaborate with our supplier network to improve its performance and minimize the life-cycle
environmental impact of our business. In addition to complying with laws and regulatory requirements, we seek to continually reduce theadverse environmental effects of our products and services during their full life cycle, including design, creation, use and disposal.
Learn more at Nielsen environmental policy and guidelines.
Environmental, social and governance (ESG) matters, including overall ESG strategy, are overseen at the Board level by the Nomination andCorporate Governance Committee, except to the extent reserved for the full Board or another committee. Our Corporate Citizenship teamcoordinates and stewards our global ESG strategy. This team reports through our Chief Marketing and Communications Officer and presents
at the Board level at least once per year. Among other responsibilities, the Corporate Citizenship team works cross-functionally to ensurealignment with relevant environmental mandates and regulations. Compliance is managed both globally and locally, depending on the teamresponsible for the relevant requirement or local execution of our global strategy.
Our tool for our energy management and GHG emissions calculations and resource management—Portfolio Environmental & Energy Reporting
System,or PEERS—is a proprietary energy management tool developed by Nielsen’s global real estate services provider, Jones Lang LaSalle(JLL), to capture, analyze and report energy data. Although this tool is not third-party certified, our emissions and resource consumption data
are externally verified by a third party prior to reporting.
In addition to these formal environmental management governance systems, we are privileged to have thousands of employees around theworld who are passionate about working together to reduce our collective environmental footprint. Through our environmentally focused
Business Resource Group, Green, employee volunteers lead grassroots initiatives globally throughout the year, aligning their goals and impact
with Nielsen’s purpose, values and key ESG focus areas, while also emphasizing environmental justice issues. Examples of their work—whichwere largely online or remote events in 2021 due to ongoing COVID-19 concerns—include personal carbon footprint reduction challenges,
speaker events and webinars on environmental justice and sharing recommendations on how to be greener at home.

120

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

3-3 Management of material
topics (continued)

Board’s oversight of climate-related risks and opportunities

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Emissions
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

Our Board committees have direct oversight responsibilities for a range of ESG issues, including:• The Nomination and Corporate Governance Committee oversees the Company’s overall ESG matters, including overall ESG strategy,
except to the extent reserved for the full Board or another Committee.
• Our Compensation and Talent Committee oversees Nielsen’s human capital management strategies and programs, including overall
employee wellness and engagement; strategies in support of DE&I; talent development and employee experience.
• The Audit Committee has primary oversight for the management of key enterprise risks, including its Compliance & Integrity, Cybersecurity
and Privacy programs, and reviews external reporting on ESG in the Company’s financial reports, as appropriate.
Management’s role in assessing and managing climate-related risks and opportunities
We remain committed to our climate change mitigation efforts by leveraging operational efficiencies across our value chain in order to create
more environmentally sustainable outcomes for our business, stakeholders and communities. We work with teams and leaders across Nielsen
to continue to ensure that relevant climate change risks and opportunities are integrated into our strategy and that meaningful action is taken
to drive our mitigation efforts. Nielsen’s senior management—including members of our Executive Committee—reviews climate change as astandalone risk in our formal Enterprise Risk Management process.
The management of climate change and energy reduction efforts is integrated into our management review process with senior leadership.
Nielsen teams identify and establish processes and policies in their functions to ensure environmental options are being considered in ouroperations. For example, our Infrastructure team oversees the data center efficiency efforts, while our Real Estate leads investigate local
targets for the management of waste and energy reduction across our operational footprint. The Chief Procurement Officer has responsibility
for supply chain sustainability, including assessing and managing our suppliers’ climate-related risks and impacts.
Incentives for management of climate change issues
Our corporate executive team’s approach to addressing risks—including climate-related risks—and their ability to effectively respond to
those risks, is tied to their compensation as part of a multidimensional, comprehensive review that ties back to both individual and corporate
objectives. At the discretion of management, all employees are eligible to receive awards and recognition for their contributions toward
reducing our impact on the environment, including optimal utilization of our natural resources, emission reductions projects, volunteering/supporting environmental nonprofits and other sustainability initiatives. These contributions can be recognized through Simply Excellent,
our recognition tool for acknowledging growth, collaboration and innovation. We also have an ongoing recognition program for our BusinessResource Group (BRG) leaders and volunteers called Diversity & Citizenship Champions, focusing on responsible and sustainable businessactions and their contributions to serving our communities.

121

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

GRI 305:
Emissions 2016305-1 Direct (Scope 1) GHG
emissions

Performance data table

GRI 305:
Emissions 2016305-2 Energy indirect (Scope 2)
GHG emissions

Performance data table

GRI 305:
Emissions 2016305-3 Other indirect (Scope 3)
GHG emissions

Environment > Managing our environmental impact

GRI 305:
Emissions 2016305-4 GHG emissions intensity

Performance data table

GRI 305:
Emissions 2016305-5 Reduction of GHG
emissions

TCFD Report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Emissions

Environment > Managing our environmental impact
Performance data table
Reducing environmental impact from our own operations and through our value chain is central to our policy and approach to managing
environmental and climate-related issues. See our Nielsen environmental policy and guidelines for our overall strategy, resource management
approach and commitment to reduce our environmental impact through our operational processes.
We conduct regular climate risk assessments and, in addition to these efforts, we encourage emission-reduction activities through employee
engagement. Our Green BRG is led by employee volunteers who drive local, regional and global programs across Nielsen locations to support
our commitment toward environmental justice through responsible resource usage, environmental footprint reduction and promoting theoverall protection, conservation and restoration of the environment where we live and operate around the globe.

122

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

GRI 305:
Emissions 2016305-6 Emissions of ozonedepleting substances (ODS)

Nielsen does not track ODS emissions, but will investigate the feasibility of this for future reports.

GRI 305:
Emissions 2016305-7 Nitrogen oxides (NOX),
sulfur oxides (SOX), and othersignificant air emissions

Nielsen does not track NOX, SOX, and other significant air emissions, but will investigate the feasibility of this for future reports.

3-3 Management of material
topicsEnvironment > Our strategic approach

Emissions

Waste
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

Environment > Managing our environmental impact
Nielsen environmental policy and guidelines

GRI 306: Waste
2020

306-1 Waste generation andsignificant waste-related impacts

Environment > Managing our environmental impacts

GRI 306: Waste
2020

306-2 Management of significant
waste-related impacts

Environment > Managing our environmental impacts
Nielsen environmental policy and guidelines
We support a variety of initiatives to reduce the generation of waste—particularly electronic waste and paper, given the nature of ourbusiness. And we continually investigate new, environmentally efficient waste disposal options across Nielsen operations, in line with oursustainability commitments and local laws and regulations. Waste is recognized as a material business impact for us, and we have set a goal
to ensure that all of our e-waste managed through our field operations team is diverted from landfill and is recycled, refurbished or reusedby 2024.
We work to reduce our paper use, and therefore paper waste. We also encourage recycling across our locations where infrastructure exists inthe local community. As an example of these efforts, we are bringing efficiencies to our printers and are using the refresh process to upgrade
our printers to standard duplex printing. In 2021, we also switched to only recycled or Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)-certified paper
options in our U.S. purchasing channels.

123

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

GRI 306: Waste
2020

306-3 Waste generated

Performance data table

GRI 306: Waste
2020

306-4 Waste diverted from
disposalNielsen does not track waste diversion, but will investigate the feasibility of this for future reports.

GRI 306: Waste
2020

306-5 Waste directed to disposal

Performance data table

Waste

Environmental Compliance
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topicsEnvironment > Managing our environmental impact

GRI 307:
Environmental
Compliance 2016

307-1 Non-compliance withenvironmental laws andregulations

Nielsen had no known instances of noncompliance with environmental laws or regulations during the reporting period.

Supplier Environmental Assessment
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topicsEnvironment > Managing our environmental impact
Supplier Code of Conduct
Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Policy
Approach to procurement practices, including details on Supplier Code of Conduct
We recognize that our institutional spend with suppliers around the world comes with risks and impacts that are of concern to our company
and our stakeholders—risks relating to climate change, energy use, human rights, conflict minerals, and data privacy and security, among
others.

124

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Supplier Environmental Assessment
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topics (continued)

Our standard contract terms request that our suppliers abide by our Supplier Code of Conduct, which is available in 39 languages andconveys our expectations in areas such as human rights, health and safety, environmental management, ethics, and management systems.
The Code includes provisions derived from key international human rights standards and is based on the Supplier Code of the Responsible
Business Alliance (RBA), the world’s largest coalition on responsible global supply chains for the technology industry. As it relates to training
available to our staff who work with our supply chain, through our membership in the RBA, we make online training modules on the Nielsen
Supplier Code of Conduct available to both Nielsen employees and suppliers. Training modules in social compliance can be assigned tointernal staff and suppliers, and supplier participation is tracked within the RBA tool. Our Global Procurement team around the world maintains
completed RBA certificate training on the Supplier Code. Nielsen provides further training to those with a direct supplier relationship to ensure
they are readily capable of identifying any potential abuses. Two members of the team who work with electronics manufacturers have been
trained by the RBA to audit factories against the Supplier Code.
Process for identifying and managing sustainability risks in the supply chain, including monitoring and measuring compliance, assessing
supply chain environmental impact, and risk analyses per purchasing category
Our supply chain sustainability program systematically addresses ESG risks and opportunities in our supply chain. Managing our supply
chain’s ESG impact begins with an understanding of the effects, both positive and negative, of our purchasing. Our Global Procurement teammonitors ESG risks on a continuous basis through multiple tools and business processes, including an annual, in-depth analysis of all thecategories and industry segments in our supply chain. ESG impacts and risks are determined by industry, sector, size, geographic locationand company-specific practices and policies. The major categories of supply chain risks we have identified, which remain fairly stable fromyear to year, are as follows:• Environmental impact: The major environmental impact within Nielsen’s supply chain is the energy used by data centers, information
technology (IT) infrastructure and large commercial buildings, along with GHG emissions from air travel.
• Social impact: The major social impact within Nielsen’s supply chain relates to labor practices, including the health, safety and well-beingof the temporary and permanent workers employed by our outsourced suppliers. The greatest risk in this category relates to human rights
and labor violations, such as those regarding working conditions (working hours, remunerations, benefits, etc.) and discrimination. The
supplier category most exposed to this risk is the contract manufacturing supplier segment, which is composed of electronics factories,
primarily in Asia.

125

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Supplier Environmental Assessment
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topics (continued)• Governance/ethical impact: The major ethical impact within Nielsen’s supply chain concerns third-party data privacy and security issues
related to the collection of the consumer data that is at the core of our business products. Data privacy and security breaches have been
identified as major material impacts enterprise-wide and are substantially addressed by internal Nielsen teams who serve as dedicatedresources for privacy and security. Our supply chain management processes identify where prospective suppliers trigger a risk in this area
and route them into the overall management of data privacy by our Legal, Privacy and Cybersecurity teams. This risk is most prevalent
within the category of suppliers that provide marketing research and data collection services.

GRI 308: Supplier
Environmental
Assessment 2016308-1 New suppliers that werescreened using environmental
criteria

Supplier sustainability assessments, including scope of human rights-related assessments, suppliers assessed for ESG impact, approachto corrective action, and definition of critical suppliers
Through our Global Procurement team, we seek to manage our supply chain in an ethical, legal and socially responsible manner. We solicit
supplier diversity and sustainability information during the request for proposal (RFP) process for new suppliers. We screen all vendors that
register through our core accounting systems for corruption and sanctions.
Beginning in 2019, we further embedded ESG management of our supply chain in our procurement systems by adding several required
questions on ESG performance to our supplier registration process. With these questions, we are engaging at the broadest level in our supply
chain—with every supplier registered in our system—on their ESG policies, practices and outcomes.
We regularly collect information on strategic suppliers through third-party supplier assessments, which we use to generate an annual ESG
risk scorecard and to determine any corrective action that may be needed. In 2021, we evaluated 108 suppliers located in 26 countries in fiveglobal regions, covering approximately 90% of our spend under management. We assess the sustainability risks associated with our strategic
suppliers on an annual basis. These third-party assessments cover a variety of key ESG issues, including climate impact and GHG emissions,energy consumption, waste management, human rights, anti-corruption, bribery and more. We require assessments of suppliers that:• Are critical to our core business of measuring what consumers watch and what they buy• Are part of the largest percentages of our spend, and/or• Have high risk exposure in environmental, social or governance performance.
Supplier sustainability assessments are included as a requirement in our Supplier Code of Conduct for suppliers who meet a $1 million spend
threshold or are deemed to be exposed to risk due to industry or geography.

126

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Supplier Environmental Assessment
GRI 308: Supplier
Environmental
Assessment 2016308-1 New suppliers that werescreened using environmental
criteria (continued)

Supplier sustainability assessments address the following topics:• Environmental issues: energy consumption and waste management practices and results• Social issues: human rights and discrimination policies, practices and results• Governance/ethical issues: business ethics, data privacy, security, anti-corruption and bribery• Sustainable procurement issues: integration of environmental and social factors in supply chain management
Suppliers are scored for each of these categories and then given an overall score, which can range from 1 to 100, with 1 being high risk. The
lowest-scoring supplier companies receive corrective action plans aimed at helping to increase their scores.
High-risk suppliers undergo additional, multiple risk evaluations in three-year cycles. All high-risk suppliers were assessed in 2021, and these
suppliers will continue to undergo a full set of risk evaluations at least once every three years. All suppliers identified as high-risk undergo
three levels of due diligence, including:
1. An annual risk assessment of the company using the Responsible Business Alliance’s risk assessment platform, a specialized platform forelectronics manufacturers
2. A general ESG third-party assessment once every two years
3. Site-specific social compliance questionnaires for human rights risks at least once every three years
Additionally, for all active suppliers, Nielsen uses an online, third-party platform available to members of the Responsible Business Alliance(RBA) to assess conformance with the RBA Code Section A.1, which states, among other standards, that: “Forced, bonded (including debt
bondage) or indentured labor, involuntary prison labor, slavery or trafficking of persons shall not be used.” This risk assessment online
platform is used to evaluate specific supplier and factory risks with respect to the RBA Code (including Section A.1) by inherent risk, sector
and location. 2021 was the first year that we assessed active suppliers across the globe (4,000-plus companies) with this tool, significantly
increasing our coverage of the suppliers monitored for this risk.
Typically, Nielsen’s Global Procurement team engages with contract manufacturers several times a year through regularly scheduled on-site
factory visits, conference calls and meetings. While on-site visits continued to be prohibited during the pandemic, open communication at thecompany and production facility level was ongoing in 2021 with our manufacturing suppliers.
Our Global Procurement team around the world maintains completed RBA certificate training on the Supplier Code. Two members of the team
who work with electronics manufacturers have been trained by the RBA to audit factories against the Supplier Code.

127

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Supplier Environmental Assessment
308-2 Negative environmental
impacts in the supply chain andactions taken

Approximately one-third of the 108 assessed suppliers received scores indicating some exposure to ESG risk, and corrective action plans
were triggered for those suppliers to reinforce continuous improvement. Since the inception of our program in 2016, we have focused onmeaningful engagement with our critical suppliers on ESG issues, and those efforts with this core group of suppliers have resulted in scoresthat have increased over time. In 2021, less than 1% of active suppliers were found to have high exposure to ESG risk. These suppliers were
subject to further due diligence using multiple ESG tools. No suppliers were terminated based on ESG impacts.

GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topicsHuman capital > Building and growing a strong talent foundation

GRI 401:
Employment 2016

401-1 New employee hires andemployee turnover

Human capital > Human capital snapshot

GRI 401:
Employment 2016

401-2 Benefits provided to fulltime employees that are notprovided to temporary or parttime employees

Human capital > Caring for our people

Employment

Performance data table
2021 10-K, p. 12
In the U.S., employees who work 35 hours per week qualify for full-time benefits. Examples include:
Short-term pay incentives
Nielsen’s compensation programs include several short-term incentive programs, such as the global Annual Incentive Plan (which rewards
individual contributions to producing superior business results) and Sales Incentive Plans (which reward client-facing associates based on
their growing relationships with existing clients or expanding services to new clients). We also offer long-term incentive plans through ourequity plan. Restricted Stock Unit and/or Stock Option awards are granted annually to senior-level and professional employees. Additionally,
our Employee Stock Purchase Plan provides associates at all levels of the company the opportunity to purchase Nielsen stock on a quarterly
basis at a discount from the market rate through the convenience of regular payroll deductions.** Effective April 1, 2022, the Employee Stock Purchase Program has been suspended, as part of a definitive agreement to be acquired by a consortium of private investment funds led by Evergreen Coast Capital Corporation, an affiliate of Elliott Investment Management L.P., and Brookfield Business
Partners L.P. See here for additional information.

128

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

401-2 Benefits provided to fulltime employees that are notprovided to temporary or parttime employees (continued)

Retirement planning and savings, including defined benefit plan obligations

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Employment
GRI 401:
Employment 2016

Financial well-being is a critical part of our total well-being approach, and we recognize that financial concerns contribute to employees’
well-being. We assess measurable financial metrics—including 401(k) participation, contributions and investment type—to assess whether
employees are optimizing retirement planning benefits.
Reproductive health benefits, including adoption benefits, fertility benefits and gender reassignment benefits
Adoption: Full-time associates in the U.S. are eligible for up to $25,000 in reimbursement for adoption expenses under our Adoption
Assistance program. Adoptive parents also receive 12 paid weeks for bonding time.
Fertility: In the U.S., Nielsen covers in full three cycles of fertility treatment (with no dollar limit) and offers a $25,000 surrogacy
reimbursement for families that choose that path to parenthood.
Gender reassignment: In the U.S., gender reassignment is covered by our health plan, subject to medical criteria.
See note to 403-6 Promotion of worker health for details on benefits related to health and wellness.

GRI 401:
Employment 2016

401-3 Parental leave

We offer generous paid and unpaid leave options for a range of employee needs. The options include paid vacation, parental leave,
bereavement leave, sick days, military training and active duty, short- and long-term disability, volunteering and community service, andjury duty.
To help ensure a healthy work-life balance, we have implemented myTime, through which there is no maximum limit on the number ofvacation days that employees can take in a year as long as manager's approval is obtained. Our myTime program gives employees theflexibility and autonomy to manage their work time and decide when and how much vacation time to take. It enables associates to take thetime to follow their own passions, explore and recharge with friends and family throughout the year.
Parental leave
We offer paid time off for our associates to take parental leave. In the U.S., we offer a market-leading paid leave of 20 weeks for birthmothers, with 12 weeks of paid leave as bonding time for all parents.
In 2020, 235 U.S. employees took bonding leaves or adoption/foster care leaves. In 2021, 211 U.S. employees took bonding leaves oradoption/foster care leaves.

129

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Labor/Management Relations
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topicsHuman capital > Building and growing a strong talent foundation
Working conditions policy
As it relates to our direct employees, Nielsen follows all national, federal, state and local wage and hour laws in each market where it operates.
Nielsen employees are not required to work “excessive hours,” and all employees are free to leave work during breaks and meal allotments
as well as at the end of their shifts. Terms of employment are covered in each individual associate’s employment letter. In the U.S., Nielsen
follows all guidelines outlined by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. We expect our suppliers to abide by our Supplier Code of
Conduct as it relates to their own labor standards.
Approach to employee engagement and culture
Employee engagement—the emotional and psychological connection our employees feel to their workplace and the work we do—is central toboth individual and business success. We are committed to strengthening employee engagement through our Growth Culture and our Values(Inclusion, Courage and Growth), which are at the core of who we are at Nielsen. Employee engagement is a key strategic priority because of
disruptive industry changes that require us to transform and because of the critical role our people play in fulfilling our mission to power the
future of media.
We engage employees through:• Regular employee/manager one-on-ones• A learning experience platform, myLearning, powered by Degreed• Business Resource Groups (BRGs)• Transition programs to support our people as they onboard to Nielsen, as well as evolve and grow in their careers with us; examples include
our internships, conversion from intern to full-time, new managers and executive onboarding programs• Regular town hall meetings that encourage dialogue between leaders and employees• Ongoing pulse surveys for global and local leaders to hear from our employees and plan specific actions based on their feedback• Slack channels, which enable employees to connect on a variety of topics, including career growth, learning and development, Diversity,
Equity & Inclusion (DE&I) and business strategy, as well as to pose questions directly to our CEO and senior management

130

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Labor/Management Relations
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topics (continued)

We continue to prioritize our employee engagement and support efforts that help employees address their unique challenges, including
COVID-19 impacts. This includes providing additional virtual resources, support for remote workers and enhanced mental health support.
See also:
Code of Conduct
Supplier Code of Conduct
Global Commitment to Human Rights

GRI 402: Labor/
Management
Relations 2016402-1 Minimum notice periods
regarding operational changes

In the U.S., we follow a best practice of at least 30 days’ minimum notice period for operational changes.

Occupational Health and Safety
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topicsHuman capital > Caring for our people
We maintain a commitment to health and well-being. Nielsen’s benefit offerings are designed to meet the varied and evolving needs of adiverse workforce across businesses and geographies. We have enhanced the ways we help our employees care for themselves and theirfamilies, especially in response to COVID-19. Our Whole You health and well-being program focuses not just on physical health, but also on
the emotional, financial, social and environmental well-being of our associates.
The Whole You well-being program was created in 2015 to provide support for our employees and their families in meaningful, contemporary
and progressive ways. Since 2015, the program has evolved to meet the needs of our diverse population globally. Most recently, the programchanged to a new virtual delivery method to address the global pandemic reality. The Whole You program offers a mix of U.S. and global
initiatives, such as step and activity challenges, webinars and training sessions. A key component of The Whole You is our group of well-being
ambassadors (employee volunteers) who promote global, national and local well-being initiatives.
Nielsen’s approach to safety management includes:• Safe work procedures and written instructions• Health and safety training and instructions

131

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Occupational Health and Safety
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topics (continued)• Identifying hazards and managing risk
• Inspections of premises, equipment, workplaces and work practices• Investigation of incidents, as needed• A Health and Safety Committee and representatives• Occupational health and safety programs• System auditing
Nielsen’s offices rigorously adhere to the highest safety standards and local regulations. As an example, in Italy, we have a designated Healthand Safety officer and we hire an external, certified safety firm that trains our employees on first aid or fire emergencies. Moreover, we haveglobal safety guidelines in response to COVID-19 covering our field operations.
Nielsen’s Health and Safety committee is dedicated to providing the necessary support to our Field Operations employees through training,
resources and defined processes. Policies and procedures include general field safety, vehicle and phone safety, prevention of physicalinjuries, personal protective equipment (PPE), and feeling unsafe in panel interactions such as recruitment or installation/maintenance.

GRI 403:
Occupational
Health and Safety2018403-1 Occupational health andsafety management system

Human capital > Caring for our people

GRI 403:
Occupational
Health and Safety2018403-2 Hazard identification,risk assessment, and incident
investigation

Our workforce is predominantly based in offices, where occupational safety issues are minimal. We have a significant population of field
associates who recruit and maintain relationships with our research panelists and/or service Nielsen equipment. These associates are criticalto our success as a company, and we strive to ensure that they stay safe on the job.

To support consistent and high-quality health and well-being offerings across our global operations, we have a set of global coverageguidelines that outline the types of programs that should be offered in each of the Whole You program areas of physical well-being, emotional
well-being, financial well-being, and environmental and social well-being.

132

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Occupational Health and Safety
GRI 403:
Occupational
Health and Safety2018403-2 Hazard identification,risk assessment, and incident
investigation (continued)

We employ several strategies intended to address issues arising during the COVID-19 pandemic, including COVID-19 safety protocols for all
employees that are consistent with the guidance of local health authorities, remote working arrangements where possible, company-provided
personal protective equipment (PPE) and training, facilities management policies, workplace safety committees, supplemental paid sickleave (U.S.) and ongoing health benefits reviews. We implemented programs to reduce barriers to COVID-19 vaccination access, including
supplemental paid time off for the purposes of an employee/dependent receiving a vaccine and local partnership to increase access tovaccination, as needed on a market-by-market basis. In addition, Nielsen offers employee emergency financial support through the Nielsen
Global Support Fund, through which associates can donate to fellow associates in need and apply for grants in times of personal hardship or
natural disaster.
We track all relevant incidents to determine causes and trends, and then develop preventative steps to minimize those occurrences throughthe adoption of additional safety measures and training.

GRI 403:
Occupational
Health and Safety2018403-3 Occupational healthservices

Human capital > Caring for our people

GRI 403:
Occupational
Health and Safety2018403-4 Worker participation,
consultation, and communication
on occupational health and safety

For our Field Operations in the U.S., we maintain a safety committee that looks at ways to help reduce safety risks that might result in workers’
compensation claims and auto injuries. In 2021, we updated our Field Health and Safety Policy and Procedures. All new hires to this teamparticipate in field safety training, and existing employees take an annual refresher training. The committee also created a safety dashboard,
to give managers an up-to-date look at workers’ compensation claims and auto loss data.

GRI 403:
Occupational
Health and Safety2018403-5 Worker training on
occupational health and safety

Nielsen maintains workers’ compensation safety guidelines and manager training presentations to equip our associates with the tools theyneed to prevent—and as needed, to report—work-related injuries or illnesses. For employees who drive as a function of their job, we provide
a fleet safety manual and safety training.

Nielsen offers medical insurance benefits and wellness programs for our associates that meet or exceed market norms. We’ve expanded our
focus to promote total well-being, including personal health, financial health and work-life balance, and to encourage engagement in activities
such as exercise, healthy eating, stress management, resilience and volunteering. Through our Whole You program (see more in 403-6), we
strive to bring all of the pieces of employee health and well-being together in a comprehensive and coordinated benefits program.

133

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Occupational Health and Safety
GRI 403:
Occupational
Health and Safety2018403-6 Promotion of worker health

Human capital > Caring for our people
Whole You program: Nielsen is committed to creating a culture of health and well-being and to giving associates and their families theresources they need to live healthier lives. Our Whole You program focuses not just on physical health—although that’s an essential part—but
also on the emotional, financial, social and environmental well-being of our associates.
The Whole You online interactive platform provides associates with self-assessments, tools, resources and guides to holistic wellness inareas such as nutrition, exercise, stress management and work-life balance. We offer regular webinars on these and other topics for our
global associates, and we also offer a variety of on-site wellness initiatives at our office locations around the world, ranging from webinars onstress management to financial planning to exercise classes. Some Nielsen locations also offer monthly on-site visits from holistic health andwellness coaches, nutritionists and exercise experts.
We offer incentives to encourage employee participation in our wellness programs. In the U.S., associates and insured spouses/partners canearn up to $300 in incentives for exercising, making healthy eating choices, tracking their sleep, and getting appropriate immunizations andrelevant health testing as well as an annual physical.
Mental health: In the U.S., we provide twice-annual mental health awareness/suicide prevention training to both associates and people
leaders as well as a Mental Health Resources Guide. Globally, we provide ongoing webinars around topics such as suicide prevention, stressmanagement, mindfulness and relaxation techniques. Most locations have access to mental health services in some capacity. During Global
Mental Health Month, we sponsor global efforts to destigmatize mental illness and urge associates to talk about their challenges and support
themselves and each other.
In recognition of the need for more robust mental health services, in October 2021, we added Spring Health as our Emotional Health Support
program (a replacement of the Employee Assistance Program) in the United States. Spring Health offers counseling sessions to all employees
and their family members ages 6 and over. Spring Health also provides coaching, mindfulness training, crisis support, and group sessions,
all at no cost. In 2022, we offered Spring Health to 40 countries globally and now offer Emotional Health Support programs in every country
where Nielsen has a presence.
We also provide annual training for People Experience partners, people leaders and employees, to recognize the signs and symptoms of an
associate in need of emotional assistance or intervention. This training is specifically designed to provide the information, tools and support
necessary to help ensure the safety of the associate and fellow co-workers.

134

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Occupational Health and Safety
GRI 403:
Occupational
Health and Safety2018403-6 Promotion of worker health(continued)

Stress management: We provide regular webinars throughout each year, hosted by medical doctors, psychologists and social workers aroundthe topics of stress reduction, mindfulness and relaxation techniques. Additionally, we also bring in experts in the areas of meditation, yoga,
controlled breathing, imagery and stretching. Spring Health offers coaching, group discussions and a library of digital articles and exercisesaround managing stress. The myHealthy Rewards program provides reimbursement of up to $75 per quarter for emotional well-being/stress
reduction/mindfulness apps, allowing employees to find the solution that best fits their needs.
Substance abuse: We address substance abuse as part of our ongoing well-being mental health webinars, including tips for identifying
potential substance abuse and on how to seek and provide help. Additionally, Spring Health provides therapy and coaching to assist theemployee or family member.
Fitness programs: In the U.S., we subsidize almost all fitness programs at the rate of $75 per quarter. This includes discounted gym
memberships, reimbursement for fitness classes, online subscriptions, fitness equipment, earning the incentive through counting steps orattending 24 fitness classes in a quarter. Additionally, we offer virtual fitness programs or events globally. We also encourage employee
fitness through local, regional and global step challenges via Walker Tracker. In these competitions ranging from two weeks to one month,employees form teams and compete at the country, location, business unit or operational team level to see which team can collectively walkthe greatest number of steps during the challenge. This voluntary challenge provides opportunities for associates to set goals and encourage
one another, no matter where they are on their health and wellness journey. Walker Tracker also provides an “activity converter” that provides
the opportunity for those who may not be able to walk to participate by converting activities such as wheelchair wheeling, yoga, Pilates,
stationary bicycle, etc., from minutes to steps. The app is also available in over 100 languages.
Nutrition: Where applicable, we focus on providing healthy offerings in our cafes and cafeterias. In several offices, we provide an array of
free healthy snacks and drinks. Our ongoing well-being webinars include nutrition topics, such as eating for health, weight loss, disease
management and more. The Whole You platform offers monthly healthy recipe ideas, and we occasionally provide live demonstrations ofhealthy cooking.
Our global well-being ambassadors work to help provide healthy options during events. The myHealthy rewards program provides
reimbursement of up to $75 per quarter for weight management programs such as WW, Jenny Craig and Nutrisystem. Spring Health can also
pair associates or family members with a coach/therapist to help with the emotional aspect of eating disorders.
Employee emergency support: Through the Nielsen Global Support Fund, associates can donate to fellow associates in need and apply for
grants in times of personal hardship or natural disaster.

135

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Occupational Health and Safety
GRI 403:
Occupational
Health and Safety2018403-7 Prevention and mitigationof occupational health andsafety impacts directly linked bybusiness relationships

We have a significant population of field associates who recruit and maintain relationships with our research panelists and/or service Nielsen
equipment. These associates are critical to our success as a company, and we strive to ensure that they stay safe on the job. The mostcommon health and safety issues they face are slip-and-fall injuries and traffic accidents.
We track all relevant incidents to determine causes and trends, and then develop preventative steps to minimize those occurrences byadopting additional safety measures and training.
We employ several strategies intended to address issues arising during the COVID-19 pandemic, including COVID-19 safety protocols for all
employees that are consistent with the guidance of local health authorities, remote working arrangements where possible, company-provided
personal protective equipment (PPE) and training, facilities management policies, workplace safety committees, supplemental paid sick leave(U.S.) and ongoing health benefits reviews.

GRI 403:
Occupational
Health and Safety2018403-8 Workers covered by an
occupational health and safety
management system

Refer to 403-1

GRI 403:
Occupational
Health and Safety2018403-9 Work-related injuries

Nielsen does not publicly report work-related injury data, but will investigate the feasibility of this for future reports. The primary types ofwork-related injuries experienced by Nielsen employees, primarily occurring among our field staff, are motor vehicle accidents, slips and trips,
animal/insect bites, and manual material handling/lifting injuries.

GRI 403:
Occupational
Health and Safety2018403-10 Work-related ill healthNielsen does not publicly report work-related injury data, but will investigate the feasibility of this for future reports.

136

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Training and Education
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topicsHuman capital > Powering our Growth Culture through training and development
Approach to employee career development, including commitment to career management, career development policy and talent pipeline
development
Our Talent Development strategy seeks to engage and develop associates to support their personal and professional development and drive
better business outcomes for Nielsen. We believe that managing one’s career development and growth should be an ongoing collaboration
between each employee, their manager and the broader Nielsen community. We are committed to ensuring that our people feel valued andknow their work matters, and to empowering them to learn, grow, make a difference and reach their full potential.
In our annual talent review, our People team and business leaders do a deep dive into their organizations to plan for leadership succession,
talent movements and development paths for our employees. This review helps to support employees’ career development and thedevelopment of a talent pipeline that meets business needs.
All employees have access to myCareer, our career management system. Through this system, associates can create a profile thatsummarizes their career background, experiences, product knowledge, technical skills, languages spoken and career aspirations, andindicates when they are actively seeking new opportunities. Hiring managers then use this tool to select potential candidates who may be agood fit for open roles.
We also offer mentoring programs that provide valuable learning, development and networking experiences, matching associates withmentors who can support their personal and professional development objectives. We enable these mentoring relationships both within andbeyond an associate’s business unit, country or region through our global myMentor program.
Finally, our Diverse Leadership Network helps to further diversify our workforce, especially our management and leadership team, as
described in the Diversity Equity & Inclusion section. For more information about careers at Nielsen, see our Nielsen Careers webpage.
Measuring training effectiveness, including quantitatively measuring benefits from investments in employee development programs, andmonitoring and measuring human capital development
We track the effectiveness of our training programs by measuring skill development, internal role changes, retention, international job
transfers and other measures. We do not track the total number of hours spent in training as a measure of success. We know that muchlearning happens outside formal training programs, through day-to-day engagement across teams. We are focused on cultivating thepositive outcomes of these development opportunities through meaningful metrics such as those noted previously that speak to employee
satisfaction and growth in the organization.

137

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Training and Education
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topics (continued)

In 2021, we focused on shaping our Learning and Development approach around our new company purpose and culture. As we develop new
key performance indicators (KPIs) for the future, we will be looking for a combination of the criteria below, as well as correlation with mobility
and talent outcomes.
• Reach: How many people accessed resources? How many people attended the event?
• Resonance: Did employees take action and/or apply learnings on the job? Do they feel better equipped to do their work?
• Reaction: What did employees achieve as a result? Did it influence their behavior?
We use myLearning by Degreed—which offers a personalized blend of high-quality learning, leadership and management development
and technical skill resources—as our learning management and training system. In 2021, 78% of Nielsen employees accessed our Learning
Management System and Degreed platforms, completing over 73,000 learning activities within the flow of work. Our employees are alsooffered other training opportunities virtually, as well as other options that are relevant to their job functions and responsibilities. These
programs are in service of our goal to “re-skill” or “upskill” employees interested in a new career path and to expand training offerings to meetthe evolving needs of the company.

GRI 404: Training
and Education
2016404-1 Average hours of training
per year per employee

Nielsen does not publicly report average hours of training per year per employee, but will investigate the feasibility of this for future reports.

GRI 404: Training
and Education
2016404-2 Programs for upgrading
employee skills and transition
assistance programs

Human capital > Powering our Growth Culture through training and development
Onboarding process
We work to successfully integrate employees into the company from day one by helping new joiners understand our culture, be clear on theirroles and feel connected to their new team and to the broader Nielsen community. Our 90-day onboarding program includes an orientation
session that provides a virtual welcome from our CEO, an overview of the company, strategy and our culture—including our focus on diversity,
equity and inclusion—an introduction to growing their careers, and an overview of our corporate citizenship, among other topics. It alsoemphasizes the value of integrity in everything we do.
As new employees continue through their first 90 days at the company, they have access to an onboarding playbook and online learning
platform that provides a one-stop resource for information about training, benefits, customizable learning, product learning and technicalsupport. Our 90-day onboarding program also includes manager and HR onboarding guides and access to our Slack new joiner community, tohelp new employees feel more connected within the organization.

138

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Training and Education
GRI 404: Training
and Education
2016404-2 Programs for upgrading
employee skills and transition
assistance programs

To track the effectiveness of our 90-day onboarding program and continually improve the new joiner experience, we regularly seek guidancefrom an onboarding network composed of global colleagues and a process improvement taskforce, as well as survey new employees 30 days
and 90 days after joining Nielsen.
Responsible management of reorganizations and employee layoffs
No major layoffs occurred during the reporting period. For more information, please see the consolidated results, including restructuring
charges, in our 2021 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2021.
Nielsen offers a severance program for involuntary, not-for-cause separations in many countries that includes salary continuation and oftentransition assistance such as outplacement and continued employee benefits, if a separated associate qualifies for severance. In all countries,
all applicable laws are followed for separation benefits. Separation notice to employees is governed either by minimum notice periods orgoverning law.
In the European Union, Nielsen guarantees the right of information and consultation for relevant issues and topics, as determined by local
law and/or Agreement, through employees’ representative bodies. Consultation takes place within a time frame that allows works councils
to deliver an opinion and/or recommendation about possible consequences and impact to the employees of relevant business and policychanges. In the exercise of their function, workers’ representatives are protected. The company ensures that members of works councils andtrade unions are not adversely affected as a result of the exercise of their function.

GRI 404: Training
and Education
2016404-3 Percentage of employees
receiving regular performanceand career development reviews

All employees have access to career development resources and receive annual performance reviews. We also encourage employees to havefocused “check-in” discussions at least three times each year as well as ongoing one-on-one conversations with their managers. During thecheck-ins, managers provide feedback on job performance and discuss associates’ career and skill development, future aspirations, work-lifebalance and other issues that may impact job satisfaction and performance.
In our Performance Review process, employees are encouraged to fill out a self-assessment, in which they are prompted to reflect on theirannual contributions to their team and the company. This allows them to share their written point of view with their manager, before themanager makes an overall assessment. In 2021, 79% of employees wrote their self-assessment, exceeding a target of 70%. The 2021 yearend performance review finished with 99.6% of managers providing ratings of employees in the performance system.
The official option to receive multidimensional (360-degree) feedback through the performance review process was closed during 2020 and
2021, but managers were encouraged to solicit and incorporate 360-degree feedback as part of their performance review and assessment
comments of their team. The 360 survey is planned for reintroduction in 2022.

139

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Diversity and Equal Opportunity
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topicsDiversity, equity and inclusion > People
Diversity, equity and inclusion > Bringing DE&I to life through our BRGs
We power a better media future for all people by embracing, leveraging and incorporating diversity, equity and inclusion into all that we do.
When we operate in a culture that is diverse and inclusive, our hope is that innovation flourishes, our clients win, and associates are engaged
and collaborate to bring the best that Nielsen can offer to the communities we measure.
Nielsen’s DE&I strategy covers four pillars: people, product and thought leadership, business diversity, and community advocacy.
We maintain a DE&I page on our website and regularly publish diversity-focused news stories and insights.

GRI 405: Diversity
and Equal
Opportunity 2016405-1 Diversity of governancebodies and employees

Diversity, equity and inclusion
Performance data table2022 Proxy, p. 9405-2 Ratio of basic salary andremuneration of women to men

Diversity, equity and inclusion > Advancing pay equity and an inclusive culture
Gender pay equity
All our compensation decisions take gender equity into consideration, and with each of our annual compensation planning processes, we
review associate pay for gender balance and fairness. Additionally, we conduct our detailed pay equity analysis annually, including a review
with our Board of Directors. To do this, we developed a scientific and statistically driven analytic method to assess the gender pay gap. The
method controls for variables that may influence pay (such as performance, experience, location, tenure and other factors) and is appliedconsistently and globally. Should we find specific instances of pay inequity for individuals in similar jobs, we develop action plans to close
gaps. We are fully committed to gender pay equity, and we continue to review and refine our methodology and drill down by country and job
to ensure that pay equity is continuously addressed across the organization. As the business continues to evolve and population shifts, weare focused on equality across the employee life cycle, and gender pay equity is an ongoing process and a constant goal.
Because Nielsen’s 2021 employee headcount in the U.K. was below the government threshold requiring reporting on gender pay equity, we
did not publish a U.K.-specific gender pay gap analysis, as in previous years.

140

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

3-3 Management of material
topicsDiversity, equity and inclusion > People

TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Non-discrimination
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

Nielsen prohibits all forms of harassment and discrimination. This means we avoid any behavior that could make other people feel demeaned
or intimidated or could interfere with their ability to do their jobs. Harassment need not be sexual in nature and can include any action thatinterferes with an employee’s work performance or creates an environment that is offensive, intimidating or hostile to work in.
We expand on our commitment to prohibiting all forms of harassment and discrimination in our Code of Conduct, and we require thatassociates recertify to the Code annually, thus ensuring that our associates benefit from ant-iharassment training each year.
Global non-discrimination policy

GRI 406: Nondiscrimination
2016406-1 Incidents of discriminationand corrective actions taken

Governance > Code of Conduct, ethics and integrity
We encourage all associates to report any and all concerns through our anonymous Speak Up Helpline, without fear of retaliation. We provide
a number of different mechanisms through which employees and others can report claims, as explained in detail in our Code of Conduct.
Through our Speak Up program, our Compliance & Integrity Team intakes reports of misconduct (directly or through the Helpline) and ensuresthat the concerns are reviewed and investigated in an impartial and timely fashion. When a Code of Conduct violation is reported, Integrity
Leaders work with the People Team and other relevant stakeholders to determine the appropriate next steps to investigate and resolve thereport. If the report is substantiated, an assessment is made as to whether discipline is required and, if so, what level of discipline. Discipline
can vary from warnings to termination. To support organizational justice, the Compliance & Integrity team analyzes data about prior outcomesto inform disciplinary decisions. Nielsen does not require employees to take sexual harassment claims to private arbitration.
During the reporting period, Nielsen did not have any litigation involving claims of sexual harassment. Also, we have not had any fines fromthe Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division.

141

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining
GRI 407: Freedomof Association
and Collective
Bargaining 2016407-1 Operations and suppliers
in which the right to freedomof association and collective
bargaining may be at risk

During the reporting period, Nielsen did not identify any operations or suppliers at significant risk for incidents of violation of workers' rights toexercise freedom of association or collective bargaining.
As it relates to our supply chain, Nielsen understands that electronics manufacturing poses greater risks of human rights and supply chain
violations than other sectors, particularly in certain geographies. To address this particular risk, Nielsen requires its electronics manufacturing
suppliers in high-risk countries to complete specific social compliance questionnaires addressing human rights and fair labor conditions at the
production facility level. These self-assessments are required on a regular basis to monitor and evaluate human rights and labor risks within
supplier organizations. The results of these questionnaires, along with other supplier due diligence tools and subsequent dialogue, determine
the need for social audits to be conducted by a third-party audit firm.
Global Commitment to Human Rights
2022 Modern Slavery Statement

Child LaborGRI 408: Child
Labor 2016408-1 Operations and suppliers
at significant risk for incidents ofchild labor

Our Global Commitment to Human Rights is aligned with the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which includes
prohibitions against child labor. The most material aspect of this for Nielsen is in our data collection processes, which we conduct with thefull consent of those providing their information. When we collect personal data from children, we do so with parental consent, which can bewithdrawn at any time, and we comply with all applicable laws regarding the collection of data about children. For more detail, please refer toour Privacy Principles.
We also engage in social commitments and programs that benefit children, such as through our community engagement programs.
Nielsen did not identify any operations or suppliers at significant risk for the incidence of child labor during the reporting period. As it relates
to our supply chain, Nielsen understands that electronics manufacturing poses greater risks of human rights and supply chain violations thanother sectors, particularly in certain geographies. To address this particular risk, Nielsen requires its electronics manufacturing suppliers inhigh-risk countries to complete specific social compliance questionnaires addressing human rights and fair labor conditions at the production
facility level. These self-assessments are required on a regular basis to monitor and evaluate human rights and labor risks within supplierorganizations. The results of these questionnaires, along with other supplier due diligence tools and subsequent dialogue, determine the needfor social audits to be conducted by a third-party audit firm.

142

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Forced or Compulsory LaborGRI 409: Forced
or Compulsory
Labor 2016409-1 Operations and suppliers
at significant risk for incidents offorced or compulsory labor

Nielsen did not identify any operations or suppliers at significant risk for incidents of forced or compulsory labor during the reporting period.
As it relates to our supply chain, Nielsen understands that electronics manufacturing poses greater risks of human rights and supply chain
violations than other sectors, particularly in certain geographies. To address this particular risk, Nielsen requires its electronics manufacturing
suppliers in high-risk countries to complete specific social compliance questionnaires addressing human rights and fair labor conditions at the
production facility level. These self-assessments are required on a regular basis to monitor and evaluate human rights and labor risks within
supplier organizations. The results of these questionnaires, along with other supplier due diligence tools and subsequent dialogue, determine
the need for social audits to be conducted by a third-party audit firm.

Human Rights Assessment
GRI 412:
Human Rights
Assessment 2016412-1 Operations that have been
subject to human rights reviews
or impact assessments

Governance > Human rights
Human rights policy, due diligence, risk assessment and governance of human rights issues
Human rights are embedded in our overall approach to risk management through our Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework, which
covers 100% of our operations and joint ventures where we have management control. This multichannel collaboration allows us to take amore comprehensive and proactive approach to human rights risk management. ERM ensures that we are conducting ongoing, in-depth
assessments through our existing due diligence processes, monitoring and reporting on these risks, taking appropriate actions when neededto address the risks, and integrating any relevant findings into our organizational processes and policies as needed. We also monitor humanrights-related risks on an ongoing basis through a variety of other internal processes across geographies and different areas of our business.
For more detail, see our Global Commitment to Human Rights, which covers our operational commitments and expectations for joint venturesand other stakeholders. As it relates to our active Tier 1 suppliers, all have been assessed for human rights-related risks over the last
three years.
We are committed to continuous improvement in this area in terms of increasing coverage across our workforce, operations, supply chain andbeyond, advancing our own policies and practices, and encouraging the same of our stakeholders. To that end, we publish regular updates on
our approach to this and related areas in our Global Commitment to Human Rights, which is updated every two years and was last updated in
January 2021, as well as our annual Modern Slavery Statement.

143

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Human Rights Assessment
GRI 412:
Human Rights
Assessment 2016412-1 Operations that havebeen subject to human rights
reviews or impact assessments(continued)

Vulnerable groups assessed for human rights risks
We recognize that monitoring human rights risks is critical for all stakeholder groups, but that not all groups require the same type or degreeof monitoring, resources and support. With that in mind, we have identified key vulnerable groups that require more rigorous monitoring,
including manufacturing suppliers, panelists and employees who perform their responsibilities in the field (not in a Nielsen office or homeoffice setting). Nielsen is continually revising our approach to providing these groups and others with the resources and information they needto recognize and address potential human rights risks or opportunities that might come up in the course of their work or interactions withNielsen. Please see our Global Commitment to Human Rights for more information.
Human rights violations and remediation actions
There have been no human rights incidents requiring remediation actions during the reporting period.
Nielsen takes all violations of our Code of Conduct, including human rights violations, seriously. All employees are expected to cooperateand support investigations into possible misconduct. If, following an investigation, a violation is found, Nielsen will determine the appropriate
consequences in accordance with local laws, which may include disciplinary action up to and including termination. In the case of potentially
illegal activities, the Company may also refer the matter to appropriate authorities or pursue civil or criminal remedies.
Human rights management system certifications
Given the nature of Nielsen’s business, the greatest risks for potential human rights issues come through our supply chain. To mitigate thoserisks, our Global Procurement team around the world maintains completed Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) certificate training on the
Supplier Code. Nielsen provides further training to those with a direct supplier relationship to ensure they are readily capable of identifying
any potential abuses. Two members of the team who work with electronics manufacturers have been trained by the RBA to audit factories
against the Supplier Code.

144

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Human Rights Assessment
GRI 412:
Human Rights
Assessment 2016412-1 Operations that havebeen subject to human rights
reviews or impact assessments(continued)

Grievance mechanism for human rights impacts
Nielsen employees have a responsibility to report any potential human rights violations. Associates may file formal or informal grievances
through any member of management, including their own or next-level managers, and any member of the People team. Nielsen also maintains
a Helpline through which associates can bring formal and informal grievances, and these grievances can be brought anonymously if theassociate so wishes. All grievances are investigated promptly. Nielsen’s Code of Conduct maintains that no employees are to be retaliatedagainst for bringing forth any formal or informal grievances. As part of our continuous improvement approach, our Global Compliance &Integrity team recently refined our reporting process for many grievances to be investigated directly by HR, Employee Relations, as well as
Integrity Leaders globally.
We invite any stakeholders concerned about potential human rights-related risks or impact to reach out and share any concerns or grievanceswith us. Please visit the Nielsen Helpline to make a report online and to view a full list of country-specific phone numbers. More information
about how to submit a claim through the Helpline and other ways to report a concern can be found in our Code of Conduct.

412-2 Employee training
on human rights policies orprocedures

As it relates to employee engagement on human rights-related issues, our Nielsen Code of Conduct is separate from our Supplier Code of
Conduct and establishes guidelines and expectations for lawful and ethical conduct by our employees around the world. Our Code of Conduct
includes a section on “Protecting human rights” to ensure every employee is aware of and understands our obligations and expectations inthis area, and encourages employees to be vigilant in protecting against exploitation of vulnerable populations, human trafficking and childand forced labor. The Nielsen Code of Conduct is translated into over 10 languages and all employees are asked to certify annually thatthey understand and will comply with the Code of Conduct, unless prohibited by local law. Nielsen provides a virtual training video for our
employees about the warning signs of modern slavery and human rights violations when working with suppliers, which is available in
20 languages.
As it relates to training available to our staff who work with our supply chain, through our membership in the Responsible Business Alliance(RBA), we make online training modules on the Nielsen Supplier Code of Conduct available to both Nielsen employees and suppliers. Training
modules in social compliance can be assigned to internal staff and suppliers, and supplier participation is tracked within the RBA tool. Our
Global Procurement team around the world maintains completed RBA certificate training on the Supplier Code. Nielsen provides further
training to those with a direct supplier relationship to ensure they are readily capable of identifying any potential abuses. Two members of theteam who work with electronics manufacturers have been trained by the RBA to audit factories against the Supplier Code.

145

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

GRI 413: Local
Communities 2016413-1 Operations with local
community engagement, impact
assessments, and development
programs

Communities

GRI 413: Local
Communities 2016413-2 Operations with significant
actual and potential negative
impacts on local communities

Communities

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Local Communities

Nielsen is committed to strengthening the communities and markets in which we live and operate our business, recognizing how importantthese efforts are to ensure a more equitable and sustainable future. Since Nielsen does not have factories or large operational facilities,
nor do our operations require large amounts of land or resources from the communities in which we operate, our facilities have no known
significant actual and potential negative impact on local communities.

Supplier Social Assessment
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topicsGovernance > Human rights
Supplier Environmental Assessment: 3-3 Management of material topics
308-1
Diversity, equity and inclusion > Business diversity
Business diversity policy and approach
By purchasing from diverse-owned businesses, we strengthen our business and our supply chain, as well as the economic health of diverse
communities. Nielsen has a strong business diversity program that follows best practices for the inclusion of diverse suppliers in our supply
base. We track and report our spending with diverse firms, and we have multiple policies and processes in place to support an overall
corporate goal of maintaining 15% of our U.S. sourceable spend with diverse businesses through 2024, with a stretch goal of 18%. We define
diverse suppliers as U.S.-headquartered companies that are 51% owned, operated and controlled by minorities, women, veterans, persons
with disabilities, and/or lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender (LGBT) persons.
Our Global Procurement team manages our business diversity efforts, integrating business diversity into upcoming bids and contracts andworking to create a supply chain reflective of our company’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion, specifically economic inclusion.
We advance the diversity of suppliers through the following efforts.

146

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Supplier Social Assessment
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topics (continued)

Selection and contracting requirements: Nielsen’s procurement policies include specific request for proposal (RFP) language addressing
business diversity; these policies also give weight to the ability of prospective suppliers to contribute to our corporate diverse spend goals.
Business reviews and supplier engagement: Our Global Procurement team reviews and evaluates strategic suppliers’ contributions tobusiness diversity. When major suppliers are not contributing to supplier diversity, our Global Procurement team engages the supplier toaddress the importance of supplier diversity to Nielsen; recommends action steps for the supplier to consider in order to contribute more
impactfully to our supplier diversity goals; agrees on action steps between Nielsen and the supplier; and agrees on a cadence of regularcommunication (often quarterly) to collaborate on the agreed-upon action steps and track progress.
Supplier development and capacity-building: In 2020 and 2021, as part of its commitment to fight racism with action, Nielsen provided
short-term pro bono business consulting to select diverse suppliers as a skills-based volunteering initiative (Next Level Suppliers). This
program was made possible by Nielsen’s Business Diversity, Corporate Citizenship, and Diversity, Equity & Inclusion teams.
Through Next Level Suppliers, seven firms completed three-month projects with the support of Nielsen’s data and expertise. Throughout thecourse of the projects, suppliers met with their own cross-functional team of four to five Nielsen employees, ranging from SVPs to analysts,
that volunteered their services.
The Next Level Suppliers projects ranged from developing marketing strategies to overall company strategies for diverse firms in Nielsen’s
three major purchasing categories: technology, market research, and professional services.
National affiliations: Nielsen is a corporate member of the National Minority Supplier Development Council and the Women’s BusinessEnterprise Council, and we attend events and conferences throughout the year to continuously identify, qualify and include diverse suppliersin sourcing events and the final awarding of business.
Client reporting: Nielsen reports our supplier diversity spend regularly to clients that request it.
Accountability, governance and staffing: We have a director in Global Procurement who leads both Supply Chain ESG and Business Diversity.
The Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) owns the performance of the supplier diversity program, and achievement of the diverse spend goal
annually is tied to the CPO’s performance evaluation and bonus, as well as to the performance evaluations and bonuses of the CPO’s direct
reports.
Nielsen’s business diversity program is tied closely to corporate goals, such as those of the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion and Corporate
Citizenship platforms of the company.

147

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Supplier Social Assessment
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topics (continued)

Business diversity goals and progress
We strive to annually purchase at least 15% of our U.S. sourceable spend with diverse business through 2024, with a stretch goal of 18%. In
2020, we reached $118 million in our Tier 1 and Tier 2 programs, representing 10% of our overall U.S. sourceable supplier spend. In 2021, wereached $104 million in spend in our Tier 1 and Tier 2 programs, representing 15% of our overall U.S. sourceable supplier spend for the year.
Buyer training on social and environmental supply chain issues
We understand that the cumulative purchasing decisions of institutional buyers can catalyze systemic change through market demand andthat training and resources enable and empower those decisions. Nielsen provides education and awareness-raising efforts internally andexternally throughout the year to increase the awareness and practice of sustainable purchasing, and members of our Global Procurement
team have completed certificate training with the Responsible Business Alliance on our Supplier Code of Conduct.

GRI 414:
Supplier Social
Assessment 2016414-1 New suppliers that werescreened using social criteria

We engage our top 100 suppliers with supplier sustainability assessments that address the following topics:• Environmental issues: energy consumption and waste management practices and results• Social issues: human rights and discrimination policies, practices and results• Governance/ethical issues: business ethics, data privacy, security, anti-corruption and bribery• Sustainable procurement issues: integration of environmental and social factors in supply chain management
As it relates to our supply chain, Nielsen understands that electronics manufacturing poses greater risks of human rights and supply chain
violations than other sectors, particularly in certain geographies. To address this particular risk, Nielsen requires its electronics manufacturing
suppliers in high-risk countries to complete specific social compliance questionnaires addressing human rights and fair labor conditions at the
production facility level. These self-assessments are required on a regular basis to monitor and evaluate human rights and labor risks within
supplier organizations. The results of these questionnaires, along with other supplier due diligence tools and subsequent dialogue, determine
the need for social audits to be conducted by a third-party audit firm.
Additionally, for all active suppliers, Nielsen uses an online, third-party platform available to members of the Responsible Business Alliance(RBA) to assess conformance with the RBA Code Section A.1, which states, among other standards, that: “Forced, bonded (including debt
bondage), or indentured labor, involuntary prison labor, slavery or trafficking of persons shall not be used.” This risk assessment online
platform is used to evaluate specific supplier and factory risks with respect to the RBA Code (including Section A.1) by inherent risk, sector
and location. This was the first year that we assessed active suppliers across the globe (4,000-plus companies) with this tool, significantly
increasing our coverage of the suppliers monitored for this risk.

148

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Supplier Social Assessment
GRI 414:
Supplier Social
Assessment 2016414-1 New suppliers that werescreened using social criteria(continued)

For new suppliers, we specifically solicit sustainability information during supplier registration and the RFP process. This information is
included as selection criteria along with our other requirements for quality, delivery, service and cost.

GRI 414:
Supplier Social
Assessment 2016414-2 Negative social impacts
in the supply chain and actions
taken

The greatest human rights risk in the Nielsen supply chain is with our contract electronics manufacturers, particularly those located in Asia.
We work with the Tier 1 and Tier 2 suppliers in this area to assess and engage them on their human rights practices, particularly as they relate
to human trafficking and modern slavery. We cover our approach to managing human rights and modern slavery risks in our supply chain andbeyond in our annual Nielsen Modern Slavery Statement.

Our standard contract terms request that all suppliers abide by our Supplier Code of Conduct. Our Code incorporates key elements froma widely used industry standard, the Responsible Business Alliance’s code, including elements relating to labor (specifically human rights),
health and safety, environmental management, ethics, and management systems. Through our membership in the RBA, we make online
training modules on the Nielsen Supplier Code of Conduct available to both Nielsen employees and suppliers. Training modules in social
compliance can be assigned to internal staff and suppliers, and participation is tracked within the RBA tool.

In 2016, Nielsen became a supporting corporate member of the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), formerly the Electronics Industry
Citizenship Coalition. As a corporate member, we updated our Supplier Code of Conduct to incorporate key aspects of the RBA Code of
Conduct, a supplier code that has been adopted by more than 100 Fortune 500 or multinational corporations engaged with the global
electronics supply chain. We have chosen to align ourselves with this industry code and organization to address the particular risk of
exposure to labor exploitation within the technology and electronics equipment manufacturing segments of our supply chain. Child labor andforced/compulsory labor are major forms of exploitation within this sector overall.
Nielsen expects that the suppliers with which we do business support and respect the free exercise of human rights, including throughcompliance with applicable human rights and labor laws and the provision of safe and healthy working environments. Forced, involuntaryand child labor are strictly forbidden. As part of our Supply Chain ESG program, we require suppliers to demonstrate similar commitments byagreeing to abide by our Code (or their own Code, if commensurate with our requirements) and providing company-level information related
to sustainability throughout their tenure servicing Nielsen.
Prior to contracting with a supplier, Nielsen establishes a baseline of expectations regarding social compliance through our Supplier Code of
Conduct. Our supplier assessment and engagement process, described in detail throughout this section, includes many elements specificallyrelated to human rights risks, including the following:• Our Supplier Code of Conduct aligns with the U.N. Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and the provisions in the Codeare derived from key international human rights standards, including the International Labour Organization’s (ILO’s) Declaration on
Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

149

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Response Location / Omission

Supplier Social Assessment
GRI 414:
Supplier Social
Assessment 2016414-2 Negative social impacts
in the supply chain and actions
taken (continued)• An online risk assessment covers all components of our Supplier Code.
• A formal, standardized ESG assessment on a third-party platform includes a section on fair labor.
• Site-specific supplier pre-assessment forms include questions on the use of migrant labor, recruitment practices, agents, recruitment andrelated fees, worker identification and documentation processes, and freedom of movement for each production facility. The results ofthese forms determine the need for external audits.
The assessments above are reviewed and monitored by a Nielsen director with subject matter expertise in social compliance and are sharedwith external consultative bodies as well for additional review as necessary.
We also conduct regular factory visits to our most active production facilities, when possible due to pandemic-related travel restrictions.
Finally, we utilize social compliance data available through our membership in the Responsible Business Alliance to access specific social
compliance information on our suppliers’ production sites or prospective production sites.
For more information, see our Nielsen Modern Slavery Statement, which describes our efforts to mitigate the risk of modern slavery andforced labor in our supply chain.

Public Policy
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topicsGovernance > Public policy engagement

GRI 415: Public
Policy 2016415-1 Political contributions

Governance > Public policy engagement

See the Public Policy page of our website for complete information about our government relations work, including links to detailed reports
about our lobbying activities and expenditures.
Performance data tables

150

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

3-3 Management of material
topicsData privacy and security

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Customer Privacy
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

Privacy principles
Data privacy policy, including policies and practices regarding customer information
Nielsen is committed to protecting the privacy and security of information about our employees, panelists, survey respondents, clients,
suppliers and visitors to our websites. Nielsen complies with privacy and data protection laws that apply to the information we collect aroundthe world, which enables our business to be more connected.
We take seriously our commitment to keeping all personal and confidential data private. We follow an approach of Privacy by Design to ensurethat our privacy principles—which align with globally accepted fair information practices—are embedded in the design of our products andservices during the development stage. Our Global Privacy Policy addresses Nielsen’s collection, use, disclosure and retention of data about
unique individuals. The policy is generally applied to all Nielsen services, processes and technologies—whether client-facing or internal—that
utilize personal data, including during the development or assessment of new processes or technology, as well as by all Nielsen affiliates,
subsidiaries, employees and contractors.
Nielsen participates in the following self-regulatory programs for our integrated Nielsen Marketing Cloud platform:• The Digital Advertising Alliance (DAA): We adhere to the DAA’s self-regulatory principles for online behavioral advertising, including the
DAA’s application of self-regulatory principles to the mobile environment.
• The European Interactive Digital Advertising Alliance (EDAA): We adhere to the European Principles.
• The Network Advertising Initiative (NAI): We adhere to the NAI Code of Conduct.
Management approach to data privacy, including programs, compliance and employee training
Consumer privacy is a top priority for Nielsen. We rely primarily on demographic and aggregated data from which we cannot directly identify
people, and we maintain appropriate limits on access to data about specific individuals where we hold it. Our internal policies and procedures
conform to applicable laws and industry standards around the globe. They also incorporate the principle of Privacy by Design—a commitment
to include appropriate privacy protections in the design and implementation of our products and services.

151

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

3-3 Management of material
topics (continued)

We maintain extensive privacy information on the Privacy page of our website describing the various types of data collection and use in which
Nielsen engages, and we provide the public with instructions for how to opt out of our measurement products.

Customer Privacy
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

Our privacy compliance program consists of:• Policies and procedures to implement legal requirements and give effect to individual rights under privacy laws
• A dedicated team of experienced privacy professionals to provide oversight and expertise• Privacy and security training for all employees, along with ongoing communications on specific topics• Embedding Privacy by Design into our products and services• Security and contractual controls to limit our employees’ and service providers’ access to personal data in our systems by role, and to limit
onward transfer of personal data handled on our behalf• Response procedures to deal with data security incidents or other issues• Continuous review and improvement of all aspects of our program
We investigate complaints regarding our privacy and data use practices and take remedial action where appropriate. Any Nielsen associate
who receives a privacy-related complaint must escalate it to Nielsen Privacy. The general public can reach out via a dedicated email address(privacy.department@nielsen.com) for privacy inquiries. As stated in our Code of Conduct, we take all violations of our Code seriously;
this includes any violations of our privacy compliance program. If, following an investigation, a violation is found, Nielsen will determine theappropriate consequences in accordance with local laws, which may include disciplinary action up to and including termination. In the case of
potentially illegal activities, the company may also refer the matter to appropriate authorities or pursue civil or criminal remedies.
As outlined in our Supplier Code of Conduct, we expect suppliers to implement similar policies and procedures to protect data privacy
and security.
Approach to data security and cyber security
Nielsen is committed to protecting the security of all client and consumer information. Our Cybersecurity program is grounded ininternationally recognized data protection principles, and we use a variety of security technologies and procedures to protect client andconsumer information. We deploy and utilize innovative custom-built and commercial solutions at a global scale. Nielsen’s Cybersecurity
program aligns with the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Cybersecurity Framework (NIST CSF), which includes five corefunctions: identify, protect, detect, respond and recover.

152

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

3-3 Management of material
topics (continued)

Identifying data security threats and vulnerabilities: We use a threat and vulnerability management and penetration testing program todetect new vulnerabilities and help assign priority to remediation. This program leverages a combination of appliance-based and software
agent-based scanners to detect vulnerabilities across our operations. Where possible, we integrate tools for automation and to facilitate CI/
CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery) processes. We have defined remediation periods based on the severity of the findings,
which in turn drives the prioritization and implementation of remediation actions.

Customer Privacy
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

Nielsen contracts with leading security firms to provide penetration testing services for identified high-risk applications. Additionally,
it conducts internal penetration tests to supplement third-party tests and to meet internal or client requirements. We operate a 24/7
Cybersecurity Operations Center which includes threat defense operations and threat intelligence to detect and respond to malicious
behavior and to identify incidents through monitoring, alerts and analysis of network activity, as well as through cyberintelligence findings. We
continue to invest in technology, alerting capabilities and enhanced processes to assist us in staying on top of threats facing our environment.
Continuous improvement capabilities include periodic Red and Purple team exercises, and incident response tabletop exercises.
Policies and governance: Nielsen uses a principles-based approach to deliver specific control areas within the Nielsen Acceptable Use
Policy, Cybersecurity Policy and Cybersecurity Standards. Combined, these policies and standards define the minimum set of controls thatare necessary to uphold the company’s reputation and protect sensitive information. The Acceptable Use Policy, Cybersecurity Standards
and Cybersecurity Policy are reviewed annually to ensure appropriate controls and implementation across the company. The controls within
the Acceptable Use Policy are tiered, to ensure that appropriate protection is provided for every level of information classification. Nielsen’s
information classifications are: public, proprietary, confidential and confidential-restricted.
Governance for these policies include:• Oversight from the Corporate Policy Governance Council• Review directed by Cybersecurity Governance• Approval from the Chief Information Security Officer• Publication and translation into multiple languages• Emergency releases as required
We have a defined exception process in place for deviation from data security controls. The process requires a review of businessjustifications and impacts while considering additional or alternative mitigating controls before approval is considered.

153

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

3-3 Management of material
topics (continued)

Risk management: The Cybersecurity team focuses on identifying cybersecurity risks throughout business streams, educating the businessowners of risks and providing consultation regarding requirements for alternative mitigations. Control attestations are completed to determine
how implementation has occurred across specific services, products or business processes. The Cybersecurity team maintains a constantfeedback loop with our Chief Legal & Corporate Affairs Officer and other members of our senior leadership team relating to our cybersecurity
risk. We also undertake additional risk management procedures in the following special circumstances:

Customer Privacy
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

• Contracts: In coordination with Legal, the Cybersecurity team regularly reviews and provides recommended information security language
for client and third-party contracts, to include specific security-control requirements where applicable, specialized reporting and response
procedures in the event of an incident, self-certification procedures and audit rights definitions.
• New product development: The Cybersecurity team employs engineers and security architects who work side by side with infrastructure,
networking and application development teams in order to embed security in the design of new products that are either purchased or built
in-house. This coordinated approach allows teams to identify risks more easily, based on the capabilities, features and use cases of the
new products brought into our secure environment.
• Acquisitions and divestitures: The Cybersecurity team engages with acquisitions and divestitures to ensure that security is establishedor maintained throughout these transactions. The acquisition and divestiture processes include due diligence measures, integration
requirements and other processes that ensure compliance with the Nielsen Cybersecurity Policy and Standards. Joint ventures that havetheir technology hosted by Nielsen fall under our cybersecurity program and practices.
Assessments of third parties that collect, process or store Nielsen confidential or confidential-restricted information: The Cybersecurity
team performs in-depth cybersecurity assessments on third-party security controls and their security technologies before allowing any
data sharing to occur. Vendors are tiered according to the classification of information they are collecting, processing or storing, andreassessments are conducted on a recurring basis.
Insurance: Nielsen procures insurance for cybersecurity incidents, with limits applicable to the anticipated risk.
Privacy and data security incident response
Nielsen has developed a robust incident management process to respond to a wide variety of cyber incidents globally. This process includes
triage, investigation, evidence collection and storage, root-cause analysis, and incident resolution with executive reporting.

154

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

GRI Standard

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Disclosure

Response Location / Omission

GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topics (continued)

Cybersecurity incidents are responded to by the Nielsen Cybersecurity Incident Response Team. This team maintains and oversees
implementation of the Executive Cybersecurity Incident Response Plan, which details the response framework, executive decision-making
roles, prioritization and escalation of defined events, supporting procedures and response management. This plan includes specificsubprocesses such as handling privacy breaches, communications and commercial legal incidents. The Incident Response Team maintains a
global capability.

GRI 418:
Customer Privacy
2016418-1 Substantiated complaints
concerning breaches of customer
privacy and losses of customer
data

Nielsen had no reportable data breaches in 2021.

Customer Privacy

Socioeconomic Compliance
GRI 3: Material
Topics 2021

3-3 Management of material
topicsGovernance > Board oversight of ESG issues
Governance > Code of conduct, ethics and integrity
Governance > Human rights
Diversity, equity and inclusion

GRI 419:
Socioeconomic
Compliance 2016419-1 Non-compliance with laws
and regulations in the social andeconomic area

Nielsen had no instances of noncompliance with social, or economic laws or regulations during the reporting period. Also, no back wages orcivil penalties were assessed by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division during the reporting period.

155

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Environmental data methodology
Our tool for our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions calculations
and resource management—Portfolio Environmental &Energy Reporting System (PEERS)—is a proprietary energy
management tool developed by Nielsen’s global real estateservices provider, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL), to capture, analyze
and report energy data.
A third-party utility bill processor (ProKarma) was retained
to enter utility bill data into a database that is electronicallyconveyed from ProKarma into PEERS. Landlord data based onwhole-building consumption is adjusted to reflect Nielsen’s
percentage of building square footage, and is then enteredmanually into PEERS.
All work continues to be done in accordance with theGreenhouse Gas Protocol.
Change in Nielsen reporting baseline in 2022 (2021 data)
Starting with our 2022 reporting, Nielsen emission numbers
also include fleet data, allowing us to establish a new Nielsen
baseline. This is the leased company fleet used by our field
employees who recruit and maintain relationships with our
research panelists. This, along with the impact of the Nielsen
Global Connect divestiture, will explain the data swings or trend
breaks between reporting years 2021 (reporting 2020 data) and
2022 (reporting 2021 data).
Emission factors and calculation process
1. PEERS data collection: PEERS receives all bill line items
including service dates, consumption and cost. The
consumption and cost data for all sites, plus the locationbased emissions for U.S.-based sites, are exported fromPEERS and inserted into a GHG reporting spreadsheet.
Estimates are then generated for missing data and includedin the spreadsheet to produce a complete 12-monthconsumption and cost profile for each site. Market-based
emission factors are identified and applied where applicable,
and location-based emission factors are identified andapplied for all international sites.
2. Normalizing data: In order to properly align energy use to thetiming of weather and site operations, PEERS translates (i.e.,
normalizes) reported consumption that is reflected in utility
bills to the start and the close of each month. To normalize
consumption, PEERS divides the billed consumption by the
number of days in the billing period to determine the average
daily consumption. The daily average is then multiplied
against the number of days in each month that the bill
straddles, in order to arrive at the portion of the consumptionthat should be assigned to each month. In most cases, thisapproach results in two successive utility bills providing
consumption data for one calendar month; care is taken to
avoid accidentally double-counting emissions acrossmultiple months.
3. Adding estimates: Using the PEERS tool, all gaps in the datathat impact complete coverage of Nielsen facilities’ emission
and usage tracking are bridged through estimates. Theseestimates are applicable to all sites with any missing or
unavailable data, to represent a full year’s coverage. Nielsen's
scope emissions and utility consumption now represent 100%of our global square footage portfolio.
4. Estimate process: For sites with partially missing data, theestimates are based on prior year consumption/usage andthe cost for the applicable month or average of surrounding
months, where available. For sites where data on a metricis unavailable, Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption
Survey (CBECS) national averages for "Administrative or
Professional Offices" have been used for approximate energy
intensity of fuels within Scope 1 and electricity consumption
within Scope 2. To estimate water and waste for sites where
we have no data on their consumption, we use a portfoliospecific usage intensity to extrapolate approximate usage
based on the square footage of a site. We take the average
consumption per square foot for the sites where we havedata to get the portfolio-specific usage intensity value.
5. Emission factor sources: The data gathered are converted
to CO2e emissions using following sources in order ofpreference: 1) Federal Register EPA; 40 CFR Part 98 (Scope
1 factors); 2) Environmental Protection Agency eGrid2016
dataset (North America Scope 2 location-based factors);
3) International Energy Agency (IEA) 2018 dataset (sites
outside of North America for Scope 2 location-based
factors); 4) 2017 Green-e-Residual Mixes (North America
sites for market-based factors); and 5) 2018 Association of
Issuing Bodies (AIB) European Residual Mix (European sites
Scope 2 market-based factors).
6. Scope 1 emissions: The GHG Protocol definition of Scope
1 includes all direct GHG emissions; direct GHG emissions
come from sources owned or controlled by the reporting
entity. For Nielsen, this includes generator fuel (diesel andgasoline), natural gas from our buildings and fuel (gasoline)from our leased fleet. Stationary combustion factors for allsites came from the 2018 International Energy Agency (IEA)
dataset. For the fleet, the source of factors applied are the

156

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

EPA Climate Leaders Business Travel Emissions Factors(March 9, 2018). The Global Warming Potentials (GWPs) are
IPCC Fourth Assessment. The CO2, CH4 and N2O emission
conversion factors for highway vehicles come from Table
2-13 of the Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions andSinks: 1990–2015. The vehicle-miles and passenger-miles
emission conversion factors for highway vehicles are from
Table VM-1 of the Federal Highway Administration Highway
Statistics 2015. Fuel consumption and passenger-miles
emission conversion factors for rail are from Tables A.14 to
A.16 and 9.10 to 9.12 of the Transportation Energy Data Book:
Edition 35. Fuel consumption is converted to emissions byusing fuel and electricity emission factors.
7. Scope 2 emissions: The GHG Protocol definition of Scope
2 includes all indirect GHG emissions from consumption ofpurchased electricity, heat or steam; indirect GHG emissions
are a consequence of the activities of the reporting entity,
but occur at sources owned or controlled by another entity.
For Nielsen, this includes purchased electricity for locationbased data. The United States uses the 2016 e-Grid dataset
for location-based calculations. All Latin American countries
use IEA factors (reference: 2018 edition of the IEA factors
for CO2 emissions from fuel combustion). Scope 2 emissions
also include market-based emissions, any green energy
investments a company has made in its reporting period(e.g., renewable energy credits). Nielsen has used the
Scope 2 Quality Criteria from the GHG Protocol for marketbased data; regionally, the United States and Canada use
factors provided by GreenE, and European sites use theEuropean Residual Mix factors provided by AIB. For all otherNielsen countries, market-based factors are not available; inthese cases, location-based factors are used for all Scope
2 calculations. Thus, for countries beyond North America
and Canada, we use IEA factors (reference: 2018 edition of
the IEA factors for CO2 emissions from fuel combustion).

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Emissions are calculated and normalized to CO2 equivalent(CO2e) using Global Warming Potentials (reference:
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Fourth
Assessment Report (AR4), 2007).
8. Scope 3 emissions: Emission factors, assumptions andcalculation methodologies are derived from EPA Climate
Leaders Business Travel Emissions Factors (March 26, 2020).
GWPs are the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report (AR4—100 year).
• CO2, CH4 and N2O emissions data for highway vehicles
are from Table 2-13 of the EPA (2020) Inventory of U.S.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990–2018.
• Vehicle-miles and passenger-miles data for highway
vehicles are from Table VM-1 of the Federal Highway
Administration Highway Statistics 2018.
• Fuel consumption data and passenger-miles data forrail are from Tables A.14 to A.16 and C.9 to C.11 of theTransportation Energy Data Book: Edition 38. Fuelconsumption was converted to emissions by using fuel andelectricity emission factors.
• Air Travel factors from 2019 Guidelines to Defra/DECC’s
GHG Conversion Factors for Company Reporting. Version
1.0, August 2019.
All our GHG emissions and resource usage data reported here,with the exception of our updated 15 category supply chain
Scope 3 assessment by a third party, have been verified by
Apex Companies, LLC.

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

157

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Page 2

Data and information supporting the Scope 3 GHG emissions assertion were in some cases estimated rather
than historical in nature.

VERIFICATION OPINION DECLARATIONGREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
Apex Companies LLC, (Apex) was engaged to conduct an independent verification of the greenhouse gas (GHG)
emissions reported by The Nielsen Company (Nielsen) for the period stated below. This verification opinion
declaration applies to the related information included within the scope of work described below.
The determination of the GHG emissions is the sole responsibility of Nielsen. Nielsen is responsible for the
preparation and fair presentation of the GHG emissions statement in accordance with the criteria. Apex’s sole
responsibility was to provide independent verification on the accuracy of the GHG emissions reported, and on theunderlying systems and processes used to collect, analyze and review the information. Apex is responsible forexpressing an opinion on the GHG emissions statement based on the verification. Verification activities applied in alimited level of assurance verification are less extensive in nature, timing and extent than in a reasonable level ofassurance verification.

Boundaries of the reporting company GHG emissions covered by the verification:

Operational Control

Worldwide

Period covered by GHG emissions verification:
January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021



Criteria against which verification was conducted:
World Resources Institute (WRI)/World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD)
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (Scope 1 and 2)



WRI/WBCSD Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and ReportingStandard (Scope 3)

Reference Standard:

ISO 14064-3 (2019-04) Second Edition: Greenhouse gases -- Part 3: Specification with guidance for theverification and validation of greenhouse gas statements

Types of GHGs: CO2, N2O, CH4

Level of Assurance and Qualifications:
GHG Emissions Statement:
The Nielsen Company GHG Emissions for Reporting Year 2021
Scope 1 Emissions Metric Tonnes (mt) of CO2 equivalent (CO2e)

13,650

Scope 2 Emissions – Location Based mt CO2e

19,700

Scope 2 Emissions – Market Based mt CO2e20,450

Scope 3 Emissions Total mt CO2e

2,700



LimitedThis verification used a materiality threshold of 5% for aggregate errors in sampled data for each of theabove indicators

International locations using International Energy Agency (IEA) emissions factors for Scope 2 emissions arereported in CO2 emissions onlyQualifications: Scope 1, 2 and selected Scope 3 emissions summarized herein includes data from Nielsen
Media which encompasses approximately 229 offices globally and does not encompass The Nielsen
Company’s entire portfolio

Scope 3 Emissions – Category 5 Waste Generated in Operations – mt CO2e

1,500



Scope 3 Emissions – Category 6 Business Travel – mt CO2e

1,075



Interviews with relevant personnel of The Nielsen Company;



Scope 3 Emissions – Category 7 Employee Commuting – mt CO2e

125



Review of documentary evidence produced by The Nielsen Company;



Review of The Nielsen Company data and information systems and methodology for collection,
aggregation, analysis and review of information used to determine GHG emissions; and

Audit of sample of data used by The Nielsen Company to determine GHG emissions.

GHG Net Emissions for Reporting Year 2021
Net Emissions mt CO2e
Scope 1 + Scope 2 Market Based + Scope 3 (Categories 5, 6 & 7)

36,800

Data and information supporting Scope 1 GHG emissions assertion were in some cases historical in nature, butmany cases estimated rather than historical in nature. Data and information supporting the Scope 2 GHG
emissions assertion were in most cases historical in nature, but in some cases estimated rather than historical innature.

WATER RESOURCES • ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES • INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE • SAFETY • SUSTAINABILITY
Apex Companies, LLC • (800) 733‐2739 • www.apexcos.com

GHG Verification Methodology:

158

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

Data privacy & security

Communities

TCFD report

GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

Page 3
INDEPENDENT ASSURANCE STATEMENT

Verification Opinion:
Based on the process and procedures conducted, there is no evidence that the GHG emissions statement shown
above:
is not materially correct and is not a fair representation of the GHG emissions data and information; and

has not been prepared in accordance with the WRI/WBCSD GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting andReporting Standard (Scope 1 and 2), and WRI/WBCSD Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Value Chain
Accounting and Reporting Standard (Scope 3).

It is our opinion that The Nielsen Company has established appropriate systems for the collection, aggregation andanalysis of quantitative data for determination of these GHG emissions for the stated period and boundaries.

Statement of independence, impartiality and competenceApex is an independent professional services company that specializes in Health, Safety, Social and Environmental
management services including assurance with over 30 years history in providing these services.
No member of the verification team has a business relationship with The Nielsen Company , its Directors orManagers beyond that required of this assignment. We conducted this verification independently and to ourknowledge there has been no conflict of interest.
Apex has implemented a Code of Ethics across the business to maintain high ethical standards among staff in their
day-to-day business activities.
The verification team has extensive experience in conducting assurance over environmental, social, ethical andhealth and safety information, systems and processes, has over 20 years combined experience in this field and an
excellent understanding of Apex’s standard methodology for the verification of greenhouse gas emissions data.

Introduction and objectives of work
Apex Companies LLC, (Apex) was engaged by The Nielsen Company to conduct an independent
assurance of select sustainability performance data to be included in The Nielsen Company’s corporate
sustainability report. This Assurance Statement applies to the related information included within thescope of work described below for the time period of January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021. The
intended users of the assurance statement are the stakeholders of The Nielsen Company. The overall
aim of this process is to provide assurance to The Nielsen Company’s stakeholders on the accuracy,
reliability, and objectivity of select information included in the Report.
This information and its presentation in The Nielsen Company’s internal and external reports (Reports)
are the sole responsibility of the management of The Nielsen Company. Apex was not involved in thegathering of data, development of content and/or the drafting of the Reports. Our sole responsibility wasto provide independent assurance on the accuracy of information included in the scope of work. This is
the 7th year in which we have provided assurance over selected data.
Boundaries of the reporting company GHG emissions covered by the assurance:Operational Control

Worldwide Nielsen Media Offices

Scope of work
The Nielsen Company requested Apex to include in its independent review the following:

Attestation:

Scott Johnston, Lead Verifier
Principal Consultant
Apex Companies, LLC.
Miami, Florida

To: The Stakeholders of The Nielsen Company

David Reilly, Technical Reviewer
Principal Consultant
Apex Companies, LLC.
Santa Ana, California

May 18, 2022

This verification opinion declaration, including the opinion expressed herein, is provided to The Nielsen Company and is solely forthe benefit of The Nielsen Company in accordance with the terms of our agreement. We consent to the release of this statement by
you to CDP in order to satisfy the terms of CDP disclosure requirements but without accepting or assuming any responsibility or
liability on our part to CDP or to any other party who may have access to this statement.

Assure the accuracy of the following data for the 2021 reporting period:oTotal Water Consumption – Nielsen Media OnlyoTotal Waste Generated – Nielsen Media Only

Appropriateness and robustness of underlying reporting systems and processes used to collect,analyze, and review the environmental information reported; and

Evaluation of the reported data against The Nielsen Company’s internal reporting procedures.

Excluded from the scope of our work is any assurance of information relating to:Text or other written statements associated with The Nielsen Company submissions



Activities outside the defined reporting period

This limited assurance engagement relies on a risk based selected sample of sustainability data and theassociated limitations that this entails. The reliability of the reported data is dependent on the accuracy of
metering and other measurement arrangements employed at the site level. This independent statement
should not be relied upon to detect all errors, omissions or misstatements that may exist.

WATER RESOURCES • ENVIRONMENTAL SERVICES • INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE • SAFETY • SUSTAINABILITY
Apex Companies, LLC • (800) 733‐2739 • www.apexcos.com

159

Home

2022 ESG Report |Governance

DE&I

Human capital

Environment

Performance data table

SASB report

The Nielsen Company
May 18, 2022

Page 2

Methodology
Apex undertook the following activities:
1. Interviews with relevant personnel of The Nielsen Company (including individuals at thecorporate level);

Data privacy & security
TCFD report

Communities
GRI index

Appendix
Environmental data
Methodology and verification

The Nielsen Company
May 18, 2022

Page 3

The assurance team has extensive experience in conducting assurance over environmental, social,
ethical and health and safety information, systems and processes, having over 24 years of combined
experience in this field and an excellent understanding of Apex’s standard methodology for the assuranceof sustainability and non-financial data and reports.

2. Review of internal and external documentary evidence produced by The Nielsen Company;
3. Review of The Nielsen Company information systems for collection, aggregation, analysis andinternal verification and review of environmental data.
Assessment Standards
We performed our work in accordance with Apex’s standard procedures and guidelines for external
Assurance of Sustainability Reports and International Standard on Assurance Engagements (ISAE) 3000
Revised, Assurance Engagements Other than Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial Information(effective for assurance reports dated on or after Dec. 15, 2015), issued by the International Auditing andAssurance Standards Board. A materiality threshold of ±5-percent was set for the assurance process.

Scott Johnston, Lead Verifier
Principal Consultant
Apex Companies, LLC.
Miami, Florida

Our Findings

This assurance statement, including the opinion expressed herein, is provided to The Nielsen Company and is solely for the benefitof The Nielsen Company in accordance with the terms of our agreement. We consent to the release of this statement by you to yourstakeholders in order to satisfy disclosure requirements but without accepting or assuming any responsibility or liability on our part tothe stakeholders or to any other party who may have access to this statement.

On the basis of our methodology and the activities described above, it is Apex’s opinion that:

Nothing has come to our attention to indicate that the reviewed information within the scope of
our assurance is not materially correct.



Nothing has come to our attention to indicate that the reviewed information is not a fair
representation of the actual data for calendar year 2021.



It is our opinion that The Nielsen Company has established appropriate systems for thecollection, aggregation, and analysis of quantitative data within the boundaries of the reporting for
determination of the following for The Nielsen Company:


Total Water Consumption - 4,014,471 cubic feet

Total Waste Generated – 3,798 metric tons

Statement of independence, integrity, and competenceApex is an independent professional services company that specializes in Health, Safety, Social andEnvironmental management services including assurance with over 30 years history in providing these
services.
Apex has implemented a Code of Ethics across the business to maintain high ethical standards amongstaff in their day-to-day business activities.
No member of the assurance team has a business relationship with The Nielsen Company, its Directors
or Managers beyond that of verification and assurance of sustainability data and reporting. We haveconducted this assurance assignment independently and we believe there to have been no conflict ofinterest.

David Reilly, Technical Reviewer
Principal Consultant
Apex Companies, LLC.
Santa Ana, California

160