Unlocking new
possibilities
Spirent Communications plc
Sustainability Report 2023

Unlocking new
possibilities
Spirent is the leading global
provider of automated test
and assurance solutions for
networks, cybersecurity andpositioning. With a strong trackrecord of innovation and a
dedicated team, Spirent isdriving momentum in its pursuitof pioneering solutions thatwill shape the future across
many industries.

Introduction
1
2
3
4
5

About our Sustainability Report
Introduction from our CEO
Spirent at a glance
Our business model
Our markets

Our sustainability approach
67
8
9

Our sustainability approach2023 highlights
Our priority sustainability themes
Our sites

Promise of a sustainable future
10 Promise of a sustainable future
12 Key themes and targets
13 Our contribution to asustainable economy
14 Support sustainable innovation
16 Embed sustainability incustomer centricity
18 Driving energy efficiency
of Spirent products
19 Supporting customers to reduceenergy use and carbon emissions
22 ESG in our go-to-market strategy

Net zero carbon
24
26
27
28
29
32
34

Net zero carbon
Key themes and targets
Journey to net zero
Emissions reduction strategy
EnergyCarbon emissions
Climate change risks and opportunities

Promote diversity and invest
in people
36 Promote diversity and invest
in people
38 Key themes and targets
39 Support diversity and inclusion
45 Invest in skills, training
and development
49 Flexible working practices
50 Support our communities

Operate responsibly
52
54
55
58
62

Operate responsibly
Key themes and targets
Sustainable buildings
Sustainable product design
Sustainable supply chain
and manufacturing

Accountable and transparent
68 Accountable and transparent
70 Key themes and targets
71 Sustainability governanceAppendix
76
79
86
90

Independent assurance statement
Compliance data
GRI Index
SASB Index

INTRODUCTION

About our Sustainability Report

INTRODUCTION

Unlockinga sustainable
future for all

Recognition

Reporting scope and boundaries

This Sustainability Report provides an account of the
management approach and performance trends of thematerial environmental, social and governance issues
for Spirent Communications plc.

CDP rating 2023
Climate change: B
Supply chain: B

FTSE ESG 100 Selectmember 2023

FTSE4Good
member 2023

CarbonNeutral®
Company certification
2023

The reporting period is the 2023 calendar year but
the Report also includes historical performance data.
This Report includes the activities and impacts thatare under the control or significant influence of Spirent
Communications plc. This Report contains standard
disclosures from the Global Reporting Initiative Standards.
The Report content has been independently assured by
Challenge Sustainability Limited.

Cautionary statement

This Report may contain forward‑looking statements
which are made in good faith and are based on current
expectations or beliefs, as well as assumptions about
future events.
You can sometimes, but not always, identify thesestatements by the use of a date in the future or suchwords as “will”, “anticipate”, “estimate”, “expect”, “project”,“intend”, “plan”, “should”, “may”, “assume” and other similarwords. By their nature, forward-looking statements are
inherently predictive and speculative and involve risk anduncertainty because they relate to events and depend on
circumstances that will occur in the future. You should notplace undue reliance on these forward-looking statements,
which are not a guarantee of future performance and are
subject to factors that could cause our actual results todiffer materially from those expressed or implied by thesestatements. The Company undertakes no obligation to
update any forward-looking statements contained in thisReport, whether as a result of new information, future eventsor otherwise.

EcoVadis bronze
rating 2023

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

1

INTRODUCTION

Introduction from our CEO

Our role indelivering asustainable
futureOur role in delivering a sustainable future

Spirent is well placed to help deliver a sustainable, lowcarbon economy. During this year we have deployed ourlab automation solutions and provided consultancy support
to deliver major energy, carbon and cost savings for a tier 1
financial services company, showcasing the benefits of test
automation in new segments.
Through our Academia Program, we have also supported
research that will explore the impact that climate change
will have on positioning technologies and how the novel
use of marine and airborne drones can help monitor
marine pollution more effectively.

Towards net zero carbon

During 2023, we’ve continued to make progress on ourjourney towards net zero carbon. We submitted our carbon
reduction targets and net zero plan to the Science Based
Targets initiative (SBTi) for approval and have developed
an innovative lab and estates strategy that will deliver 60
per cent reductions in carbon emissions in the next 3-5
years. Through a continued focus on efficiency this year,
we reduced our energy consumption by 2.7 per cent,and carbon emissions by 1.8 per cent. We also publisheda carbon reduction roadmap and have maintained ourCarbonNeutral© certification in 2023, which covers emissions
from Scope 1, 2 and some of Scope 31.

Progress on diversity and early career talent

Eric Updyke

Chief Executive Officer

I’m delighted to introduce our 2023
Sustainability Report. We remaincommitted to delivering ourenvironmental and social objectives,and believe that our continued
progress is a vital pillar of ouroverall success.
Sustainability remains high on the agenda of our customers
and investors, who continue to set ever higher levels of
expectation, especially around climate change. As a result,
I am pleased to be able to share with you the progress
we’ve made over the last year through FuturePositive,
our sustainability strategy.

This year we strengthened our programme to help us
attract and retain talent from more diverse backgrounds.
An internal focus group worked closely with our HBCU
partners to develop new resources to support morediverse recruitment. In addition, we also further expanded
our internal early career programmes, deliveringtargeted pathways for young people to develop skills
and experience.

ISO 14001 rollout and suppliersustainability agreements

Our rollout of our ISO 14001 environmental management
system continued during the year, with our Crawley andParis offices achieving certification. We are well on track
to ensure all major sites are certified by 2025 and we areseeing the benefits of more closely aligned environmental
processes and controls.
In addition, a major focus for our efforts this year
have been on engaging our suppliers on sustainability.
We have worked closely with key suppliers to explore
mutual opportunities to improve environmental and social
outcomes, and implemented the first sustainable supplier
agreement – a contractual agreement to deliver improved
data sharing and performance.

Eric Updyke

Chief Executive Officer

Note
1.	Scope 3 emissions sources: transmission and distribution losses, waste,business travel and home working.

2

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Spirent at a glance

We help our increasingly diverse
customer base manage rapidchange in the complexity of devices,
networks and services, enablingthem to keep the promises they
make to their customers while
reducing cost and acceleratingtime to revenue.

INTRODUCTION

Global leader,innovator andtrusted partner,
unlocking new
possibilities

Our innovative test and assurance solutions, trusted expertiseand services allow our customers to bring better quality
products and services to market faster, to automate theirtest labs and the turn-up of new services, and to proactively
identify and resolve problems in their live networks.
As the only vendor addressing all phases of the technology
lifecycle we are unlocking new possibilities, applying moreof our subject matter expertise gained in the lab to ourcustomers’ automation and live network challenges. Our
two operating segments are focused on helping customers
accelerate the migration of testing, evaluation and assuranceof devices, network elements and applications fromdevelopment labs to live networks.

Lifecycle Service Assurance

Networks & Security

An established global leader in lab-based testingof 5G mobile core networks, cellular and Wi-Fi
devices, as well as in lab and test automation
solutions for the telecom industry and enterprises.
The world‑class innovation of our Lifecycle Service
Assurance segment has enabled us to bring tomarket “live” solutions that provide end-to-end
visibility, actionable insights and automatedtroubleshooting to radically simplify turn-up andassurance of complex 5G networks and services,
reducing time and cost.

An industry leader in high-speed Ethernet/internet
protocol performance testing, our Networks &Security segment develops test methodologies,
tools and services for virtualised networks, cloud
and artificial intelligence networking infrastructure,application performance and proactive security
validation. As the acknowledged market leader in
global navigation satellite system test and simulation
solutions, we are applying our innovation and expertiseto emerging positioning, navigation and timing growth
opportunities, such as low earth orbit satellite systems.

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

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INTRODUCTION

Our business model

Unleashingthe value oftransformativetechnologies

We stand behind our customers’
promise to deliver a new generationof innovative products and services
to their customers.
We are with them in every phaseof the lifecycle from developmentin the lab to live deployment andoperation, ensuring that newtechnology works.

Using ourresources
effectively

e time to market
lerat
e
c
Ac

Lab

Financial strength
To invest in researchand development

Develop

Intellectual property
Protected IP and patents

Organisation
capitalUnique systems and processesnceSpirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Live

Re
d

p

ie

uc
ec
os t

De

at

ex

er

a nd

er

pl o

y

Op
er

4

us

Strong partnerships withcustomers and suppliersseSocial capitaleimiTalented and driven workforce

Opt

Human capital

complexit yHardensecurity
defencesOur markets

Spirent invests to sustain and expand
our leadership and support our
profitable growth in key technologies
and growth markets.

Non-terrestrial networkand LEO

800G and data centre
networking for AI

Financial services(digital transformation)

Market driverMarket driverMarket driver

Growth in non-terrestrial networks (NTN)and LEO mega satellite constellations
continues apace with over 5,700
satellites in orbit, and over 58,000
satellites estimated to be in active orbit
by 2030, delivering mobile broadband,
emergency services and Internet ofThings connectivity directly to devices,while offering resilient positioning
navigation and timing (PNT). Being
close to earth, these new constellations
enable more robust and secureconnectivity to remote, underserved
communities, mission-critical industries
and military theatres.

Opportunities for Spirent

Space is an incredibly complex
environment, so it is critical to validate
satellite communications and PNT
performance in the lab before
deployment. Numerous technology
and performance challenges must be
tested, from signalling delays and timing
variations to large Doppler shifts andsignal degradation from atmosphericconditions and interference.

Our response

Spirent, as the industry leader in satellite
PNT and end-to end mobility testing,is well positioned to help the industry
deliver on NTNs’ promises and bridge
the technology divide between satellite
providers and mobile operators. Spirent
is already deeply engaged with leading
players across the ecosystem, helping
to test the complex performanceand resiliency requirement.

The rapidly-increasing appetite forapplications such as cloud gaming,
streaming services, industrial connectivity,
and a new wave of AI workloads isdriving bandwidth demands everhigher. Cloud service providers arefocusing on AI infrastructure for learning
clusters which require high bandwidthconnectivity, and for inferences which
require low latency.
This is all stimulating rapid evolution
in Ethernet backbones and interconnects
in data centres that underpin the cloudand provide support for enterprises,
driving refresh cycles from 400G to 800G,
as well as early 1.6Terabit researchand development.

Opportunities for Spirent

With the rapid acceleration towards
800G, customers are demanding
higher‑density testing capabilities.
Flexibility is needed to validate thenext generation of routers and data
centre fabrics for cloud computing
and streaming service quality of service,for performance and latency of data
centre switches, and for the latest
generation of terabit core routers.

Our response

Spirent has developed the industry’s
highest-density, award-winning
multi‑rate 800G high-speed Ethernet
test solution, leveraging our decadesof leadership in Ethernet testing.
Spirent’s 800G solution helps accelerate
800G adoption across next-generation
chipsets, routers, switches, and data
centre fabrics, and lays the foundation
for future 1.6Terabit evolution.

Financial services organisations areembarking on large-scale digitaltransformation and automation
programmes driven by competitive
pressures, heightened security risks,
legacy IT systems and a heritage of costly
and inefficient siloed labs and manual
testing processes.
This is compounded by the need forcontinuous regulatory complianceand certification testing while meeting
aggressive sustainability targets acrossgrowing IT and data centre real estates.

Opportunities for Spirent

Manual methods for testing enterprisenetworks, regulatory compliance and theprovision of new digital services are nolonger viable because of the complexity,
speed and frequency at which
increasingly disaggregated networks
need to be updated.
By automating test lab capabilities,
world-leading financial services
companies will be able to significantly
accelerate delivery of new products,
version upgrades, and services totheir customers, while ensuring strict
compliance and benefitting from major
productivity gains and cost savings.

Our response

Spirent’s proven lab and test automation
solutions are fully applicable to thesetransformation programmes and tocontinuous testing within enterprise
sectors, including financial services. This
expanded market opportunity for Spirent
was showcased by a large deal we won
with a leading global financial services
organisation in 2023.

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INTRODUCTION

Unlocking newopportunities

We are evolving deeper and broader partnerships withan increasingly diverse base of customers, helping themaddress their larger business problems with innovative
solutions and services, not just products. We are leveraging
subject matter expertise gained from our leadership in lab
test and validation to address our customers’ live network
challenges, as they advance towards complex cloud-native
5G standalone networks and employ continuous integrationand continuous delivery (CI/CD) models. We are applying
our industry-leading expertise to key emerging areas
such 5G private networks, the expansion of telco cloud,data centre upgrades to support artificial intelligence (AI)workloads, open radio access networks (Open RAN), andlow earth orbit (LEO) satellite constellations. Diversifying
our markets and our customers provides us with newopportunities to grow and to build additional recurring
revenue streams that support sustainable, profitable growth.

OUR SUSTAINABILITY APPROACH

Our sustainability approach

About
FuturePositive

FuturePositive is oursustainability programme.
Through this programme, we have embedded the highest
standards of environmental management, social practices
and corporate governance in our business and supply
chain and help our customers tackle important global
sustainability challenges.

Our sustainability strategy isfocused on five key missions:
De

liv

er

a

su

Promise of asustainable future

Our promise
We will expand our sustainability
governance structures and reporting, andcommunicate regularly with staff on
FuturePositive targets and progress.

Our promise
We will showcase the environmental
benefits that our solutions deliver forcustomers and embed sustainability
into our go-to-market strategy.

in

a
bl

Be accountable
and transparent

s ta

e

fu
tu
re

Ope

We will operate with integrity,
respecting the environment andpeople everywhere.

Promote diversity
and invest in people
Our promise
We will take action on diversity and set clear expectations.
We will attract and develop talent and skills to drive
innovation and support long-term sustainable growth.
We will also enable and embed flexible working acrossall our operations.

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Net zerocarbonOur promise
We aim to achieve
CarbonNeutral® Company
certification in two years,
and work towards net
zero carbon by 2035
through energy efficiency,
100 per cent renewableelectricity andcarbon offsets.

i t h i nte g r i t y

Our promise
We will roll out ISO 14001
management system
practices globally andwork towards sending
zero waste to landfill. We
will embed circular
economy principles inour product design andreduce sustainability
impacts in our
supply chain.

VisionOur solutions will help deliveron the promise of a sustainable
future for all.

ra te w

Operateresponsibly

2023 highlights

We are pleased to share someof the highlights from the year.

Promise of a sustainable future• Lab automation delivering carbon emissions for financial
services company
Read more on pages 10 to 23

Net zero carbon• We reduced carbon emissions by 2 per cent from last year
and down 11 per cent from our 2019 baseline• We submitted our letter of intent and our science-basedtargets to SBTi for validation• We improved the quality of our Scope 3 data on productuse, our largest single emissions source• We agreed an innovative lab and estates strategy which
will reduce our Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 62 per cent
• We published our carbon reduction strategy
Read more on pages 24 to 35

Promote diversity• Conducted a global gender pay parity analysis• Engaged with HBCUs to continue to support a morediverse applicant pool and improve access to tech jobs
• Ran a suite of early career initiatives to nurture anddevelop talented young people
Read more on pages 36 to 51

Operate responsibly• ISO 14001 extension• Supplier engagement – collaboration to improvesustainability performance of products andmanufacturing (including packaging)• Supplier sustainability agreements introduced• Supplier audits continued• Enabling technologies investigated ininnovation hackathon
Read more on pages 52 to 67

Be accountable and transparent• New policies developed, including global sustainability
policy and sustainability building policy
Read more on pages 68 to 75

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OUR SUSTAINABILITY APPROACH

We havemade good
progress on our
Sustainability
programmein 2023

OUR SUSTAINABILITY APPROACH

Our priority sustainability themes

We seek tomanage ourmost significant
sustainability
impacts,risks andopportunities

Five categories:
Responsible business practices
1. Corruption and business ethics
2. Transparent reporting
3. Data security and privacy

Circular economy

4. Sustainable and transparent supply chain
5. Water in supply chain
6.	Product design for the environment and acircular economy
7. Impact occurring during use of products and services
8. End of life of products and waste

Delivering sustainability benefits for customers
9. Sustainability impact through product functionality

Energy and climate change

10.	Energy efficiency and renewable energy
11. Carbon emissions
12. Climate change resilience

Through FuturePositive we seek
to manage our most significant
sustainability impacts, risks andopportunities. These fall into
five categories.

People and communitiesHigh

13. Human and labour rights
14. Diversity, equity and inclusion
15. Training, skills and development
16. Health and wellbeing
17. Flexible working practices
18. Supporting communities

1
11

Influence on stakeholder assessments and decisions

12
10

2

14

15
4
6

16
13

3

17

Medium5

Medium18

7

8

Significance of economic, environmental and social impacts

We review our materiality assessment every two years, and completed the last review in 2022.
You can read more about our materiality process on page 72.
8

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

9

High

Our sites

OUR SUSTAINABILITY APPROACH

Frederick, MD

Crawley, UK

Holmdel, NJ
Littleton, MA

Paignton, UK
San Jose, CA

Beijing, China

Plano, TX
Honolulu, HI
Bangalore, India
Calabasas, CA

36
sites

10

significant
engineering sites

14

countries

Head office

Our sites
Spirent operates from 36 sites across 14 countries.
The Group headquarters is in Crawley, UK,
and we have ten significant engineering sites
across the world which house development
and customer service labs. We also have othersmaller sales and administrative offices.
All product manufacturing is completed by contract
manufacturers and only limited production processes
such as quality testing, loading firmware and productrepairs are completed on our sites.
We continued to operate flexible working practices withmany of team regularly working from home.

We have commenced an innovative
estates strategy which will reduce
our emissions by more than 60 per
cent over the coming five years.
Ray LeeDirector of Global Properties
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PROMISE OF A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Promise ofa sustainable
futureOur promise“We aim to showcase theenvironmental benefits that oursolutions deliver for customers
and embed sustainability into
our go-to-market strategy.”
Why is this important?
• Sustainability issues are increasingly important forour customers, with energy, climate change andcybersecurity being the most pressing.
• We are well placed to help customers reduce theirdirect impacts, through automation, virtualisation
and analytics.

Spirent’s test solutions play avital role in the transition to a
low carbon future, helping to
unlock innovation, making newtechnologies, development labs
and networks more efficient.
Stephen Douglas

Senior Director of Market Strategy

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

• We can help customers develop new technologies
to tackle global sustainability challenges,
including smart grids, autonomous vehicles
and precision agriculture.
• Sustainability can play an important part inour customer centricity approach.

2023 highlights• We supported customers to reduce carbon
emissions, including a lab automation andredesign for a tier 1 financial services company.

PROMISE OF A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

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PROMISE OF A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Key themes and targets

Spirent has
an importantrole to play indelivering on
the promise ofa sustainable
futureOur solutions can help customers
reduce energy use and carbon
emissions through innovation,
automation and virtualisation, andwe are helping our customers todevelop new technologies that solve
global sustainability challenges.
Sustainability is a key considerationfor our customers and it’s vital weshowcase our leadership in thisarea and the potential
benefits our solutions offer.

Reducecustomersustainability
impacts

Objective:
We will showcase how
our solutions help ourcustomers improvetheir sustainability
performance directly.

Action:Produce case studies
annually for main solutions
with environmental andsustainability benefits
to customers.

Targets:
Produce data-driven
case studies for Velocity
and VisionWorks.

Progress: Achieved
We have produced casestudies which articulate
the sustainability benefitsof our solutions, drawing
on customer data.

Supportsustainable
innovation

Objective:
We will showcase how
our solutions unlock thetechnologies to solve global
sustainability challenges.

Action:Produce case studies
annually for each business
unit on environmental andsustainability innovation
supported by Spirent’s
test solutions.

Targets:
Produce case studies on
the new innovations thatare supported by Spirent.

Progress:
Progress madeWe have produced casestudies of where oursolutions are supporting
sustainable innovation.

Embed
sustainability
in customer
centricity

Objective:
We will makesustainability part of our
go-to-market strategy.

Action:Establish a clear plan tointegrate sustainability into
our go‑to‑market strategy.

Targets:
Incorporate sustainability
into our go-to-market
plan and meet customer
sustainability expectations.

Progress:
Progress madeWe have increasingly
highlighted the climatechange benefits of oursolutions when engaging
with clients and thewider market. We havecontinued to respond to
the increasing numberof specific sustainability
disclosures requested
from clients.

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Our contribution to a sustainable economy

Many of our customers have set
ambitious commitments toenvironmental and social practices.
We have always incorporated these
expectations into our sustainability
programme, taking action acrossall key areas.

PROMISE OF A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Meeting
customers’
expectations
on net zero

We have seen in the last year an increase in the levelof expectation for suppliers, in particular with growing
requests for energy and carbon performance data, details
on our net zero targets and progress, and the introductionof contractual obligations to achieve carbon reductions.
Through our FuturePositive programme and own net
zero commitments we are well placed to meet thesegrowing expectations. We have set a target to achieve
net zero carbon by 2035 and have reduced our Scope 1
and 2 emissions by 38 per cent since 2014. We maintained
our carbon neutrality certification this year and reported
Scope 3 emissions baseline as well.
This year, we started the process to have our net zerotargets validated by the SBTi, and submitted our baseline
and targets for validation.
We report our energy use and carbon emissions in
our sustainability and annual reports, and we disclose
through CDP. In 2023, we responded to CDP supply chain
questionnaire requested by AT&T, BT Group, Cisco Systems,
Deutsche Telekom, Juniper Networks, Swisscom, Telus andVerizon Communications.

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

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PROMISE OF A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Support sustainable innovation

Spirent
Academia
Programsupporting
research andinnovation

14

Through our Academia Program,
we collaborate with leading
universities around the world to
conduct innovative research, bringnew technologies to market anddevelop new skills for university
students and our own team.
The Program is focused on our
Positioning Technologies business,but increasingly incorporates ourother specialisms.

Research andknowledge transfer

Horizon scanning andsolving emerging challenges

Skills and development

We collaborate with universities
around the world to support
innovative research, enhanceteaching, and share knowledge
and insights between academia
and industry.

Our university research
partnerships put us at the forefrontof emerging technologies. Our
work gives us unparalleled insights
into new challenges and solutions
for our customers, and places
our test solutions in labs leading
the research.

We support industry relevant
student research projects, offer
early career work opportunities,
and facilitate learning anddevelopment for our team.

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

PROMISE OF A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Since 2021, we
have co-authoredor contributed
to 25 academic
papers through our
research partnerships.

Research and knowledge transfer
We operate more than 30 university partnerships worldwide. We offer three typesof partnerships designed to bridge the gap between industry and academic:• Teaching and lab support: Througha teaching partnership, we provide
universities and colleges withworld-leading teaching resourceson positioning, navigation andtiming (PNT). We introduce students
to real-life industrial challenges
and provide hands-on experience
to develop workforce-ready skills.
The support includes ready-to-use
lecture materials and workshop
resources, access to industryleading hardware and software,and support from Spirent experts.
Three of our team have been
appointed as visiting professors.
We currently have seven teachingpartnerships in place, including
with South Devon College, UK and
University of Sains, Malaysia.

• Collaborative research: Through our
research partnerships, we conduct
joint research on PNT and emerging
communications technologies.
We have 22 active collaborative
research partnerships in place,which are exploring:• core PNT themes such as aviation,
maritime and handheld devices;• emerging and adjacent research
themes, such as space weather,AI, Low earth orbit systems andautonomous vehicles; and• product improvement, including
user experience, energy and noise
reductions and data compression.

• Sponsored labs: Lab sponsorships
are the most comprehensive
partnerships, and include
close collaboration to push theboundaries of PNT technology
and accelerate market adoption.
We currently run two sponsoredlabs, including the Digital Aviation
Research and Technology Centre(DARTeC) at Cranfield University,where we are a consortium partner.
Since 2021, we have co-authored orcontributed to 25 academic papers
through our research partnerships.

This work includes research on
scintillation modelling and space
weather effects, with Prof. Cathryn
Mitchell at the University of Bath,autonomous navigation with Dr Ze Ji
at Cardiff University, and assured
PNT solutions with Dr Matthew Higgins
at the University of Warwick.

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PROMISE OF A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Embed sustainability in customer centricity

Supporting
customers to
reduce energy
use and carbon
emissions
Energy and carbon emissions
are critical issues for many of
our customers. Energy costs haverisen sharply and at the sametime, greater demand for data
is increasing energy use
within networks.

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Testing during the development and deployment phases
for hardware and network operations are increasingly
complex, which is delivered through extensive lab andphysical testing. Hardware companies need validation for
the innovative solutions that will deliver improved efficiency
in the next generation of equipment and devices, andnetwork operators and organisations need to test andvalidate energy saving strategies, which include automation,
migration to the cloud, virtualisation and upgrading to new,more efficient equipment.
Spirent’s promise to customers enables rapid change,and our test solutions help customers to improve energy
efficiency and reduce carbon emissions across the wholebusiness lifecycle:• Testing new technologies• Core network infrastructure• Engineering labs
• Network deployment• Service assurance
In this report, we’ll showcase the impact we’ve helped
deliver for customers in development labs, and how wehave shaped our service offering to deliver cost, energy
and carbon savings to our customers.

PROMISE OF A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Case study:
Lab Automation – tier-one financial services company

Lab automation delivers major energy andcarbon savings for tier-one financial provider
Testing IT equipment and networks is vital for
financial services companies, and with thousandsof branches and offices worldwide and an everincreasing number of network updates, the scaleand complexity are daunting. Keeping up withnew releases is critical to keep systems secure andany outages have a direct impact on customer
experience, a company’s reputation, and can leadto financial penalties.
Historically testing has been done manually, which
is time consuming, expensive and leads to lowequipment utilisation.
Spirent’s test automation solutions like iTest and
Velocity are the ideal solution, as they are able
to automate both the testing process and timeconsuming configuration often required between
tests. We are also leveraging our extensive expertiseto redesign their lab and testing framework, which
will deliver additional improvements than justautomating their existing test processes.
Doing so unlocks a suite of efficiencies:• Less hardware needed: More efficient testingmeans less equipment is needed in the labs.
This reduces capital costs as well as lower
energy use. Additionally, this also reduces
the indirect emissions associated with the
manufacture, logistics and end-of-life ofelectronic hardware.
• Equipment energy savings: Our test
automation solutions can switch off
equipment when it's not needed, avoiding
the long periods where equipment is idle
but powered on.

• Cost and time savings: Manual testing isinherently inefficient, with long delays between
tests and to allow for manual equipment
and cable reconfiguration. Automation hasdelivered a 90x decrease in time taken to run
tests and reduce the lab queue.
The new automated lab provides the customer theright solution to scale up test to keep their businesssafe and compliant, whilst delivering significant
business and environmental benefits.

$21 million
saved each year

Test 90x
faster4,000 MWhof electricity saved annually

500 tonnes
CO₂e saved annually• Less cooling: Hardware and energy savings on
the lab bench reduce the demand for spacecooling on a 1:2:1 basis, doubling the savings.
• Smaller and fewer labs: With less equipment
needed and the ability to connect to test
equipment virtually, labs can be smaller andconsolidated. Our client is able to avoid using
third-party labs, delivering a considerable
cost saving.

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PROMISE OF A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Driving energy efficiency of Spirent products

Driving energy
efficiency inSpirent products

Better product energy use data

During 2023, we have completed detailed energy
assessments of 20 of our key products to help us understandand report their energy use profile better and improve
performance at the design stage.
Read more on page 32

Virtualised solutions and test-as-a-service

We are growing our virtual test solutions, as well as investingin services and software which reduce the environmental
impact of our test solutions. We are also growing ourLab- and Test-as-a-service offering, offering customers
more flexible solutions that don’t require shipping hardware
to customers.

Use off the shelf hardware

We are increasingly using off the shelf hardware in oursolutions, leveraging the designed efficiencies which arepossible when manufacturing at scale.

Embed energy efficiency into design

Where we produce our own hardware, we are including
increasingly efficient design criteria. In 2023 we publishedeco-design guidance for our design engineers andthe first cohort of engineers took our circular economy
training course.
Read more on page 59

Research impacts: reducing energy
use and noise in Spirent products
The GSS 9000 is our most comprehensive GNSS
simulator, offering sophisticated multi-frequency
testing suited to military, space and other highprecision applications.
This high-performance brings with it a significant energy
demand and cooling requirement and we have set
out to reduce energy use and fan noise in response
to customer feedback.
We developed a research brief and shared it with ouruniversity partnership network through the innovation
portal. This was picked up by a student at Birmingham
City University as the focus for a final year project.
Working with a Spirent engineer, the student is currently
undertaking research into the potential opportunities
to reduce energy consumption and noise.

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

These projects offer an excellent opportunity to shareideas between experienced engineers and students, raiseawareness of our business with prospective students,
and provide real-world work experience whilst solving
valuable problems.

Case study:
Visionworks

Reducing carbon emissions through remote
testing mobile networks
We all rely on good quality mobile networks,
whether for work or in our day-to-day lives.
To ensure clear voice calls and good coverage,
networks increasingly use mobile data and Wi-Fi
networks. Network operators conduct rigorous
testing to monitor performance and investigate
faults to keep us all connected and as network
demand expands, so does the need for testing.

We work with network operators across the world
to conduct scheduled and on-demand testing byinstalling VisionWorks probes within their networks.
This has dramatically reduced the amount of testing
completed by field engineers, saving millions ofdollars a year and reducing carbon emissions fromvehicle movements.

Network testing however has historically been donein person, with an engineering being dispatched ina vehicle. This approach is slow, high-cost and has
a significant carbon footprint. Spirent’s VisionWorks
solution allows mobile network operators tomonitor performance and fault-find remotely. Thissignificantly improves the quality of testing whilst
reducing the time taken, the cost and emissions.
Spirent’s VisionWorks gives network operators thetools to get a complete view of their networks,
analyse performance and automate testing.
• Coverage: VisionWorks provides a comprehensive
view of performance across a network. Using a
combination of passive and active tests, it helps
to isolate any network problems.
• Analytics: VisionWorks uses machine-learning toanalyse massive amounts of performance data
to give network operators meaningful insights,
reducing the time to resolve issues.
• Automation: VisionWorks’ automation tools
allow network operators to test the roll-out
of new networks, monitor performance andtrouble‑shoot network issues.

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PROMISE OF A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Supporting customers to reduceenergy use and carbon emissions

PROMISE OF A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Supporting customers to reduce energy use and carbon emissions
continued
Case study:
Support sustainability across the 5G roll-out: our impact

Spirent’s test and assurance solutions help customers
reduce their energy use and carbon emissions, andsupport the innovation around energy efficiency needed
to deliver 5G networks.
Testing andvalidating the newtechnology needed
to deliver greater
energy efficiency
5G networks will need to manage
significantly more data. Spirent
is working with equipment
manufacturers to test and validate
new designs that deliver energy
efficiency improvements. This
includes new, more efficient radios,delivering greater spectral efficiency
and deploying Massive MIMO
(multiple‑inputs, multiple-outputs).
To drive efficiency in the networkand support a transition to net zerocarbon, network operators are alsousing virtualisation which allows theirsystems to operate from efficient,
off-the-shelf servers rather than lessefficient bespoke hardware.

Delivering energy
efficiency in the
network core
infrastructure
5G networks infrastructure is based
within data centres which process
the network traffic. Historically,
these have operated from bespoke
hardware in premises operated by
the network operator.
Our impact: We have worked
with network operators to deliver
efficiencies in both edge hosted
equipment (located near the cellsites) and central data centres. We
have helped network operators
improve efficiency by moving toefficient, generic hardware using
network function virtualisation (NFV)
and to move to hosted data centresor the cloud, which offer greater
energy efficiency.

Our impact: Spirent is working withhardware manufacturers and network
operators to test the new technologies
during R&D and deployment. The
first wave of support has focused on
the new 5G cell towers, where we
provide test solution to develop the
new hardware which incorporates
energy efficiency improvements andvalidate the quality of service when
deployed. We also help Ethernet switch
manufacturers to unlock efficiencies
when developing high-speed 800Gb
switches needed to meet the growing
data demands.

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Driving efficiency in labs
Automation and virtualisation are key
design objectives for Spirent as they
help our customers do more with less.
Velocity helps customers to share lab
equipment globally and automate
testing, allowing customers to run
fewer, smaller labs. This means theyneed less equipment and dramaticallyreduces direct energy use andproperty costs. It also allows staff touse equipment remotely, reducing
emissions from staff travel.
Our impact: Using Velocity, we havehelped handset manufacturers andnetwork operators reduce the size of
their labs, delivering significant cost,time and carbon reductions.

When deploying a new 5G network, network
operators may need to deploy and test hundreds ofthousands of small cells to ensure they meet service
level agreements before and after the network goeslive. Rather than using manual testing, Spirent’s
automated active assurance solution dramaticallyreduces the time and cost of roll-up and provides
the operator with real-time analytics of service
quality levels and any deviations.
Our impact: We worked with a tier-one network
operator to deploy 25,000 small cells in one year,
reducing installation times for two hours to lessthan five minutes per cell. More than 85 per cent ofactivations were zero touch, saving an estimated $3
million, reducing deployment times, and minimisingtruck rolls and the associated carbon emissions.
Through Spirent’s Landslide and Fit 4 Launchsolutions, our customers can test the networks anddevices that operate on them in the lab, avoiding
costs and carbon emissions from trouble-shooting
issues in situ.

PROMISE OF A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Network deployment

Service assurance: Vantage
and VisionWorks
A major part of a network operator's carbon
emissions arises from engineers travelling toinvestigate and fix network faults. Spirent’s Vantage
and VisionWorks solutions provide network operatorswith the tools to monitor networks on a continuous
basis, identify faults remotely and even solve themwithout having to deploy engineers in the field.
Our impact: We work with network operators acrossthe world to conduct scheduled and on-demand
testing by installing VisionWorks and Vantage
solutions on their networks. This has dramaticallyreduced the amount of testing completed by fieldengineers, saving millions of Dollars a year, andreducing carbon emissions from vehicle movements.
VisionWorks is deployed by six large network
providers globally, and our new product, Vantage isdesigned to provide a simpler test solution which iswell suited to smaller networks or those with lower
testing requirements.

Spirent is ideally placed tohelp deliver carbon reductions
across the 5G network.
Doug Roberts

Executive Vice President and General Manager,
Automated Test and Assurance

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PROMISE OF A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

ESG in our go-to-market strategy

Embeddingclimate change
in our go-tomarket strategy

The IT and telecoms sector is
responsible for around 4 per centof global carbon emissions. Withan urgent need to tackle the climate
crisis, forward-thinking mobile
network operators are committed
to net zero carbon.
In 2020, a sector-specific science‑based decarbonisation
pathway was published which aims to reduce operational
network emissions (Scopes 1 and 2) by 45 per cent by 2030
and to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
To achieve this, new solutions are required. Advanced
testing, powered by automation, will play an important partin delivering a net zero future. Spirent’s suite of solutions
will help customers drive energy efficiency in their networks,
deliver the new technologies needed to achieve low
carbon future, and respond to the emerging challenges
the transition will bring.

Spirent Academia Program:
Supporting sustainable innovation
Research insights: Supporting research into
climate impacts on positioning, navigation andtiming (PNT)
Climate change will bring significant changes to thephysical environment, technology and the economy.
Through our research collaborations, we are helping
to develop a better understanding of the impacts andpotential solutions.

ESG Panel discussion with the Academia Forum
We host an annual Forum 3 with academics in PNT and
emerging technologies from research institutions aroundthe world to share their research and insights. During the2023 forum, we ran a session on sustainability to explore
how technologies, practices and procedures in thepositioning industry can be made more sustainable.

• Impact of electrical storms on GNSS: Climate change islikely to lead to more frequent and significant electricalstorms. We are working with Prof. Catheryn Mitchell at
the University of Bath to explore the impact of electricalstorms on global navigation satellites systems (GNSS).
• Distributed renewable energy generation: Electricity
grids are changing rapidly, with thousands of solar andwind farms and rooftop systems being added. GNSS
systems are vital for synchronisation and stability ofelectricity networks and the financial transactions thatdrive smart grids. We are supporting research that will
ensure that electricity grids and national infrastructure
remain resilient.

Supporting GNSS research that will enhancemarine conservation

In September 2023, we submitted a letter of support for a
research project with the University of Essex and Sheffield
University, aimed at exploring how marine and airborne
drones can be used to monitor ocean pollution. The
research project is at an early stage and the letter plays
an important part of funding applications, demonstrating
support from industry to deliver the research and tovalidate the importance of the findings.
If successful, we will provide equipment, software andaccess to our labs in Paignton, as well as support fromour engineers to deliver training, guidance and support
with data collection and analysis.

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Network lifecycle
automation to reduce
operational emissions

PROMISE OF A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Accelerating services provider journeys to net zero emissions
Automating and consolidating energy-intensive labs and lifecycle processes(Lab to Live, DevOps) have demonstrated up to 40 per cent energy savings.
Automating and accelerating service turn-ups by 10X to reduce energy-intensive
physical and on-site activities.
Automating service assurance and network performance monitoring activities toreduce energy-intensive triage and maintenance tasks, such as bulk data collection
and transfer, site visits and truck rolls.

Accelerating the
adoption of energy
efficiency technology

Testing and accelerating the adoption of energy-efficient 5G New Radio (NR)equipment to utilise greater spectral efficiency and enhanced deep sleep modes.
5G NR has demonstrated the potential to consume 25 per cent less power compared
to 4G solutions.
Validating the use of public cloud and edge infrastructure for hosting the 5G core tobenefit from shared (multi-tenant) and better-managed resources, advanced coolingtechniques, optimised data storage, and the ability to match workloads with renewableenergy availability. Cloud computing has the potential of improving energy efficiency
by 93 per cent and producing 98 per cent fewer greenhouse gas emissions than onpremises IT infrastructure.
Testing and accelerating the adoption of power-efficient next-gen high-speed
Ethernet (800GE) in transport networks and data centres. Using faster 800GE is moreenergy-efficient than transporting an equivalent volume of traffic using multiple 400GE
or 100GE links. 800GE optics consume between 20 to 40 per cent less energy per
gigabit of traffic.

Supporting sustainable
innovation

Accelerating 5G-enabled industry innovation around CO2 reduction in high-emitting
industries, such as automotive, manufacturing, energy production and transportation.
Spirent’s digital twin solutions speed innovation by accurately emulating complex
real‑world network environments in controlled and repeatable conditions.
Automating energy-intensive private network operational processes, so enterprises
and industries can easily and rapidly adopt 5G technology, enabling broader
decarbonisation solutions and outcomes.

Including climate change in ourmarketing messaging
We have incorporated sustainability messaging into
our go‑to-market strategies and collateral, using theenvironmental benefits alongside cost and technicaladvantages from real projects in case studies
where relevant.
During 2023, we developed updated sustainability
collateral into our marketing material for our positioning
products and published series of white papers and casestudies to showcase the real-life emissions reductions
that our customers have delivered with our solutions.
Our marketing and technical teams have continued
to present at industry events.

Network operators need new
solutions to deliver a low carbon
future. Spirent is already helping
to deliver efficiencies in labs,
data centres and networks andour test solutions are critical in
the development, testing andvalidation of new technologies.
Steve Douglas

Head of Marketing Strategy

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NET ZERO CARBON

Net zerocarbonOur promise“We will achieve
CarbonNeutral® certification in
two years, and work towards
net zero carbon by 2035
through energy efficiency, 100
per cent renewable electricity
and carbon offsets.”
Why is this important?
• Climate change is a globally important issue.
• Our operations and supply chain are vulnerable
to impacts from climate-related extreme weather,wildfires and disruption.

In 2023 we developed an ambitious
lab and estates strategy which
will deliver significant reductions
in energy use and carbon
emissions. We have commenced
a phased transition from on‑sitelabs to a high-efficiency data
centre powered by 100 per centrenewable energy.
Chris Francosky

Chief Information Officer• Our investors and customers expect us totake action.
• There is an opportunity to drive efficiencies in thebusiness and reduce operating costs.

2023 highlights• Commenced an ambitious new lab and estates
strategy that will reduce direct energy use andform a keystone for our net zero strategy.
• Submitted science-based target to SBTi
for approval.
• Developed enhanced data collection processes
for product use, the largest single contributor of
our carbon footprint, and implemented a numberof improvements in new product designs.
• Engaged key suppliers to collaborate on carbon
reduction initiatives.

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

NET ZERO CARBON

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NET ZERO CARBON

Key themes and targets

Climate change
poses a significant
threat to people
and economies
around the world,
and we have aduty to act.

In 2023, we introduced a new laband estates strategy that will
reduce our carbon emissions by
60 per cent over the next 3-5 years.
We submitted our science-basedtargets to SBTi for accreditationand have implemented processes
to improve product use energy
efficiency and data quality.
Our unabated Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions decreasedby 2 per cent compared to last year, driven predominantly
by our site rationalisation process. We have reduced ourcarbon emissions by 38 per cent since 2014.

Energyefficiency

Objective:
Reduce energy use
and costs.

Action:Site consolidations
and closer lab
management.

Targets:
Reduce energy
use by at least 25
per cent from 2019baseline by 2025.

Progress: Progress madeEnergy use reduced 2 per cent in 2023,
and is down 11 per cent since 2019.

Carbonreduction

Objective:
Achieve carbon
neutrality certificationin two years, and set ascience-based target
to achieve net zerocarbon by 2035.

Action:Achieve carbon neutral
certification, measure
Scope 3 emissions andwork with partners to
reduce emissions.

Targets:
Achieve corporatecarbon neutral
certification by
end of 2023.

Progress: Achieved
We achieved carbon neutral
certification for emissions across Scopes
1, 2 and some Scope 3 emissions.

Objective:
Source 100 per
cent of electricity
from renewablesources and work topurchase increasingenergy from new
generation capacity.

Action:Secure green
electricity contracts
and EACs. Work topurchase energy fromadditional renewableenergy sources.

Targets:
Maintain 100 per
cent of electricity
from renewablesources annually.

RenewableenergyAchieve carbon net
zero by 2035.

Increase theproportion ofelectricity sourced
from new renewableenergy by 2026.

We developed a carbon reduction
strategy that will deliver ouremissions reductions in line with
science-based targets.

Progress: On track
We sourced 100 per cent of
our electricity from renewablesources in 2023.
We conducted a feasibility assessment
to expand the PT solar PV systemat our Paignton site, and expect
installation to occur in 2024.
We selected our new lab co-location
partner that runs of 100 per centrenewable electricity.

Offsetting

Objective:
Offset any remaining
emissions after
reductions andrenewable energy.

Action:Purchase goodquality carbon
sequestration credits.

Targets:
Offset any emissions
that we cannot reduce
within the scope of
our carbon neutral
certification by 2023.

Progress: Achieved
We achieved carbon neutral
certification for emissions
across Scopes 1, 2 and some
Scope 3 emissions.

Engage key
partners

Objective:
Work with partners
to reduce supply
chain emissions.

Action:Engage with suppliersand establish formalcarbon agreementswith key partners.

Targets:
Set formal carbon
reduction targets withkey suppliers andreport on progressby end of 2022.

Progress: On track
We have engaged with key suppliers
and have commenced emissions
data collection.

Collate Scope 3
carbon emissions
from key suppliers
by end of 2023.

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Journey to net zeroCarbonNeutral® certification

We are committed to achieving net zero carbon by 2035 andreducing carbon emissions in line with 1.5 degree scenario.
We have established a robust baseline for emissions acrossScope 1, 2 and 3 and have set near- and long-term reduction
targets to deliver on this.

In our net zero carbon journey, our focus is on reducing ourenergy use and carbon emissions. Whilst we’ve made good
progress in the last decade to do so, there is still a long way togo. So when we refreshed our sustainability strategy in 2020,
we wanted to set some tangible, interim objectives that reflect
our commitment to a low carbon future.

2025

2030

2035

15 per centreduction in
Scope 1, 2 and 3
emissions by endof 2025Compared to2022 baseline

39 per centreduction Scope 1,
2 and 3 emissions
by end of 2030

We will reach net
zero emissions
across our value
chain by endof 2035
By reducing ourabsolute Scope 1,
2 and 3 emissions
by 63 per centcompared to 2022
and neutralising
any remaining
emissions byremoving an equalamount fromthe atmosphere

Compared to2022 baseline

Target approval
This year, we sent our letter of intent to the Science Based
Targets initiative (SBTi) and submitted our 2030 target anddata for approval against the Net-Zero Standard.

Industrial
emissions
reductions: US

Supports sustainableinfrastructure andindustry by removing
potent greenhousegases fromindustrial processes.
• 2023: Purchased
credits for 661 tCO2e.
• Verified underthe American
Carbon Registry.

Orb Rooftop solar
programme: India

Supports theinstallation of microsolar electricity andheating systems which
replace kerosine
and carbon intensive
grid electricity.
• 2023: Purchased
credits for
600 tCO2e.
• Verified under Goldstandard and CDM.

We chose to achieve and maintain company certificationin accordance with The CarbonNeutral Protocol, and havedone so since 2021. Building on our long-term energy andcarbon reductions, we partner with Climate Impact Partners topurchase high-quality carbon credits to offset emissions fromScope 1 and 3 (Transmission and distribution losses, Waste,
Business Travel, Homeworking). We select carbon reduction
projects that reflect the nature of our business and our global
presence, deliver reliable carbon reductions, and create
additional impact on the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
Our projects all follow carbon standards that meet the ICROA
Code of Best Practice. These standards have established robust
processes of design, monitoring and independent verificationthat establish the quality of the projects, the emissions they
reduce and remove, how they change “business as usual”
and their additional benefits to communities.
For 2023, we have selected a portfolio that includes
renewable energy generation, rooftop solar in India,
and industrial emissions reductions in the United States.
In addition, we were keen to support emerging carbon
removal technologies, and bought additional credits froman innovative biochar project in Maine, US.

Renewable energy
portfolio, global

Supports large-scale
renewable electricity
generation to displacefossil fuel generation.
• 2023: Purchased
credits for
1,500 tCO2e.
• Sourced from
Sichuan Cascade
Hydro and Zhaoyuan
Xinlong Shunde Wind
projects, China.
• Verified under CDM.

Enfield Biochar, US

Through Pyrolysis
woodchips andsawdust are converted
into biochar, which
remains inert for
centuries. We aresupporting this earlystage project tocatalyse investmentin this emerging
technology. We are notrelying on the credits
purchased to meet
our CarbonNeutral©
certification.
• 2023: Purchased
credits for 50 tCO2e• Project to be verified
under Puro.Earth

More details can be found at corporate.spirent.com
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NET ZERO CARBON

Net zero target

NET ZERO CARBON

Emissions reduction strategy

Lab and Estates strategy

Engaging with key partners

Our labs are located across the world: their locationinfluenced Spirent’s historic acquisitions. Our largest
offices are located with these labs to give staff quick andeasy access.

We have engaged with key suppliers on sustainability issues
through our supplier audit programme, including on energy
use and carbon emissions. In 2022, we appointed a Global
Operations ESG lead who has commenced an engagement
programme with key suppliers to commence an ongoing
dialogue on their energy management, carbon emissions
strategies and climate change risk management andcommence a process of target setting.

The successful adoption of flexible and remote working
practices in response to COVID-19 has unlocked theopportunity to rethink our lab and wider estates strategy,
as engineers no longer need the same level of hands-on
access to equipment. This will deliver significant energy andcarbon savings. Over the next three years, we will migrate
our on-premise labs into more efficient centralised colocation environments and reduce their size, making use of
our own test automation and scheduling solutions to drive
further efficiency.

Logistics
Since completing a detailed analysis of all our carbon
emissions sources in 2022, we have started to explore how
to deliver carbon savings. Logistics offers some important
reduction opportunities.

We conducted a rigorous search to find the right partner,
who would meet our requirements on quality, environmental
performance and security and selected Evoque’s Lynnwood
site, which is powered by 100 per cent renewable electricity.

Historically, the majority of our products have been dispatched
to clients within the US by overnight air freight. In 2023
we conducted a trial to assess the feasibility of moving
non‑urgent state-to-state deliveries via ground transport.

As we relocate our labs, we will also downsize our offices
which are now larger than we need due to the adoptionof flexible work patterns. We have developed a newproperty standard which will guide our site selection.
The guidelines include standards on energy efficiency,
sustainable materials, sustainable travel options andon‑site renewable energy.

Having worked with FedEx to implement detailed carbon
reporting for logistics at the beginning of the year, we
tracked the impact of the trial which ran from May toAugust. The trial demonstrated a positive proof of concept,
with emissions per kg/km dropping 8 per cent.

The combination of lab and office relocations will reduce
our operational carbon emissions (Scopes 1 and 2) byaround 60 per cent.
The relocation process will start in early 2024 with our
San Jose site, followed by our Calabasas site in 2025.
All other labs will follow shortly thereafter.

Our new lab and estates strategy
will be a game changer for ourbusiness and our emissions
reduction programme. We will
reduce our direct carbon emissions
by 60 per cent whilst deliveringenhanced working environments.
Ray LeeDirector of Global Properties

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

We will the explore the best way to deliver the potential
carbon savings from this approach at scale, including
appropriate policies and guidance.

Energy

NET ZERO CARBON

Energy management
Our labs are the largest energy user within ouroperations and, as such, are the main focus of ourenergy efficiency initiatives.
Our lab in Calabasas is the largest in the Group. We have
deployed a range of energy efficiency measures including
hot-isle containment and in-row cooling and monitoringenergy use in each rack.
We have a lab energy efficiency working group who actively
manage lab equipment and systems to ensure they remainlean and efficient. We conducted a benchmarking exercise
which allowed us to compare management approaches
between our locations and changes from last year. We
have been rolling out efficiency initiatives across our largest
labs, which have delivered significant savings. During thisyear, we conducted detailed energy audits of our major
engineering labs to identify further reduction opportunities.

Lab equipment virtualisation andtest automation
We have been able to remove under-utilised equipment
and draw on Spirent automation solutions like Velocity andiTest to reduce the equipment in the labs by improving
utilisation rates. We also use these products to help ourcustomers improve the efficiency of their labs, which has led
to carbon savings of more than 60 per cent in some cases.

We have invested in an energy-efficient cooling system forour lab in Calabasas, California.
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Energy continued

Renewable energy

Energy performance

Moving away from fossil fuels is vital to reduce global
emissions and have a target to source 100 per cent of ourelectricity from renewable sources.

Energy use across the Company where we are directly
responsible decreased by around 3.0 per cent in 2023 to
13,761 MWh (2022 13,157 MWh). Overall, our energy use is
12 per cent lower than in 2019, the baseline for our five year
energy reduction target.

Our site in Paignton has a 50kWp solar array which generated
around 45 MWh of zero carbon electricity each year. This
supplies around 8 per cent of our electricity use at the site,
equivalent to around 12 homes.
Paignton, however, is the only site we own. All other global
sites are leased, which has made installing renewables atother sites quite difficult. We have zero carbon electricity
contracts in place for our Crawley, Paignton and Berlin sites,
and low carbon tariffs in place at our Paris office.
Many of our sites also do not have access to zero carbon
electricity tariffs, so we have partnered with Natural CapitalPartners to source renewable Energy Attribute Certificates,
which has allowed us to meet our commitment to purchasing
100 per cent of electricity from renewable sources.

A key factor supporting the reduction in energy use during theyear is that we reduced the size of our estate by around 5 per
cent, including decreasing the size of our San Jose site byaround 30 per cent prior to closing it entirely in 2024. During
the year we also closed a number of small offices at Acorn
House in Paignton, San Diego, Southborough and openeda new small sales office in Bucharest.
Around 1.5 per cent of electricity use estimated. This is onsites where we do not pay for energy directly but instead
pay indirectly through a service charge.

A key part of our strategy is focused on the developmentof new renewable energy capacity on-site and within key
suppliers. When selecting our new lab co-location partner,
renewable energy was a key requirement.

Case study: Expanding Solar
Expanding solar array
at Paignton
When we first explored the opportunity to install solaron site at our Paignton office, the maximum size of thesystem was limited to 50kWp due to the capacity of thelocal substation. Recent network upgrades have meantthat we have the opportunity to install and additional
94kWp system, which would triple the total generation
capacity installed. During 2023, we conducted afeasibility study and obtained installation quotes.
Our existing installation generates around 40-45 MWhof renewable electricity, saving around 9 tonnes ofcarbon annually. The expanded system will generate up
to 145 MWh of renewable electricity each year, enoughto power 36 homes.
After implementation, we expect the system to deliver
more than a quarter of the electricity at the site, anddeliver more than 20 per cent of our electricity use in
the UK from onsite renewables.

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

The energy intensity of our operations, measured in MWh per$ million of revenue increased by around 24 per cent since2022 due to the decrease in revenue during 2023, but remains
30 per cent lower than 2014.

Electricity (actual) (MWh)Electricity (est.) (MWh)Gas (MWh)
Total (MWh)Energy intensity(MWh per $ million)

2014

2022

2023

12,995
3,118
1,433
17,547

12,576237
344
13,156

12,178180
402
12,761

38.4

21.7

26.9

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Energy trends
In 2023, 100 per cent of
our electricity came fromrenewable sources.

Energy use trends
45

18,00040

16,00035

14,00030

12,00025

10,000

20

8,000

15

6,000

10

4,000

5

2,000
0

Energy intensity (MWh/$ million)

Energy use (MWh)20,000

0
2014

2015

Electricity (actual)

2016

2017

Electricity (estimated)

2018
Gas

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

Energy use per $ million

We have achieved significant energy reductions since 2014 and reduced the proportion of energy use we estimate.
Since 2014, we have reduced our energy use by 27 per cent.

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Carbon emissions

Management approach
Greenhouse gas emissions are a material issue for Spirent, and we are committed to reporting emissions and acting to combat
climate change. The Group once again reported to the Carbon Disclosure Project, completing the Climate Change and Supply
Chain questionnaire. This year our climate change and supplier engagement scores increased to a B (2022 climate change C,
supplier engagement B-).
We report our emissions using both the location and market-based methodologies set out in the GHG Protocol. The two
methodologies look at our energy use in two ways. The location approach uses the averages emissions for each country, andhas been the way we have reported our emissions since 2014. The market approach uses the emissions factor from the energy
we buy and takes into account purchased renewable energy and so will be an important way to monitor our progress towards
achieving carbon neutrality.

Unabated carbon emissions
Location based

Emissions from:

Combustion of fuel and operation of facilities (Scope 1)
Electricity, heat, steam and cooling purchased for own use (Scope 2)
Total emissions
Emissions intensity metrics:
Per FTE
Normalised per $ million of revenues

2022
Tonnes of
CO2e

2023
Tonnes of
CO2e

2022
Tonnes of
CO2e

73.6
4,117.6
4,191.2

62.7
4,208.0
4,270.9

58.5
58.5

44.9
44.9

2.75
8.84

2.58
7.03

0.04
0.12

0.03
0.07

Location-based emissions
17.0

6,000

15.0

5,000

13.0

4,000

11.0

3,000
9.0

2,000

7.0

1,000
0

2014

2015

2016
Scope 1

2017

2018

2019

Scope 2

2020

2022

2023

In 2023, total Group unabatedlocation-based Scope 1 and 2
emissions reduced by 1.8 per centfrom 2022 to 4,192.4 tonnes ofCO2e. Revenue emissions intensity(tonnes CO2 per $ million) increased
by around 26 per cent, due to the
reduction in revenue this year.
Since 2014 we have reduced our
location-based carbon emissions
by 38 per cent and our revenue
emissions intensity by 40 per cent.

5.0

Emissions per $ million

Contract-based emissions

5,000
Carbon emissions (contract based)

Our 2023 emissions remain significantly
lower than our 2018 baseline, due to ourcontinued use renewable electricity. Our
unabated scope 1 and 2 emissions increased
by 13.6 tonnes CO2e (30 per cent) from 2022
primarily due to the increase in gas use
overall in Calabasas.

2021

Emissions intensity (tonnes of CO2e/m USD)

Carbon emissions (tonnes of CO2e)

8,000
7,000

4,500
4,000
3,500
3,000
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
0

2018

2019

2020
Scope 132

Market based2023
Tonnes of
CO2eSpirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

2021
Scope 2

2022

2023

We have calculated Scope 3 emissions across all relevant
emissions sources for Spirent, which provides insight into
where indirect emissions occur across our value chain.
Scope 3 emissions include those emissions that Spirent is notdirectly in control of, including raw materials, manufacturing,logistics, business travel and commuting, as well as emissions
associated with our products during use and at the end of
their life. As such we have less control and influence over theseemissions, and the data availability and quality are lower thanfor our Scope 1 and 2 emissions.
We have improved the quality of the data of some key
emissions sources (in particular, the use of products), however
there still remains a level of uncertainty for this data and it
may be that significant changes occur in future as data quality
and availability improves.
The largest emissions sources relate to the use and end of lifeof products, which together account for more than 70 per centof 2023 Scope 3 emissions. Purchased goods and services
and capital goods combined make up around a further
20 per cent.

Total carbon
emissions breakdown
Our Scope 3 emissions make up more than87 per cent of our calculated emissions for 2023.
Emissions from the customer use of our products
was the largest source in 2023, making up
44 per cent of our total unabated reported
emissions. The total emissions from product use
was around half those of last year, mainly due tothe availability of expanded product energy data
and lower hardware sales.
End-of-life
treatment
8%

Use ofsold products
44%

Scope 2
13%

Scope 1 0%
Solid waste in operations 0%
Waste water 0%
Upstream leased assets 0%
Downstream transportationand distribution 0%
Processing of soldproducts 0%

Employeecommuting5%

Businesstravel9%

Purchased
goods andservices
17%
Capitalgoods
1%Fuel andenergy related
activities
1%
Upstreamtransportationand distribution
3%

Upstream emissions sources
Purchased goods and services
Capital goods
Fuel and energy-related activities
Transport and distribution
Waste water
Waste generated in operations
Business travel
Employee commuting andhomeworking
Leased assets
Downstream emissions sources
Transport and distribution
Processing of sold products
Use of sold products
End of life of sold products
Leased assets
Franchises
Investments
Total

2023
tCO2e

2022
tCO2e

5,650
250
310
1,020
10
1
2,860

6,830
570
245
1,175
40
10
2,785

1,475
n/a

1,460
n/a

Reported within
upstream datan/an/a
14,30028,000
2,550
3,300
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
n/a
28,42644,415

Case study:
Improving product lifecycle
data and performance
The use of sold products represents nearly
60 per cent of our total carbon footprint. With thisin mind, we have focussed on improving the dataon product energy use.
During 2023 we conducted further energy
assessments and now have data for 20 of our top
selling products across the Positioning and Cloudand IP businesses which in total represent morethan a third of revenue.
The estimated emissions from product use calculatedwith the expanded data set is around half thosefrom the previous year, at 14,300 CO2e. This ispredominantly due to the inclusion of different
product types in the data set, but the overall reductionin hardware sold in the year has also contributed.
There are significant opportunities to further
improve the data we have on product energy use,both in terms of the number of products assessed
and the assumptions made around how products
are used by customers.
A key focus area for us will be to continue toimprove our data, but we will also use this data
within the product design process to seek out
further energy efficiency opportunities.

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

33

NET ZERO CARBON

Scope 3 emissions

NET ZERO CARBON

Climate change risks and opportunities

Task Force on Climate-related
Financial Disclosures (TCFD)
Climate change creates new risks and opportunities forcompanies. In accordance with the requirements of Listing
Rule 9.8.6R, Spirent has provided disclosures against all 11
disclosure recommendations that span four key areas ofgovernance, strategy and climate change scenario analysis,risk management, and metrics and targets. These disclosures
also meet the mandatory CFD requirements and form partof the NFSI statement.

Governance and risk management

The Board considers sustainability issues (including climatechange) at least twice a year and oversees the considerationof climate-related risks and opportunities under the TCFD
disclosure requirements, as well as monitoring progressagainst our future positive sustainability strategy, including
climate-related goals and targets.
A detailed review of how climate change may impact
our business in the future was completed in 2021 and theassumptions and findings were reviewed in 2022, with only
minor changes being made. The significant climate-relatedrisks and opportunities were initially identified via an analysis
conducted by a sustainability consultant which consideredphysical, regulatory and commercial factors across various
scenarios, all of which were examined through a senior manager
workshop, including Executive Directors, General managersof our Business Units and Supply Chain, and Operational
Executives. These are reviewed on an ongoing basis by the
Executive Director-led ESG Management Committee, theAudit Committee and its Risk Sub-Committee, as part of ourbusiness risk and financial planning processes, with the CEO
having overall responsibility for sustainability matters. The
materiality of the potential climate impact is assessed using
the Group’s materiality criteria.
Over the course of 2023, a number of investors and customers
have engaged with us on the importance of climate change,
and we have incorporated their expectations into ourmateriality, strategy and reporting planning.

Strategy

Spirent recognises the importance of climate change as anenvironmental threat that the world faces, and as such wehave carefully considered the impact of such risk across ouroperations. Climate risks are entirely integrated into our risk
management process.
We have identified the following risks across a variety of time
horizons. The risks consider the potential for increased exposure
to extreme weather events at a Group location or key supply
chain site. In addition, likely changes to the regulatory system
in which the Group operates have been considered.
For the purpose of evaluating climate change-related risks,
the Group has defined the following time horizons, which also
ensue that other timeframes, such as business planning andviability are aligned:
Short term

Medium termLong term

0–2 years

2–10 years

10+ years

In consideration to Tables A1.1 and A1.2 of the TCFD
Implementation Guidance 2021, we have considered all
climate-related risk themes and their potential impact on
the Group, the most important of which are as follows:
34

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Transitional risks

It is expected that there will likely be a large and radical change
in global markets, with a drive to shift quickly towards renewables
and away from fossil fuels, resulting in increased carbon taxes
across all regions in the short and medium term. This may
result in associated increased costs. Starting in the short term,costs are likely to increase by an immaterial amount due tohigher investment requirements in low carbon technology
and expected additional carbon-related levies and we also
expect additional administrative burden on the business, likely
increasing the costs for resource to deliver and report.
We have modelled the impact of carbon credits using a priceper tonne CO2e of up to £250 and the impact is not material.
Transitional risks are also unlikely to lead to any impairments
or write-offs. We expect to purchase carbon credits in the
short to medium term in line with our commitment to achieve
CarbonNeutral® Company certification, but expect energy
efficiency and renewable energy to reduce the requirement
for carbon credits as we progress towards net zero carbon
in 2035. Over the course of 2023 and with the help of an
external adviser, we further developed and refined Spirent’s
plan to reach net zero. We have agreed a new lab and estates
strategy which will allow our labs over time to be moved
to high-efficiency, off-site which is powered 100 per centby renewable energy. This move will allow us to further
consolidate our labs and decrease our overall estate’s footprint
significantly. We also aim to expand the size of our on-site
solar installation at Paignton. The proposed strategy will reduce
Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 62 per cent in the next three years.
In addition, we have agreed a programme to reduce
our indirect carbon emissions. A key area is the use of our
products and we will draw on a range of approaches to help
reduce our impact in this area. These include our continued
migration from hardware to software test solutions and theuse of more efficient white-box hardware, improved energy
management in our bespoke hardware, supporting customers
with test automation and scheduling, and improved data
about how our products are used.
We will also work closely with our supply chain, and set
requirements to reduce and report carbon emissions throughsupplier sustainability agreements.

Physical risks

Acute
Considering the potential of increasing intensity and frequencyof storms and concentrated rainfall events, and frequency ofwildfires, we have assessed that these risks would possibly
cause some disruption to operations. Wildfire risks are most
relevant to our operations in Calabasas, CA, and flooding in
our principal contract manufacturer, based in Thailand.
In the medium to long term, risks include Spirent site damage
to building and infrastructure, lost time and productivity andany associated increased cost of insurance.
Additionally, a major supplier disruption event is a possible
key risk, causing an outage for a period of time which we
assess as causing possible delays to customer shipments
and the timing of revenue recognition.
Spirent has mitigation plans for each of these physicalrisks identified, which have been developed as part oflongstanding business continuity and disaster recovery plans.
Spirent engineering centres are situated in various different
locations allowing a level of flexibility and agility should one

Chronic
Higher peak and average temperatures are likely to resultin increased energy demand and cooling capacity required
for lab and office environments. This could lead to increased
capital expenditure to expand or upgrade cooling equipment
across multiple Spirent sites. In addition, increased heatwaves
and droughts could have an impact on the health of more
vulnerable employees and their families possibly resulting inhigher staff absence levels.
It is possible that the rise in average temperatures may reduce
natural gas use for space heating. Additionally, there is alreadya market opportunity for existing products, relating to theprovision of emerging energy-efficient Spirent products.
We have identified a number of areas of opportunity to reduce theenergy footprint of our solutions in order to support competitive
advantage as well as opportunities to reduce costs and improve
efficiencies, especially from estates consolidation and automation
within our labs. We also expect that a greater focus on climatechange will increase our resilience from climate-related weather
events, both within our estate and across our supply chain, throughresilience planning, upgraded infrastructure as well as enhanced
preparedness and response procedures.
We also recognise our role in supporting clients to develop
new technology. We recognise that there may be opportunities
for new use cases for our existing test solutions to support
climate mitigation, in particular in the area of lab automationand consolidation.
The Group is still exploring the opportunities that climatechange presents and therefore they have not been incorporated
into the modelling.

Scenario analysis

This was last conducted in 2021 and aligned to the IPCC
representation concentration pathway (RPC) models. We
have defined modelling assumptions for both scenarios foreach relevant risk category in order to assess the financial
and commercial impact to the Group. The impact of each of
the risks identified above has been assessed, quantified andconsidered in two climate change-related scenarios:• aggressive mitigation – emissions halved by 2050, averagetemperature increase of 1.5°C; and• strong mitigation – emissions stabilised at half of today’semissions by 2080, average temperature increase of 2.4°C.
These scenarios were selected as they would include themost aggressive policy responses (which are likely to have thegreatest impact on our business in the next three to five years)
and because we believe that aiming to limit climate change to
1.5°C still remains the right policy objective.
In terms of modelling horizon, we have considered the impacts
over the short, medium and long term, and with regard to
the occurrence of the risks identified and also in comparing
with the horizons adopted by peers, the most appropriate
time horizon to model is 15 years, which covers short tolong term. The most recent strategic three-year plans havebeen extrapolated to form the base case long-term plansfrom which to sensitise, using growth rates and assumptions

consistent with other forward-looking financial statement
items (goodwill impairment, viability) and assumptions.
Given the modelling horizon, there is not likely to be a significant
difference between the two scenarios in relation to our exposure
to physical risks – a change of 1.5°C is expected by 2030
under all scenarios, with the same likelihood and distributionof extreme weather events and chronic changes in weather
patterns and temperatures. The major differences appear
between 2040 and 2080, which falls outside of the scopeof our long-term plans and provides sufficient time for thebusiness to adapt if required. In terms of transitional risk,
we do expect a difference between the two scenarios, mostnotably in the size of increases to energy costs and the size ofanticipated carbon tariffs across all regions.
Based on the modelling we have performed and given
the significant financial headroom Spirent has, the relative
magnitude of the impact the risks present, the mitigationplans, and the insurance cover in place, it is not anticipatedthat the climate-related risks identified will have a material
impact in the short term and being less than 5 per centof revenue. The longer-term impact on the organisation’s
strategy and plans is currently being further assessed
but initial analysis does not suggest a significant financial
impact. Therefore, Spirent is considered resilient to climatechange‑related scenarios.

Opportunities

As part of the scenario process, a number of opportunities
have been identified:• reduction in costs and efficiency, especially in relation toestate and automation in labs;• improved resilience from physical and transitionary risks;• additional testing opportunities to support the developmentof new technologies to mitigate and adapt to a changing
climate; and• expanding demand for test solutions that help reduce
customer emissions, including lab automation and efficiency.

Metrics and targets

We monitor carbon emissions sources that fall within Scopes 1,
2 and 3 and report our carbon emissions annually within the
Annual Report and Sustainability Report (see page 34). We
have considered cross industry climate-related metrics anddo not consider these to be material. The Executive Directors’
annual bonus targets also include relevant climate-related
metrics and targets.
We have set clear targets to source electricity from 100 per
cent renewable sources, and work towards net zero carbon
by 2035. We have targeted a 25 per cent reduction in ourenergy usage by 2025.
In 2023 we committed to the Science Based Targets initiative(SBTi) which commits us to a medium-term carbon emissions
reduction targets of 39 per cent by 2030. We will continue toevaluate whether additional metrics and targets are required
as part of our existing business strategy and risk management
processes, in particular in relation to supply chain risks, as we
further refine our longer-term strategy and plans.

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

35

NET ZERO CARBON

site become affected. We endeavour to dual source key
components wherever possible. Additionally, the Group has
appropriate business interruption insurance in place.

PROMOTE DIVERSITY AND INVEST IN PEOPLE

Promotediversity andinvest in people
Our promise“We will take action on diversity
and set clear targets. We will
attract and develop talent andskills to drive innovation andsupport long-term sustainablegrowth. We will also enable
and embed flexible working
across all our operations.”
Why is this important?
• Diversity and inclusion are key challenges forour communities.

We are committed to empowering
our employees to progresspersonally and professionally by
investing in career development,
diversity and inclusion initiatives,and health and wellness
programmes.
Ann Menard

Global Head of Human Resources

36

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

• The technology sector faces a particular challenge
on gender diversity.
• Our success relies on a pipeline of new talent anddeveloping talent within our business.
• Spirent plays an important role in the communities
it operates in.

2023 highlights• Conducted a global gender pay parity analysis.
• Strengthened partnerships with HBCUs to support
a more diverse candidate pool.
• Further expanded our internal early
career programmes.

PROMOTE DIVERSITY AND INVEST IN PEOPLE

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

37

PROMOTE DIVERSITY AND INVEST IN PEOPLE

Key themes and targets

In 2023 we
continued our
focus on expanding
diversity and ran
a suite of initiatives
focused onearly careerdevelopment.
Supportdiversity andinclusion

Objective:
Improve ourdiversity practices
and performance.

During 2023 we strengthened
our diversity recruitment initiatives,
engaging with prospective
candidates at our HBCU partners
in person and through a new video
showcasing Spirent. We expanded
our gender pay gap analysis tocover all employees globally, and wecontinued our suite of early career
programmes. Despite the initiatives
and progress detailed below, due
to workforce reductions and limited
hiring across the Group, our diversity
metrics remained flat compared
to 2022.

Action:Complete adetailed diversity
review and set
improvementtargets. Reportgender pay
gap globally.

Targets:
Complete diversity
and inclusionassessment andset targets byend of 2021.
Report our gender
pay gap for all staff
by end of 2022.

Progress: Complete
Our work continues: We
voluntarily partnered with athird-party provider to complete
our gender pay parity analysis
globally and establish theframework and tools to embedpay parity review in our businessas-usual compensation practices.
We continue to report our UK
gender pay gap.

Invest inskills,training anddevelopment

Objective:
We will invest in
the skills, training
and developmentof our staff to drive
innovation andsupport long-termsustainable growth.

Action:Design an early
career talentacquisition strategy,
including school
and university
STEM programmes.
Establish
management
systems to develop
skills in house.

Targets:
Establish an early
career talent
programme and set
performance metrics
by end of 2021.

Progress: Complete
Our work continues:
We increased participation in
our programmes, particularly
in APAC. We expanded our
professional development
curriculum and enhanced
global networking opportunities.

Flexibleworkingpractices

Objective:
We will actively
encourage
flexible working
for the majority ofstaff by 2023.

Action:Establish flexible
working policies
and practices.

Targets:
Implement flexible
working practices
by end of 2021
and report on
progress annually.

Progress: Complete
Our work continues:
We standardised collaboration
tools and invested in site
based and virtual events
to stay connected.

Support ourcommunities

Objective:
Maintain support
for communities atcurrent level.

Action:Run VTO andcharitablegiving initiatives.

Targets:
Maintain our VTO
and charitablegiving programmes.

Progress: On track
VTO and charitable giving
programme run across 2023.

38

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Support diversity and inclusion

Our diversity and inclusion objectives

At Spirent, we believe that diversity and inclusion are
essential to thriving in the ever-changing world of global
technology. We embrace a culture where difference is valued
and openness, mutual respect, collaboration and fairness
are considered fundamental. Spirent does not tolerate
discrimination or offensive behaviour of any kind. We arecommitted to creating workplaces that genuinely reflect thediversity of the world we serve and an environment where
everyone feels empowered to bring their full, authentic self
to work. As a global leader, we know how critical diverse
and inclusive teams are to fuel our innovation and genuinely
connect with the communities in which we live and work.

Our diversity and inclusion priorities and objectives are:Diversity in talent acquisition

Operate talent acquisition processes and partnerships
with organisations to support representative anddiverse recruitment

Supporting diversity in hiring

Policies that require gender diverse interview slates

Enhanced family friendly benefits

Operate a portfolio of family friendly benefits that support
staff at important times in their lives

Early career development

Early Career Development programmes to support and invest
in young people at the start of their working lives

Celebrate our culture

Celebrate our diversity, cultural events and festivals together

Choosing inclusive language

Ensure our products and technical documentation only
contains inclusive language

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

39

PROMOTE DIVERSITY AND INVEST IN PEOPLE

Our approach

PROMOTE DIVERSITY AND INVEST IN PEOPLE

Support diversity and inclusion continued

Partnerships
The talent pools we recruit fromdetermine our diversity and we havemade a concerted effort to reacha wider audience when we recruit.

We have developed a network of university partners andrecruitment challenges to help us both to recruit from groups
that are currently under-represented, especially female
engineers and people of colour, and support students toreach their full potential. In 2023, despite our limited ability
to add incremental headcount, we retained investment inglobal internships and strengthened our brand presence with
Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the
United States.

Morgan State University

Prairie View A&M University

Morgan State University (MSU) is one of the US’s
leading HBCUs.

Prairie View A&M University is the second-oldest public
institute of higher education in the state of Texas.

Our partnership allows us to support students throughthe “turning theory into practice” programme, where
Spirent staff work directly with students on research andclassroom projects.

A long-standing partner with Spirent on cybersecurity,
the university uses the Spirent CyberFlood for teaching
and research within its SECURE Cybersecurity Centre of
Excellence and Centre of Excellence for Communication
Systems Technology Research (CECSTR).

Morgan State have an excellent pedigree in computerscience, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence. We aim
to attract MSU graduates to join Spirent and attend
on‑campus career fairs and networks events to raise
our profile with prospective applicants.

40

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Spirent’s partnership will provide a route for students
to gain practical work experience and join our early
career programmes.

PROMOTE DIVERSITY AND INVEST IN PEOPLE

Case study:
Attracting a more diverse
candidate pool
To strengthen our partnerships and employer profile with
HBCUs in the United States, we consulted with a focus groupof our African American employees, all graduates from
HBCUs, to understand how we could more effectively recruit
Black candidates.
In early 2023, we created a video aimed at recruiting HBCU
students and graduates. The video featured members of
our focus group, who were also involved in its production. It
provides an overview of who we are, what we do, our work
culture, where we are on our diversity and inclusion journey,
and why HBCU students should consider launching theircareers at Spirent. We sent the video to students we met
at HBCU recruitment fairs, utilised it during campus visits,
and shared it with a range of HBCUs for distribution to theirstudents. Due to limited incremental headcount in 2023, thesuccess of this initiative is based on Spirent participationand candidate engagement for future opportunities at
HBCU career events. We participated in multiple HBCU
career events.

We have to find a way to bringa diverse cultural backgroundto Spirent because that brings
new ideas, it brings innovation.
Dwayne Burns

Technical Design Engineer
Global Services

Enhanced family friendly benefits
The benefits we offer staff have a significant impact on
how we attract and retain talent and our diversity review
identified opportunities to make our benefits portfolio more
inclusive. Spirent offers a comprehensive suite of benefits toemployees across all regions. This includes health insurance,life insurance, disability, 401(k)/pension, parental leave andpaid time off/vacation.
We offer enhanced global family leave benefits to provide
staff with additional flexibility and support greater equality
in the workplace.

We provide 12 weeks of parental leave for primary caregivers
and three weeks for secondary caregivers, all at full pay.
This is an increase in both duration and pay level fromour previous policy.
We also offer three days of paid time off to care for family
members and five days of bereavement leave entitlement
at full pay.
This scheme operates globally, which offers a significant
increase in benefits for the majority of staff members andwe hope it will help to address some of the structural andfinancial barriers that contribute to unequal representationin the technology sector and in management roles.

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

41

PROMOTE DIVERSITY AND INVEST IN PEOPLE

Support diversity and inclusion continued

Celebrate our culture
In 2021, we launched Spirent Celebrates – a programme tohonour the rich diversity of our global workforce. Since then,we have celebrated a wide variety of events, festivals andawareness days. Celebrations throughout 2023 included
Lunar New Year, International Women’s Day, Neurodiversity
Celebration Week, Pride Month, Bastille Day, Mid-Autumn
Festival, Movember, Diwali, International Volunteering Day,and more. Other highlights included:Black History MonthIn February, we celebrated Black History Month.
A selection of our African American employees
shared their cultural traditions, their inspirations,what Black History Month means to them, andwhy it’s important we celebrate it.

Onam
In August, we celebrated Onam. Our team inIndia introduced colleagues to the festival thatcommemorates the mythical King Mahabali,celebrates the end of the monsoon season andwelcomes the harvest. Food, fun and flowers werein abundance!

Black History Month strengthens
our sense of community and is open
to everyone interested in learning
about the different stories, topics
and perspectives that make up
the Black experience.
LaWanda EdmondDirector, Operational Governanceand Compliance

National Intern Day
In July, we celebrated National Intern Day. Some of our interns,
including Phillip Lee (Intern – IT Support), shone the spotlight on theirworkplace experience and how it has helped nurture their learningand development.

I’ve gained experience in my field of study,
explored various career paths, expanded
my network, and have grown personally andprofessionally in a collaborative and supportive
work environment.
Philip Lee,

2023 Intern – IT Support, now full-time employee

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

PROMOTE DIVERSITY AND INVEST IN PEOPLE

International Women in
Engineering Day

When I was 12, I fell in love with programming, and I’ve
not looked back since then! It’s so satisfying to witness
your efforts come to fruition.
Deseree Villanueva

Software Team Manager

I’m working on an automotive project that aims to makeour roads safer, smarter and greener. This fills me withimmense pride!
Rui XuSenior Staff Software Engineer

I deliver new product functionality, troubleshoot andtriage existing failures, provide fixes for those, andmentor my young team members.
Olga Wagner

Manager, Software Engineering

To encourage the next generation of women to pursue
engineering, we need to nurture girls’ interest in STEM
and surround them with relatable female role models.
Yujie Lin

Senior Manager, Engineering - Test & Automation

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

43

PROMISE OF A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE

Support diversity and inclusion continued

By the numbers
GenderGender is one of the most visible aspects of employee diversity and is an important improvement area across thetechnology sector.
There have only been minor changes in the overall gender balance of the Company from 2022. Three women continue
to serve on our Board of eight, maintaining female representation at 38 per cent: above the Hampton-Alexander
review’s target of 33 per cent. The proportion of females in senior management and executive management roles
increased slightly to 9 per cent (2022 8 per cent). This remains lower than female representation for the Company
as a whole, which is around 23 per cent (2022 23 per cent).
Level of organisation

FemaleBoard
Executive management
Senior management2
Total employees

1

Other or no
gender reported

Male

Total

3

38%

5

62%

0

0%

8

4
6
352

40%
9%
23%

6
64
1,174

60%
91%
77%

0
0
0

0%
0%
0%

10
70
1,526

Notes
1.

The data for executive management includes direct reports to the CEO only, excluding assistants.

2. The data for senior management includes all other Vice Presidents (including Regional Sales VPs and Client Partner Executives) and Senior Directors.

The under-representation of women at all levels at Spirent and the technology sector in general is a key challenge forus, and there remains significant work to do to achieve greater representation, especially in senior roles. We seek tomake a material change through our early careers programme and are committed to leadership development for our
women managers. Despite the initiatives and progress described below, due to workforce reductions and limited hiring
across the Group each diversity metric remains flat compared to 2022 and we did not materially improve.

Age
Spirent’s workforce has a diverse age distribution. Since 2020, we have been successful in attracting more young
people into the business, increasing the percentage of our employees under 30 from 6 per cent to 8 per cent.
The largest age group remains 40–49 which is 32 per cent of our total headcount (2022 31 per cent in 2021).

44

Age group

2023

2022

Change

<20
20–29
30–39
40–49
50–59
60+
Total

1
119
355
490
390
171
1,526

2
127
390
515
443
179
1,656

-50%
-6%
-9%
-5%
-12%
-4%
-8%

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Invest in skills, training and development

STEM education
Supporting awareness and engagement with science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) subjects
amongst young people
We are passionate about science and engineering, but we recognise that there are barriers that prevent talented young people
from studying STEM subjects and pursuing careers in technology. We operate a STEM Ambassadors Programme to engage
with young people and help foster an interest in STEM subjects that we hope will lead them to fulfilling careers in scienceand engineering.
We had 30 active STEM Ambassadors in 2023: 5 in North America, 20 in EMEA and 5 in APAC.
Spirent runs a number of schemes to support higher and further level STEM education.
We work closely with local colleges and universities and provide input to the curriculum to ensure the most up-to-date skills andtechnologies are included.

Early career support
Spirent’s early career programmes offer a structured pathway into a career in technology through internships, apprenticeships,
university sponsorships and on-the-job development. These programmes help to attract and develop younger people anddeliver on our age diversity objectives.

We run work
experience, internships
and industrial
placement schemes
and we sponsor
the most promising
placement students
in their final year
at college.

Internships

We supported 26
interns across ourNorth Americaand APAC regions,
who worked in
our Engineering,
Sales, Legal, IT and
HR divisions.

Early career
programme designed
to develop Spirent’s
future sales leaders,combining trainingon Spirent’s value
proposition withtechnology, sales andsoft skills training,
mentorship, and onthe-job learning.

We run apprenticeships
in the UK which offera structured scheme
for young people toachieve professional
qualifications
whilst working.

Apprenticeships

Our UK Positioning
Technologies
business empowered
Engineering, IT and
HR apprentices todevelop the skills andknowledge they needfor a rewarding careerin their chosen fields.

A global networking
community forour early career
employees, offering
quarterly development
and networking
opportunities.

AspireNetwork

We currently have
25 Aspire Network
members, spanningvarious disciplines
across the business.

Sales
Development
Programme

Our Sales
Development
Representatives (SDR)
Programme enabled
eight employees
to jump-start theircareer in technicalsales through training,on-the-job learning,and mentorship.

We collaborate withleading universities
around the world to
conduct innovative
research, bring newtechnologies tomarket, and provide
opportunities forstudents to kick-start a
career in technology.

We support projects
that foster passion for
science, technology,
engineering andmaths amongst school
children of all ages.

STEM
Ambassador
Programme

Our STEM
Ambassadors
demonstrated theimportance of aviation
safety at Cranfield
University’s Digital
Aviation Research andTechnology Centre to a
In 2023 welarge group of school
collaborated with 40
students, and provided
research partners inadvice on routes
universities across theinto engineering.
world. We supported
undergrad, post-grad
and post-doctorate
participants intheir research.

Academia
ProgramSpirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

45

PROMOTE DIVERSITY AND INVEST IN PEOPLE

Spirent has well-established learning and development programmes
and a continuous improvement and coaching culture. We establish clear
performance objectives, provide regular feedback, and offer technicaland professional skills training.

PROMOTE DIVERSITY AND INVEST IN PEOPLE

Invest in skills, training and development continued

Case study:
Support early career opportunities in China

In late 2022, the Spirent China team hosted avirtual campus recruiting event. The aim wasto onboard and nurture young talent, to help
diversify its employee population and forge
closer relationships with establishments who
can provide a pipeline for young talent into thetelecommunications industry. As a result, in 2023,
265 graduates applied for a range of open
positions in the China team, seven of whom weresuccessfully recruited into its Sales, Engineeringand Global Services divisions.
All graduate new hires have embarked on a
structured 12–18-month development plan, witha 70/20/10 learning focus:• 70 per cent job-related experience – anexperienced employee mentor works with thegraduate to design a tailor-made training plan,
which is reviewed on a quarterly basis.
• 20 per cent networking – all graduates wereenrolled on the Aspire Network, an exclusive
internal community for early career employeesthat enables members to connect, learn andgrow alongside their global colleagues.
• 10 per cent formal educational events – a rangeof technical and interpersonal workshops andtraining are part of the development offering,covering topics such as time management
and communication skills. Workshops including
presentation skills and project management are
being planned for 2024.

My technical, problem-solving,and interpersonal skills havebeen taken to a new level!
Thanks to the support I’ve been
given and the opportunities
to join my more experienced
colleagues in meeting both newand established customers, I’ve
gained experience in situations
that I’ll no doubt encounter soon.
Haocheng Cao

Associate System Engineer

In 2024, our China team plans to extend its
graduate development plan to include additional
workshops in presentation skills and project
management, Spirent portfolio discussion forums
with leaders, job rotation, and more.

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PROMOTE DIVERSITY AND INVEST IN PEOPLE

Case study:
Developing future sales leaders

The Spirent Sales Development Representatives(SDR) Programme, launched in 2022, was designed
to help us hire and develop the next generationof sales leaders. The programme enables us to
recruit and hire high-performance individuals earlyin their careers from a variety of backgrounds.
Throughout the 12–24-month programme,
representatives are provided with technical andsoft skills training on-the-job learning, networking
opportunities and mentorship to help jump‑start
their career in technical sales at Spirent. From day
one, teams from across our business collaborate
to help build a solid foundation on which
representatives can grow both professionallyand personally.
Since its inception in 2022, the SDR organisation
has built a $40 million pipeline for Spirent, leading
to over $4.6 million in closed business won. In
2024, we will look at opportunities to expand theprogramme with the addition of specialist external
training and technology certification.

The ongoing development, support
and networking opportunities
provided as part of the Spirent SDR
Programme have been incredible!
I’ve received great training
from both a technical and sales
perspective and feel well preparedto pursue a career in sales.
Claire Liang

Sales Development Representative

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PROMOTE DIVERSITY AND INVEST IN PEOPLE

Invest in skills, training and development continued

Employee development
Spirent has well-established learning and development
programmes, providing employees with technical andbusiness administration training. As our work often includes
new and emerging technologies, we actively review the skills
that our team need now and those they will need in the future.
Training is managed through personal development plansand delivered through online and in-person training (wherepermissible and safe to do so), peer mentoring and informal
skills sharing. We also bring new skills into our team throughstrategic hiring and our relationships with leading universities
around the world help us to attract the talent we need.

Training and skills

Technical courses include technical, product, solution andapplication training, and professional development includes
the new go-to-market training and the wide array of courses,
including management skills.

Performance reviews

Performance reviews are a core part of our people process,and provide an opportunity to respond to staff feedback
and set personalised development objectives for eachmembers of staff.

In 2023, Spirent employees completed nearly 13,000 hoursof training. See page 84 to find out more detail about ourdevelopment and training programmes.

Spirent Academia Program:supporting skills
and development
Student projects

We support undergraduate, masters and doctoral
research projects. We share industry-relevant
research topics and abstracts, and provide
equipment, supervision and funding. In 2023,
we supported 33 projects in total, including
12 undergraduate projects, 8 masters projects and
5 PhD theses.

Student placements and internships

We offer a range of student work experienceplacements and internships which supports Spirent’s
Early Careers Program. These are typically 1-3
months and help provide young people to gain
valuable experience as they start their career. This
Program has helped us encourage graduates
to start their careers with us, with eight students
exploring full-time roles in our Positioning Businessover the last two years.

Spirent staff development

Our staff benefit significantly from involvement in
our Academia Program. By working with leading
academics they develop new knowledge within
their core competencies of GNSS and timing,
as well as expanding their understanding ofadjacent technologies, such as lidar and radar.
In addition, staff are able to develop a wide
range of professional skills, including presenting
technical information, mentoring and teaching,and public speaking.

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Case study:
Circular economy
scheme supporting
STEM education
Spirent solutions are regularly used to test cuttingedge, emerging technologies. As such, it can be
the case that clients need to upgrade equipment
to deliver testing on the very latest technologies,
but have older, fully functioning equipment theyno longer need.
To ensure this equipment doesn’t go to waste, weoffer an equipment trade-in scheme. Our engineers
review and refurbish any equipment that is sent
back through the scheme, and we make it available
to colleges and universities for teaching and student
research. This provides world-class learning andresearch opportunities whilst extending the usefullife of our products.

Flexible working practices

Our Academia Program enables Spirent tocollaborate with world-leading academics
to bridge the gap between ground-breaking
research and industrial innovation. We have
40 academic research partners worldwide,
working with us on emerging technologies
and product improvements.
Ron Wong, one of our Lead Academia
Engineering Champions, supports universities
in utilising Spirent products and solutions
for academic research purposes. In 2023,
Ron provided academics at the University
College South Devon with training on thefundamentals of Positioning, Navigation
and Timing (PNT) and how to use a Spirent
GSS7000 simulator to emulate space based
GNSS signals in their new Student Researchand Innovation Centre.
Through his work with the Spirent Academia
Program, Ron has supported over
20 different universities worldwide andmore than 100 academics and students.

• Support employee wellbeing• Attract and retain diverse talent• Reduce the size of our offices and carbon footprint• Create office environments that support
knowledge‑sharing, innovation and collaboration

Policies and practices forflexible working
We have a suite of flexible working policies which alignworking practice with the requirements for each role andemployee. There are four categories:• Remote: The employee always works from home
• Flexible: Work is split between the office and at home
• On site: The employee always works from the office• Alternative schedule: Working hours differ from typical
office hours
The flexible working practices allow staff to reduce
commuting time and allow those with caring responsibilities
to continue to thrive in the business.
The flexible working policies include requirements for healthand safety and information security, as well as the provisionof equipment for home working.

Our office environment
With more staff working at home some or all of the time, weneed smaller offices that support different type of activities.

I’ve learned what our academia
partners need from Spirent tofacilitate, support and excel their
PNT next generation research.
My work with the academia
community has also improved
my ability to effectively present
technical information andopened doors internally as I
join discussions on how to apply
the latest advancements to theSpirent product roadmap, so
we can deliver state-of-the-art
technology for our customers.

During 2023 we continued to reduce the size of our offices
and consolidate sites as leases come up for renewal.
We have also started to redesign our office spaces, creating
more formal and informal meeting and collaboration spaces,
and moving from private offices and cubicles to hot desking
and open plan offices.
Full time remote34%

By thenumbers
Flexible/Hybrid
52%
Full time on site
14%

Ron Wong

Senior Staff Systems Engineer

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

49

PROMOTE DIVERSITY AND INVEST IN PEOPLE

Case study:
Investing in
our people andacademia research

We employ flexible working practices
across our global business and have
implemented effective processes that:

PROMOTE DIVERSITY AND INVEST IN PEOPLE

Support our communities

Our approach
We are committed to investing in the communities
in which we live and work. Our staff use theirtime and skills to support good causes, as wellas make financial contributions. Our Company
volunteering and charitable giving programme
are designed to help our staff support their local
communities and good causes. We offer a match
funding scheme to boost the charitable donations
made by staff.

Volunteer Time Off (VTO)
Supporting staff to get out and give backto their local communities is a core part ofour community programme. Staff can taketwo days each year to volunteer in theircommunity. Highlighted below are someof our team’s stories from 2023.

Charitable giving
Throughout 2023 we supported over 60 charities.
The Company donated around $90,000,
including $10,000 through our staff donation
match funding scheme. One of the highlightsof our charitable giving programme in 2023 was
our Company-wide Summer Strides Challenge.

Helping Medical Patients

I used my Spirent Volunteer
Time Off to fly a patient, forLifeline Pilots, from Tennessee toMichigan. He was coming home,having been given a clean billof health after a six-year battlewith cancer.
Jeremy Bennington
VP, PNT Assurance

Spirent Summer Strides Challenge
In June 2023 we launched the Summer Strides
Challenge. Organised by Mandi Kimmel (Assistantto CIO & Office Administrator), 152 colleagues fromaround the world competed in teams to walk, run,swim, cycle, kayak and more, to raise money for
their chosen charities. Using fitness trackers, theteams amassed a total of 85 million steps during
the two-month-long challenge, whilst getting fitterand getting to know each other better. As a result,
we donated over $9,500 to charities chosen by ourteams, including UNICEF USA, North Texas Food
Bank, Doctors without Borders, PINNT, Gables Dogs
and Cats Home, and The Akshaya Patra Foundation.

Coaching Girls Rugby

My Volunteer Time Off has beenan enormous help in enabling
girls, who probably would havenever found rugby, to actively
get involved.
Mark Walker

Director of Operations, Supply Chain

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

PROMOTE DIVERSITY AND INVEST IN PEOPLE

Keeping Our Beaches Clean

It was great to do our bit for the marine
ecosystem, reduce plastic accumulation onbeaches, build awareness of beach pollution,and create a safe beach environment
for visitors.
Sam Jones

Executive AssistantSupporting Local
Community Events

Empowering Young Women

I assisted the Devon Strut with a
fly-in event for the local community.
Giving back has enabled me tomeet people, learn new skills andfeel a sense of achievement beyond
my day job.

Volunteering for Alpha Phi, myuniversity’s fraternity, gives me theopportunity to support the growthof young women through, amongst
other things, leadership andworkplace skills training.

Neil Pearse

Laura Chavez

Senior Staff Project Technical Lead

Principal Human Resources Business Partner

Assisting Independent Charities

I helped with a local hospice Thankathon and felt humbled
to have been given the opportunity to make a nominal
contribution to their ongoing and vital mission. I feelinspired to do more!
Victoria Phillips
HR Manager

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OPERATE RESPONSIBLY

Operateresponsibly
Our promise“We will roll out ISO 14001
management system practices
globally and work towards
zero waste to landfill. We will
embed circular economy
principles in our product design
and reduce sustainability
impacts in our supply chain.”
Why is this important?
• Our sites contribute to our environment impact
and require group-wide and regional practices
to manage consistently.
• Our products’ sustainability impacts are a visible
and important area of impact.

In 2023 we have continued
to expand our ISO 14001
environmental management
system, with our Crawley (HQ),
Paris, San Jose, Honolulu andCalabasas sites achieving
certification. We’ve also engaged
with key suppliers on sustainability
and have introduced formal
sustainability agreements
into contracts.
Jim Klaassen

Senior Vice President, Global Operations

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

• Much of our sustainability impact occurs in our
supply chain and it is imperative that we workwith suppliers to improve visibility and monitoring.

2023 highlights• In 2023 we have continued to expand our ISO
14001 EMS, with new sites certified in North America
and European region including our Crawley HQ.
• We’ve engaged with key suppliers with the aim ofdriving improvement in our ESG data and begun
to introduce formal sustainability agreements into
supplier contracts.
• The first cohort of engineers completed our
circular economy training and we ran a circular
economy hackathon.
• We concentrated on engaging with suppliers
that could help to improve third-party carbon
emissions data in business travel and logistics,
plus began to introduce sustainability agreements
on supplier contract renewal.

OPERATE RESPONSIBLY

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53

OPERATE RESPONSIBLY

Key themes and targets

We are committed tooperating sustainably
and we continued tomake good progress
across 2023.

We continue to expand ISO 14001
EMS certification across our global
operations. We are tracking andresponding to customers’ requests
for material sustainability data andcommitments. We have started
introducing sustainability agreements
into key supplier contracts on
renewal, and are capturing diversity
data from suppliers who voluntarily
disclose. We have adjusted our
logistics planning, moving from air
freight where possible to road andrail to reduce carbon emissions.

Sustainable buildings
Objective:
Manage theenvironmental
impacts ateach site andgain recognition.

Action:Achieve ISO 14001
certification acrossthe Group and work
towards zero waste tolandfill by 2026.

Targets:
Achieve certification at one major
engineering site by end of 2022
and all engineering sites by
end of 2026.

Progress: On track
We achieved ISO 14001
certification at our HQ at Crawley
and Paris, bringing the total ofmajor sites to 11 in US and EMEA.

Targets:
Circular economy training to becompleted by senior engineers by
end of 2021.

Progress: Behind track
We have developed a circular
economy training packaging
and have started to roll thistraining out.

Sustainable product design
Objective:
We will embedcircular economy
principles into theway we design
our products.

Action:Provide circular
economy training
for engineers,
introduce sustainable
innovation toolkit,
conduct lifecycle
assessments ofkey products andproduce producteco-profiles toshowcase credentials.

Sustainable supply chain and manufacturing
Objective:
We will establish
programmes tobetter understandand reduce
our supply
chain impacts.

Action:Supplier audits,sustainability
agreements withkey suppliers,
reduce packaging
sustainability impacts.

Targets:
Complete 18 supplieraudits annually.

Progress: Completed
25 on-site audits completed.

Review packaging and develop
sustainable packaging strategy
by end of 2022.

In progressFirst round of agreements
introduced in 2023.

Establish sustainability
agreements with key suppliers by
end of 2023.

In progress
Have implemented new software
supplier risk assessments.

Map sustainability risks insupply chain and develop
enhanced supply chain
sustainability strategy.
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Sustainable buildings

We set a target to expand the coverage of formal
environmental management systems (EMS) and achieve
ISO 14001 certification at one major engineering site by 2022
and all major sites by the end of 2025.

OPERATE RESPONSIBLY

ISO 14001 implementation
What is ISO 14001?

In 2023 we expanded our ISO 14001 EMS to include our HQ
site in Crawley and our Paris office, achieving certificationin July. We now operate ISO 14001 systems at 11 major sites
across EMEA and the US: Calabasas, Crawley, Daventry,
Frederick, Holmdel, Honolulu, Littleton, Paignton, Paris,
Plano and San Jose. Our sites in Bucharest and Munich will
be added in 2024, with our operations in APAC to follow.
Key benefits from expanding our ISO 14001 management
system include:• Improved and consistent environmental practices• Enhanced compliance controls and site-specific legal
registers using the Q Pulse software platform• A network of dedicated environmental champions
at each site
• A new regional environmental policy for EMEA
The regional executive sponsor of the management systemin the EMEA is Peter Terry-Brown, the General Manager for
our Positioning Business.
The regional executive sponsor of the management system
for the North America region is Doug Roberts, the General
Manager for our Automated Test and Assurance business.

An ISO 14001 environmental management
system provides a best-practice framework
to manage environmental issues effectively.
Certification is awarded by independent
auditors and demonstrates our strong
commitment to environmental management
and continuous improvement.
Governed by our environmental policy, theformalised and structured approach allows us to:• Identify our significant environmental impacts,and how we can affect and be affected byenvironmental impacts, market requirements
and environmental legislation• Provide leadership and governance forenvironmental programmes• Develop robust procedures to control ourenvironmental impacts and plan for any
emergency situations that might arise

Europe leads the world on
sustainability and the creation ofindustrial strategies, policies andlegislation set to drive sustainablegrowth, resilience and innovation.
It’s not enough to acknowledge
and comply with these principles.
At Spirent, we must champion
them. Champion them in ouroperations, our people andour products and innovation.

• Provide staff with the right knowledge, skills
and resources to manage environmental
issues effectively• Measure and monitor our performance• Review our practices through an internal
audit and formal review by management

Peter Terry-Brown

General Manager, Positioning Technologies

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OPERATE RESPONSIBLY

Sustainable buildings continued

Waste

Water

Spirent’s operations are primarily office-based and assuch our waste streams include paper, card and otheroffice wastes, as well as small amounts of hazardous
waste including batteries and light bulbs. We also generate
electrical and electronic waste when lab and IT hardware
reaches the end of its life.

Our water use is minimal and is limited to showers, toilets
and washing crockery at coffee points. We recognise thata number of our sites are located in water stressed areas
and water stress is likely to increase globally with climatechange. As a result, we have a policy to reduce water use
across our sites and water efficiency measures are installed
as standard in our property design guide. For example, wehave installed low flow taps and waterless urinals at our
office in Paignton, UK.

We have set an ambition to improve our waste
management approach and work towards zero to landfill.
Our project to assess our waste management practices anddevelop a waste strategy was pushed back from 2022 to2023. The project aims to reduce the amount of waste we
produce, improve our waste data, increase our recycling
rates and avoid sending waste to landfill.
Over the course of 2023, we improved the quality of
our waste data and developed a comprehensive waste
management plan, focused on electronic waste. As partof our ISO 14001 rollout we have developed waste training
for satellite office and contractor site inductions, and haveengaged landlords on waste compliance.
The design of our test and assurance solutions also hasa material impact on the amount and type of waste thatis generated. We have incorporated sustainable designprinciples into our product development processes, andwe report the waste electronic equipment we place on
the market in accordance with the WEEE Directive. The
disclosures are on page 79.

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

In 2023 we were requested to complete the CDP water
management disclosure for the first time by a number ofcustomers. We did so and will seek to expand and improvethe disclosure in the coming years.

OPERATE RESPONSIBLY

Sustainable building policy
Through our new lab and estates strategy, we are
set to relocate to new sites as the leases end over the
coming 3-5 years. During 2023, we have developed
a comprehensive guide to help us reflect the newstrategy and select the most sustainable buildings.
The policy sets out to:• Consolidate and optimise offices and labs
• Relocate labs to purpose-build, low carbon sites• Set preferences for buildings certified torecognised energy and sustainability standards,
such as LEED or BREEAM• Define minimum energy performance standards
The new policy will support our carbon reduction
objectives by significantly reducing the amount ofoffice space we need, and operating from locations
designed to deliver excellent environmental andsustainability performance.

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OPERATE RESPONSIBLY

Sustainable product design

Our approach
Many of Spirent’s test solutions rely on physical test
equipment used in situ by our customers. We are working
to reduce the lifecycle impacts of our products and theenvironments they are used in through a range of ways:• designing for environment and end of life, including
compliance with all legal requirements;• reducing the size, weight, noise and power use of
our products;• virtualisation and the development of Test-as-a-Service;• improving utilisation and automation; and• in-field servicing and upgrades.
We use formal sustainability metrics in the productdevelopment process across all our business units and havemade good improvements since we introduced the scheme.

Responsible sourcing
Responsible
sourcing

We have robust processes in place to ensure that our suppliers meet high standards
on environmental management, social practices and corporate governance. The
materials we use are sourced from responsible sources and are compliant with all
legislation (see pages 62 to 67 for more details).

Design for environment
Product design andimprovement

Our products are designed to minimise their impact on the environment over theirwhole life. We measure the sustainability performance of our products at the design
stage and optimise the energy efficiency and material use of our equipment.
This includes the use of automation and virtualisation, as well as the use of Testas-a-Service.

Automated and virtualised
testing

Product use

Extend life of
products

Spirent’s automation and efficiency
tools, Velocity and iTest, reduceenergy use, increase equipment
utilisation and reduce total test
times for our customers. We havedeveloped virtual products including
a platform called Temeva anda virtual version of our powerful
TestCenter products.

Test-as-a-Service

Spirent is helping customers reduce
their impacts through its innovative
Test- and Lab-as-a-Service
offering. This allows customers
to run test solutions remotely,using software solutions andSpirent‑hosted hardware.

In-field service and upgrades

Spirent’s products can be serviced, repaired and upgraded in the field. Our modular
design and software licences allow us to add functionality or fix faults at client sites,
without the need to ship equipment back to us.

Design for recycling

Our products are designed to maximise recycling rates, with the following designprinciples used as standard:

End of life

• connectors are used instead of hard-wired connections;• joints, snaps or screws are used instead of welding, soldering or glue;• minimised packaging materials including reusable pallets, totes and packing boxes;• designed to suit common hand tools; and• modular design for ease of assembly and disassembly.

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We ran a circular economy
workshop in 2023 to develop
new concepts andinnovation opportunities.

Case study: Expanding SolarEngaging suppliers onsustainable packaging policy
Sustainable packaging design has been a key focus for
the FuturePositive strategy, and we have made significant
improvements in our own packaging designs, drawing
on lifecycle assessments and design toolkits.
During 2023, we developed sustainable packaging
standards and have engaged key suppliers, seeking
their input on the policy which aims to reduce theenvironmental impact of packaging for components
delivered to Spirent and finished products shipped
to customers.
The policy aims to deliver two key outcomes:• Consistency across the brand where all packaging
procured across the Group will meet clearly defined
standards, including legal compliance, recycledcontent, recyclability, lightweight design andquality standards.
• Consistency inside the box where products distributedby Spirent incorporating components and packaging
of other suppliers meet defined sustainable packaging
standards as well as maintaining performance.
We ran a roundtable event with representatives from Calnex,
a key supplier, and Dewers, a bespoke packaging supplier
to both Spirent and Calnex. The session explored oursustainability agenda and the challenges and opportunities
to deliver improvements in packaging. We received positive
feedback on the packaging policy and agreed a numberof design decisions, policy wording and the key areas toinclude in an annual data return, which will include countryof origin, certificates of conformity, weights and types.

In 2023, we rolled out training on design for circular
economy to the first cohort of 20 engineers. The training
incorporates both an introduction to key aspects oftheory and how it applies to Spirent’s product anddesign process specifically.
In addition, we ran a workshop to explore new designconcepts and innovation opportunities from adopting
circular economy principles. The session identified anumber of enabling technology research projects, including
opportunities to reduce standby current and ambient noise.

The workshop proved an excellent opportunity to gain
consensus of vision and approach, and to continue tostrengthen our collaborative relationships with suppliers
to deliver sustainability improvements.

“We had a really useful roundtablewith Dewars, Calnex and Spirent onsustainable packaging policy andcame away with even more options
than we expected.”
Gill Mauchline

Quality and compliance officer, Calnex“We had an interesting discussionof sustainable packaging, and it was
great to learn about ESG from theperspective of our customers.”
Jamie Costello

Director and co-founder, Dewers“We can’t meet our FuturePositive
promises without the direct
engagement of our suppliers androundtables like this are great
way to inform, educate and refine
our purpose.”
Tolu Omideyi

Global Operations ESG Lead

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Circulareconomytraining

The design of our products significantly influences
the environmental impact of our products acrossthe whole lifecycle. We have seen significant
improvements since implementing sustainability
metrics in our product design process and tosupport further gains in this area, we set an
objective to roll out training on circular economy
for our engineers.

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Sustainable product design continued

Cybersecurity
solutions
Spirent is a leader incybersecurity solutions. Our ISO
27001 certified SecurityLabs offers
clients with a suite of consultancy,
hardware and software solutions
to keep networks secure.

Our solutions include:• Manual penetration testing of network infrastructure,
web and mobile applications, embedded devices, andsource code
• Automated scanning and reporting via a unique, unified
SaaS platform that offers continuous visibility of the
security posture by scanning, analysing and monitoringan organisation’s IT infrastructure• Continuous compliance through independent,
customised, automated, on-demand testing• Sector-specific vulnerability testing covering every
industry and geography• Consulting services ranging from implementation of
best-practice testing methodologies to risk analysis ofpotential attack scenarios to remediation strategies• 5G Core Security Testing providing security compliance.
testing; basic vulnerability assessment; enhanced
security assessment and penetration testing; 3GPP
general security requirements; incorporating public key
infrastructure security• Accounting for New Cybersecurity Frameworks including
Secure Access Secure Edge (SASE), Zero Trust and Zero
Trust Network Access (ZTNA), Transport Layer Security(TLS), Mutual authentication

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

At Spirent, we recognise the importance of maintaining theconfidentiality, integrity and availability of data, while ensuringthat we meet regulatory and legal requirements. To that end,
we have a security controls programme that aligns with the
ISO 27001 standard and maintain the UK Cyber Essentials
Standard. The information management systems operated
by our SecurityLabs and Positioning Technologies businesses
are certified to ISO 27001. Our security programme is working
towards maturing our Governance, Risk and Compliance
processes as we move into 2024.
In 2023, the first designated Global Security leader
was appointed to help steer refinements in the overall
programme. While the enterprise governing programme
will be centralised within the Global Security programme,
management of hardware and software solutions will remain
headed by our product managers.
We are committed to continuous improvement of our
information security practices, monitoring for emerging
threats and adapting our strategies accordingly.

Emerging cybersecurity trends

The diverse nature of the Spirent portfolio gives us visibilityof security trends and patterns affecting both Spirent andits customers. We have observed an increase in phishingattacks, unauthorised scans of internet-facing services and ageneral upward trends in the number of security deficiencies
in third‑party software.
In addition to this, the teams monitor for changes in the threat
landscape to adequately prepare for and respond to security
threats within operational systems and products.

Managing vulnerabilities and risks

Our Security Vulnerability Management Process establishes
the workflow, tasks, responsibilities and functions of theactivity of managing the potential security vulnerabilities
within the Spirent network. Scans are performed on a regularbasis (including, but not limited to, code reviews, static codeand binary object scanning) and the results are recorded
and a corrective action plan is established to address
identified vulnerabilities.
In addition, enhancements to the process exist on a local andgeographical level to support both vulnerability management
and product security. This may include security councils
who exercise vulnerability response activities from bothan operational and product security perspective.
Our Software Development Policy establishes a framework
for the development, testing and maintenance of software
applications. The requirements in this document establish
a common minimum baseline; such requirements may
be exceeded as required or in response to business needs.

Security deficiencies and risks identified through thesedetection mechanisms are appropriately managed throughthe risk management process and monitored until risks areappropriately remediated. The risk management process
covers standards aspects including financial, legal andreputational, with severity ratings and actions plans defined
against the identified risk item.

OPERATE RESPONSIBLY

Managing information security within
our products

In addition to vulnerability code scanning, we employ areputable, external firm on a regular basis to assess various
aspects of our product security.

Enhanced data security

In relation to security functions and features integrated into
products, Spirent manufactures and distributes a wide arrayof products and services that meet the security baseline
and are then further tailored to support enhanced security
requirements. Due to this, security enhancements vary on a
product-by-products basis which may typically include secrets
management software/hardware, secure communications via
TLS, identity management and monitoring via SIEM services.
Many of our solutions are designed to work in sensitiveenvironments, including critical national infrastructure andgovernment departments. We have the security clearances
needed for testing classified and military systems. We run atest lab for CTIA IoT Authorized Cybersecurity Certification
and are able to formally test and certify the security designand capabilities of cellular-connected Internet of Things(IoT) devices.

Managing information security across the
product lifecycle

In addition to the design areas already covered, we employ
several controls to mitigate risk in our supply chain. We
undergo an annual audit process of our suppliers, andany new supplier undergoes a global trade and security
evaluation. As a part of this process, manufacturers musthave formal processes in place to evaluate distributors and toscreen and protect against counterfeit components. We also
maintain our Authorised Economic Operators (AEO) status,
which we are audited on every four years. Lastly, we alignwith the ISO 28001 standard.
Our shipping areas are limited access to only authorised
personnel. We also ship directly to customers to limit on-handinventory. Furthermore, we apply tamper-proof labels onsome products that if removed will void the warranty.
For the product use phase, we ensure that security updates
address bugs and vulnerabilities.
For end-of-life management, we are expanding ourcore central product “life to death” process to the entire
organisation. We have processes in place to ensure vulnerable
obsolete components are scrapped in a secured manner.
Additionally, we are working to ensure product design
evaluation is included in our Mergers and Acquisition process.

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Sustainable supply chain and manufacturing

Our supply chain

Spirent’s product supply chain is global, withmore than 1,100 specialist suppliers across morethan 44 countries worldwide.
Our supply chain partners include contract manufacturers,
equipment and component manufacturers and resellers,
consultancies, R&D partners, software companies and IT
service providers.
We work with contract manufacturers in Thailand, the UK
and the US and we source components and equipment
directly as well as through our contract manufacturers.
Our supply chain includes a large number of specialist
suppliers but 80 per cent of our supply chain spend is witharound 50 companies.

Spirent’s product supply
chain is global, with:

1,100

specialist suppliers across44

countries worldwide

Our approach
Our sustainable supply chain programme comprises four
key themes. Our Supplier Code of Conduct sets out our
expectations for suppliers. We review potential suppliers’
practices before they are approved and we audit andengage with suppliers on an ongoing basis to ensure
standards continue to be met and to drive improvement.
We monitor the total spend with suppliers who have been
audited, and monitor the proportion of our hardware spend
and component parts from audited suppliers as hardware
suppliers have a higher risk profile.

The objective of our sustainable supply chain programmeis to ensure our products and suppliers comply with the highstandards of environmental management, social practices,
corporate governance and business ethics set out inlegislation and our Supplier Code of Conduct. We also aim
to partner with suppliers to reduce the overall environmental
impact of our products and drive continuous improvementby sharing good practices and technologies.

Standards
Supplier Code of Conduct

Setting expectations of the way that environmental,social and governance issues are managed
by suppliers

Pre-contract
Supplier initial assessment and approval

Reviewing potential suppliers’ environment, socialand governance practices to ensure they meet ourstandards before a vendor is approved

Ongoing management
Supplier engagement and audits

Conduct on-site audits and ongoing supplierreviews to ensure suppliers continue to meet
our expected standards and to collaborate
on improvement opportunities

Parts and spend from verified sources

We monitor the number of parts and the spend with
suppliers which have been audited by Spirent or oneof our contract manufacturers or through the RBA VAP
audit programme

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Our suppliers are located globallyand range from large multinational companies to small,family businesses. To ensure goodstandards on environmental,social and corporate governancethroughout our supply chain, we
have a Supplier Code of Conduct,
based on the Responsible
Business Alliance (RBA) Code v7.0.

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Supplier Codeof Conduct

The Supplier Code of Conduct sets out our expectations
for environmental management, health and safety,
labour rights and management systems as well as
the provision of sustainability data. We expect all our
suppliers to meet the standards set out in our Supplier
Code of Conduct and have been rolling out the codeover the last two years.
162 suppliers have been asked to sign the costof conduct and to date, we have received
formal confirmation from 142, which represents
around 53 per cent of total spend. A copy of our
Supplier Code of Conduct is available here athttps://corporate.spirent.com.
Spirent’s supplier approval and management process
allows us to ensure that all new suppliers meet ourrequirements before we use them and that existing
suppliers maintain the high standards we set.

New supplier required

Company profile completed

Risk rating assigned

Initial supplier assessment

Site audit

Corrective actions

Supplier rejected

Corrective actions

Supplier rejected

Supplier review meeting

Supplier approved

Performance reviews

Supplier audits

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Sustainable supply chain and manufacturing continued

Supplier assessment and approval
Supplier audits
We completed 30 supplier audits in 2023.

Suppliers’ sustainability management is analysed indetail before they can work with Spirent. The assessment
includes detailed disclosures on financial security,
quality, health and safety, information security, andenvironmental management, as well as business ethics
and management systems.

35

As part of the initial review, all suppliers are assigned
an A (High) B (Medium) and C (Low) risk rating.

20

For all suppliers deemed active and approved in 2023,
the distribution of risk is as follows

30
25

15
10

• A – 11%5

• B – 43%

0

• C – 36%
We monitor the risk profiles of more than 1,000 active
suppliers annually to determine whether to maintain theiractive status or where performance is unsatisfactory, toundertake a review or disqualify them as an approved
supplier. The criteria used to assess suppliers includes
spend, location, material criticality and other ESG factors.

Supplier engagement and audits
We conduct on-site supplier audits that include themanagement of environmental and social issues.
In 2020, we identified around 200 suppliers for a closer audit
and inspection regime on quality matters and adherence to
our Supplier Code of Conduct which includes labour rights,
environment, health and safety, and restricted materials.
Audits are carried out by the quality team included a mixof desktop and onsite audits. To date, approximately 46 percent of all strategic suppliers have been audited over four
years, and 19 per cent audited in last 12 months.
We set three key targets for supplier sustainability. We aim
to complete at least 20 audits annually, and ensure that atleast 60 per cent of our direct spend and 85 per cent of ourhardware spend is with companies that have been audited
in the last five years. These benchmarks have proved
difficult to achieve.
We achieved our supplier audit target for the year,
completing 30 onsite audits during the year, including one
joint supplier audit with key manufacturing partners.
Despite exceeding the target number of supplier audits in
2023, our total spend with suppliers that have been audited
by us, our manufacturing partners or an industry scheme
over the last five years dropped to 46 per cent. This falls
short of our target of 60 per cent.
This is in part due to the diversification of our supply chain
spend, meaning each company audited typically representsa smaller proportion of overall spend. In addition, we havefocused our supplier audits on hardware suppliers as we
feel there have higher sustainability impacts and risks. The
proportion of non-hardware suppliers has grown in the last
few years, as has the total number of suppliers we are using.

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

2021
Audits completed

2022

2023

TargetCase study:
Supplier ESG risk
management
Managing ESG risks in our supply chain is a corepillar of our operate responsibly programme.
Our supplier risk software solution allows us tomonitor commercial and ESG risks, including:• corruption;• corporate malpractice;• human rights;• environmental;• workplace safety; and• physical risk from climate change – flooding
and cyclones.
The software solution uses artificial intelligence (AI)to assess a wide range of risk factors, providing
real-time supplier risk monitoring. Our operations
team reviews the risk status of suppliers on amonthly basis or following a significant change inrisk status.
This detailed risk picture allows us to prioritise
suppliers with the highest risk exposure and monitor
improvements over time.
During 2023, we have explored potential software
to collate better data on supply chain ESG
performance and to support campaigns to deliverco-ordinated action on key issues.

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Case study: Introducing sustainableagreement with strategic suppliers

Supply chain sustainability is an essential
component in Spirent’s FuturePositive Strategy.
There is a recognised need for alignment between
Spirent’s corporate ESG goals and the outlook, values
and action of strategic suppliers.

A contractual sustainability agreement was developed,
which set out commitments for both parties. For Impulse,
this included commitments to:

To deliver on our sustainability commitments, it is vitalthat our suppliers are aligned with our goals, values
and actions. Our suppler code of conduct forms thefoundation of good management of environmental,social and governance issues, but we believe that
where possible, collaboration with suppliers is the best
way to develop mutually successful ways to tackle
the common challenges we all face. Whilst we havepreviously successfully engaged with suppliers to deliver
sustainability improvements, during 2023 we initiateda more concerted programme to develop concretesustainability agreements, whether formal (contractual)
or informal (common practice) to ensure we will deliveron our commitments.

• Consolidate deliveries to reduce carbon footprint
from logistics

As part of this initiative, we engaged with Impulse
Embedded Ltd, an SME, to develop a formal
sustainability agreement.
This process involved a number of structured meetings
to communicate our respective sustainability goals,
expectations capabilities and to explore the opportunities
to deliver improved sustainability performance. Thesesessions included a review of the supplier code of conduct
and explored what support we could provide to help
deliver compliance across all areas of the standard.
The discussions highlighted a number of ways inwhich Impulse can help reduce environmental impacts,
including consolidation of deliveries and conducting areview of the components they supply to us to suggest
more efficient alternatives.

• Participate in ESG supply chain assessments• Provide sustainability data annually (Scope 1 & 2 carbon
emissions and waste)• Comply with Spirent’s Supplier Code of Conduct• Provide review of a key product to identify power supply
efficiency opportunities
Spirent agreed to:• Agree joint training session/s focusing on key
sustainability objectives for both businesses to increase
competence on the subject matter within Impulse
and Spirent.
• Consult with Impulse and other suppliers on proposedsustainable packaging policy
Engaging with key suppliers has proved valuable. It hasestablished a productive platform for collaboration,
identifying opportunities for innovation, and to share skills,
knowledge and competence. The initiative has delivered
early successes, with Impulse identifying alternative, more
efficient components which are now being reviewed byour engineering team for approval. Seeking to establish
formal contractual agreements has also focused ourintent and will support the delivery of key goals on climatechange and help define clear metrics to monitor thesustainability performance of suppliers in the future.
This engagement was with an SME employing
approximately. 20 people so it shows that smaller
suppliers are actually able to be responsive, pivot
quickly and shouldn’t be underestimated.

We are glad to be strengthening
the connection and alignment onsustainability between Spirent andImpulse. We’ve benefitted from
Spirent’s direction and signposting
to resources on our ESG journey.
Mark Vickers

ImpulseQHSE Manager
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Sustainable supply chain and manufacturing continued

Supplier engagement andaudits continued
During 2023 the audits raised one corrective action request.
One supplier has been discontinued for use as a result of theaudit process.
The audits not only demonstrate our strong commitment
to embedding sustainability across our whole value chain
to our suppliers, but also provide a valuable framework toshare innovation and good practice. Our close collaboration
with suppliers has meant improvements in quality, costmanagement, environmental management and healthand safety, and has identified new market informationand technologies for the Group.
We focus our supplier audits on companies that we do themost business with, those which supply critical components,
those which operate in higher-risk geographies, and thosewhich undertake activities with the largest potential impact.
In addition to our direct audits, we collaborate closelywith our contract manufacturers to expand our visibility ofsustainability management and performance further down
our supplier chain. Drawing on the Responsible Business
Alliance (RBA) industry-wide Validated Audit Process (VAP)and audits conducted by the contract manufacturers
themselves, we are able to determine compliance further
across our supply chain.

Supply from verified sources
As the component supply chain includes higher
environmental and social risks, we monitor the numberof part numbers sourced from verified sources: suppliers
which had either been audited by Spirent directly or by
our contract manufacturers or through the RBA VAP audit
programme. We also monitor total spend and hardware
spend with verified sources and ensure we maximise
sourcing from our Preferred Supplier List.
Our aim is for more than 73 per cent of all part numbers
to be from verified sources. We did not meet this in 2023,
achieving 66.7 per cent.
We require all suppliers to complete a vendor assessment
satisfactorily before we work with them; however, we
recognise that new vendors may require time to address
corrective actions and some new vendors may only provide
a small number of parts used in prototyping. As a result,
our target is that a minimum of 75 per cent of our new
key suppliers categorised as Risk A satisfactorily completed
a vendor assessment survey within the year. There were
15 new A risk vendors in 2023. To date, six have satisfactorily
completed the survey and we are working with theremainder to complete the assessment.

Supplier engagement on GHG emissions

We recognise that emissions associated with the
manufacture and distribution of our products are a key
part of our net zero objective. In 2022 we commenced aprogramme to collect energy and emissions data from our
key suppliers, and determine the carbon reduction targets
they have in place.
Building on this, we engaged with a number of key
suppliers to obtain carbon data and explore opportunities
to reduce emissions. During 2023, we establishedsustainability agreements with TT Electronics Plc (a contract
manufacturer) and Impulse Embedded Ltd, and expect
to finalise further agreements with Calnex and Celestica
early in 2024.

Total spend with verified sources
46 per cent of our total spend was with suppliers
audited by us, our manufacturing partners or anindustry scheme over the last five years (verified
suppliers). This is below our target level of 60
per cent. A key contributing factor has been thediversification of supplier spend and changing
supply chain spending trends.
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

2021
% spending to verified source

2022

2023

TargetHardware spend with verified sources
Our hardware spend with suppliers that have been
audited in the last five years was 84 per cent in
2023, just below our target of 85 per cent.
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0

2021

2022

% of spending to verified source

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

2023
TargetThe procurement and engineering teams manage criticalmaterials closely. Weekly reviews of critical materials are
conducted and risk rating of materials and components
are assigned based on lead times, costs, sole and single
source components.
The Company has invested in new source to pay purchasingsystems to tighten controls and tracking on purchasing.
Furthermore, engineering service teams focused on productenvironmental compliance notify engineering teams on
end-of-life dates for certain components by manufacturers
as well as regulatory driven sunset and phase out dates ofcertain chemicals. This informs design decisions for each
iteration of new products placed on the market.

Case study:
Supplier collaboration
on diversity

OPERATE RESPONSIBLY

Management of critical materials

During 2023, we conducted a review to understandour current engagement and spend with suppliers
that meet certain diversity characteristics in USA
and Europe as a basis for future action.
We have long championed diversity within our own
business, and our supply chain offers an excellent
opportunity to extend our social impact and the benefits
to our business that diversity brings.
Engaging with suppliers who reflect a rich variety ofbackgrounds, cultures and experiences will help deliver
innovation and new thinking, but also offers an opportunity
to create social value.
We are in the early stages of exploring the diversity of our
supply chain, and during 2023 we started to develop aframework that reflects our global footprint and collate
data. In North America, key considerations include ethnicity,
gender and supporting veteran-owned businesses,
whereas the size and type of organisation are also
important in the UK and Europe.
When onboarding new suppliers, we have included anon‑mandatory field to capture diversity data. This includes• Minority and/or women owned businessenterprises (MWBE)• Veteran owned businesses• Ex-offender owned businesses• Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs)
Building on the foundations set out in the UK’s Social Value
Act, we are also exploring how we might engage with
suppliers on diversity, inclusion and skills to amplify thepotential positive impacts.

Expanding our focus ondiversity into our supply
chain will offer an excellent
opportunity to seek out
innovation and deliversocial impact.
Fanny Yan

Senior Director and Global Head of Procurement

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ACCOUNTABLE AND TRANSPARENT

Accountable
and transparent
Our promise“We will expand oursustainability governancestructures and reporting, andcommunicate regularly withstaff on FuturePositive targets
and progress.”
Why is this important?
• Investors and customers expect increasingly
detailed information on our sustainability
practices and performance.
• We have not historically communicated andengaged with staff well enough on sustainability.

We introduced a suite of new
sustainability policies, including an
EMEA region environmental policy.
Angus Iveson

Company Secretary and General Counsel

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

• New legislation requires Spirent to establish
Board-level oversight on climate change.

2023 highlights• We introduced a suite of new sustainability
policies, including an EMEA region
environmental policy.

ACCOUNTABLE AND TRANSPARENT

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ACCOUNTABLE AND TRANSPARENTKey themes and targets

An effective
sustainability
programme
relies on robust
governance andengagement.

In 2023 we implemented
a number of new policies,
including an EMEA region
environmental policy.

Robustsustainability
governanceObjective:
Ensure Boardlevel and senior
management
involvement insustainability
management.

Action:Establish a new Board
sub-committee andexpand the FuturePositive
working group. Establish
a balanced score cardfor sustainability for
the Board.

Targets:
Establish Board
sub-committee
and report onsustainability
performance tothem quarterly.

Progress: Complete
We established a new
Board sub-committee
for sustainability.

Robustreporting andcommunications

Objective:
We will enhance
our external
communications
and engage withstaff effectively
and regularly onsustainability issues.

Action:We will report inaccordance with the GRI
Standard and TCFD. We
will develop an effective
internal communications
programme andintegrate sustainability
into our external
communications.

Targets:
Produce asustainability reportin accordance with
the GRI standard
for financial
year ending
December 2021.

Progress: On track
We expanded ourreporting to include
metrics from boththe GRI standard
and the SASB
reporting framework

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Sustainability governance

Sustainability management

Materiality

Sustainability strategy

Stakeholder engagement

Risk management

Compliance data

An effective governance structure for environmental andsocial issues.

ACCOUNTABLE AND TRANSPARENT

Spirent has a robust approach to managing environmental and social issues.
There are six key areas to our responsible operating approach.
Identifying the most important environmental, social andcorporate governance issues for Spirent to manage.

We operate a sustainability strategy, with five key promises.

Understanding and responding to the needs and expectationsof our most important stakeholders.

Understanding and managing the principal sustainability risks
for Spirent.

Ensuring we comply with all applicable legislation and policies.

Sustainability management

The FuturePositive Committee comprises:

Governance structure

The CEO is ultimately responsible for sustainability at Spirent
and oversees the management of our material ESG issues.
The Executive Director-led ESG Management Committee
lead and monitor ESG matters, oversees our sustainability
strategy, monitors climate-related risks and opportunities
and our performance against targets, and co ordinates
the reporting of issues and updates to the Board.

Committee Chair• Company Secretary andGeneral Counsel

Procurement• Vice-President, Global Operations• Global Procurement Director

Property• Director of Global Properties

People• Global Human Resources Director

Product• Senior Director Research andDevelopment Product Development

Spirent Communications plc Board

Executive
Directors

Audit
Committee

ESG
Management
Committee

Risk
Sub-Committee

Disclosure
Committee

Nomination
Committee

Remuneration
Committee

Net zeroworking group

Diversity and invest
in people working
group

Operate responsibly
working group

FuturePositive
Committee
Sustainable future
working group

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71

ACCOUNTABLE AND TRANSPARENT

Sustainability governance continued

Sustainability management continued

The sustainability strategy is supported by specific policies
and programmes related to management of ESG issues.

There is also a formal Risk Sub-Committee of the Audit
Committee to monitor risks and uncertainties at corporate
and business unit levels, including those related to ESG issues.

Materiality
We last updated the sustainability issues that are material
to Spirent in 2022 using the five criteria set out in the AA 1000
standard using a risk-based approach:

The FuturePositive committee is chaired by the Company
Secretary and comprises senior managers with responsibility
for key aspects of the strategy. The FuturePositive Committee
meets across the year to coordinate and monitor progresson the programme and reports progress to the ESG
Management Committee.

• direct financial impacts;• policy-related performance;

Progress on our ESG objectives is delivered through thematic
working groups and departmental initiatives. We intend to review
the committee and working group structure in 2024 to integrate
ESG governance more closely into core business management.
External advisers have been appointed (Brite Green) to support
the Committee in designing and implementing the FuturePositive
programme and members of staff from across the business
contribute to the Committee and annual workstreams.

Policies

Our sustainability approach is governed by an
overarching Sustainability Policy. It can be found athttps://corporate.spirent.com.
The Policy applies to the Company and all subsidiaries
worldwide and commits the Group to compliance with highstandards of ethics and business integrity, environmental
management, and employee and community welfare.

• peer-based norm;• stakeholder behaviour and concerns; and• social norms (including legislation).
We conducted desk-based research, direct correspondence
and interviews with stakeholder groups to identify the themesthat are most important to the business.
The results from the review reinforced our focus on businessethics, climate change and carbon emissions, human capitaldevelopment and data security, along with how our products
can help our customers deliver sustainability performance
improvements. Water in the supply chain was identified as
an emerging issue.
The analysis is undertaken at least every two years and will
next be updated in 2024.

Responsible business practices

Circular economy

4.	Sustainable and transparent
supply chain
5. Water in supply chain
6.	Product design for the environment
and a circular economy
7.	Impact occurring during useof products and services
8. End of life of products and waste

Delivering sustainability impacts
for customers
9.	Sustainability impact throughproduct functionality

High

1
11

Influence on stakeholder assessments and decisions

1. Corruption and business ethics
2. Transparent reporting
3. Data security and privacy

10

2

12
14

15
4

6

16
13

3

17

7

9

10.	Energy efficiency andrenewable energy
11. Carbon emissions
12. Climate change resilience

People and communities

13. Human and labour rights
14. Diversity, equity and inclusion
15. Training, skills and development
16. Health and wellbeing
17. Flexible working practices
18. Supporting communities
72

MediumEnergy and climate change
5

MediumSpirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

18

8Significance of economic, environmental and social impacts

HighSome issues are addressed at the Group level (e.g. climate change, learning and development, STEM programmes), whilst
others are undertaken at the site level (e.g. community support initiatives).
We have set out how our material sustainability issues apply to our core business activities.
Our business activities

How our material sustainability issues apply

Our test solutions
We provide network test solutions tocustomers across the world. Our test
solutions are used in research anddevelopment and operational monitoringof communications networks across awide range of use cases. Our world-classequipment is often used for a long timeby customers.

The use of our equipment and test solutions has a direct environmental
impact across their lifecycle. Our hardware uses raw materials and energy
to manufacture and transport. The equipment also consumes energy and is
responsible for associated carbon emissions during its use. Our equipment
will also become electronic waste at the end of its life. Our efforts arefocused on controlling and reducing the negative impact in the supply chain
and designing efficient and long-lasting products that can be recycled at theend of their life.
Our test solutions are used to develop emerging technologies that will help
address global sustainability challenges, including electric and automatedcars, cybersecurity and the Internet of Things (IoT).
We are also able to help clients improve their sustainability performancethrough our product functionality. With the continued growth of data
demand globally, we are developing solutions to improve the efficiency andeffectiveness of communications networks and labs. This includes allowing
customers to operate effectively and efficiently in the cloud, increasing R&D
lab efficiency, reducing service engineer call-outs for telecoms operators
and keeping networks and data safe from cyber attacks.

Our business activities
Our operations include hardware andsoftware design, testing, research anddevelopment. We have in-house finance,
HR and IT, and procurement functions
as well as an in-house sales andmarketing team.
In some cases, we also work withthird‑party sales partners.
Manufacturing, logistics and components
We do not carry out any manufacturing
activities ourselves but instead leverage
the expertise and scale of specialist
manufacturing partners. Similarly, logistics
are also completed by third parties.
We have a global supply chain.
Our products contain regulated materials
which can have environmental and social
impacts during their extraction, processing
and transportation.

We influence the environmental performance of our products through ourdesign process. We aim to reduce the physical impacts of hardware,
employing design for environment principles, virtualising hardware andusing software where possible.
Business ethics is a key issue, especially for those in sales, finance and HR.
Those staff in higher-risk roles are given regular anti-corruption and bribery
training and the business ethics practices of our third-party sales partners
are assessed prior to and during the appointment.
As an office-based business, the work that our staff conduct is predominantly
low risk from a health and safety perspective.
As we do not conduct manufacturing directly, the environmental and social
impacts related to component and product manufacturing arise in our
supply chain. The electronic industry as a whole faces challenges, including
environmental impacts from raw material extraction and processing, labourand human rights, and transparency.
As such, we set high environmental, social and governance standards forall suppliers and conduct regular assessments and audits. We monitor
the environmental performance of key suppliers through our Scope 3
emissions reporting.
We maintain very close control of the components and suppliers used toensure only compliant components are used from suppliers which meet ourstandards. All products are manufactured to our exacting specifications andrecords are maintained.
Where possible, we reduce the environmental impacts from logistics byshipping hardware directly to customers and allow customers to expand
the capability of equipment in situ with product key upgrades. We are also
expanding our software-based and Test-as-a-Service (TAAS) solution
portfolio which will further reduce environmental impacts.

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

73

ACCOUNTABLE AND TRANSPARENT

Sustainability issues are relevant to our operations and across our sector. We have incorporated actions to address significant
risks and opportunities into the way we operate.

ACCOUNTABLE AND TRANSPARENT

Sustainability governance continued

Materiality continued
Our business activities

How our material sustainability issues apply

Product use and end of life
Predominantly the customer use andend-of-life stages of our products’
lifecycles have been outside of our direct
influence, but our suite of hosted test
services is increasing.

During use, our products use energy, occupy space and contribute to
the heat load in clients’ labs. Our hardware also uses cooling fans which
generates noise which can be problematic for desktop use.
As such, energy efficiency, noise and size are key considerations for our
products during use, and we have processes in place to improve theperformance of our products in these areas. We have also developed
products that maximise equipment utilisation and test automation forclients to reduce in-use impacts even further (Velocity and iTest).
With more of our test services being hosted by Spirent, we are also
responsible for ongoing energy consumption.
Our products are designed for disassembly at end of life and are subject
to waste electronics regulations.

Confidential and personal data
By the nature of the work we do, we holdcommercially sensitive data and personal
information related to our own businessand our customers.

We process personal data and commercially sensitive information which
we need to keep secure.

Stakeholders
We work with national governments andsome of the world’s largest companies and
we are listed on the Main Market of the
London Stock Exchange.

We are expected to demonstrate good management of ESG issues andreport on our performance.

As a result, our clients, investors and otherstakeholders have high expectations of our
ESG management and ask us to disclosedetailed information about how
sustainability issues are relevant to ourbusiness and how we are managing them.

As a result, we operate robust information security procedures and our
SecurityLabs and Positioning businesses hold ISO 27001 certifications.
Cybersecurity is also critical for our customers and we have developed
industry-leading security and performance solutions to help them manage
cybersecurity risks.

We respond to customer questionnaires and participate in industry-wide
initiatives (such as CDP and Ecovadis).
We aim to create a positive impact on the communities we work in throughvolunteering and charitable donations and we operate a Company-wide
programme to ensure we do this consistently and effectively.

We also recognise that we operate withincommunities and we have an obligation
to ensure that we operate responsibly andcreate a positive impact.

Our facilities

We operate from 36 sites across the world.
With the exception of our site in Paignton,
UK, all our sites are leased. Around a thirdof these sites have an engineering lab orsignificant customer lab. The rest are sales
or administrative offices.

TalentWe operate in a sector with highcompetition for talent and in some areas
there are sector-wide challenges withdiversity and interest in science andtechnology jobs. Our employees
require a high level of educationand technical knowledge.

74

The most important impact we have through our facilities is energy use;
however, we have limited control over much of the infrastructure in theleased buildings we operate from. The main areas of influence are theengineering labs and our site in Paignton, UK, where we own the building.
We only use water on our sites for domestic use.

Our business relies heavily on human capital. Attracting, retaining anddeveloping world-class talent is critical for our success. We also need toengage talented young people to encourage them into careers in scienceand technology, and contribute to the curriculum in schools and universities.

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Risk management

We respond to stakeholder sustainability requests
and questionnaires and have started a process toactively engage with customers and suppliers onsustainability issues.

Spirent is exposed to a number of risks and uncertainties.
These risks may arise from internal factors, but some will
be a result of external factors over which the Group has
little or no direct control. It is the effective management ofthese risks that support Spirent in delivering on its strategic
objectives, safeguards the Group’s assets and, over time,
will enhance shareholder value.

In 2023 we responded to all requests for information from
customers relating to our management of environmental,social and governance issues. Greenhouse gas emissions
and diversity are of interest to some customers. In response,
we have completed the CDP supply chain questionnaireand disclosed key diversity data.
Our investors have engaged with us directly on climatechange through the CDP, and we have also received andresponded to questions relating to our disclosure andemissions performance from individual investors and
ESG rating agencies.
We have initiated closer collaboration with our contract
manufacturers to improve our understanding ofsustainability management and performance in our tier 2
suppliers. In particular we share information about supplieraudits and performance.
In addition, we engage with our employees on sustainability
issues in our regular “town hall” meetings and employee
surveys. We continue to communicate with our employees
on sustainability topics via emails, posters and theCompany intranet, InsideSpirent. In 2023, we continued
our partnership with Emplify to conduct two employee
engagement surveys. The survey reviews 17 key themes
including meaning, purpose, professional development,
shared values, leadership and autonomy. We complete
the surveys every six months and they have shown highlevels of staff engagement and improvement in each area.
The survey has also identified a number of areas where
we perform especially well, including fairness and staff
feedback, and some areas for improvement, including
addressing bottlenecks. We launched the “businessbottleneck” anonymous feedback form and tracking
resolution for approximately 24 reported bottlenecks.

Stakeholder expectations
As part of our materiality analysis we have identified theneeds and expectations of six main stakeholder groups:
investors, workforce, customers, suppliers, government/
regulatory bodies, and community and environment.
The groups were identified as having the largest influenceon our business or where we can have a significant
impact. The key issues raised are incorporated into
our sustainability strategy development and we haveintroduced programmes to address all key issues raisedby stakeholders.
Where possible, we have incorporated the consideration ofsustainability issues into existing stakeholder engagement
processes and, as such, the frequency of engagement
ranges from continuous to annually.
We have designed this report to address the key themes
raised by our stakeholders and we also respond to specificrequests for information from stakeholders.

The process to identify and manage the principal risks
and uncertainties of the Group is an integral componentof Spirent’s internal control system. The Group’s robust
approach to risk management is set out in our Annual
Report each year.
The Directors confirm that there is an ongoing, robust
process to identify, evaluate and manage the principal risks
faced by the Group and the operational effectiveness of
the related controls which have been in place. They also
confirm that they have regularly reviewed the system ofrisk management and internal controls utilising the review
process set out in the Annual Report.
There are guidelines on the minimum Group-wide
requirements for health and safety and environmental
management. There are also guidelines on the minimum
level of internal control that each of the divisions should
exercise over specified processes. Each business hasdeveloped and documented policies and procedures tocomply with the minimum control standards established,including procedures for monitoring compliance and taking
corrective action. The management of each business isrequired to confirm twice yearly that it has complied withthese policies and procedures.
The Board has identified seven principal risks, two of which
are related to the themes addressed in our FuturePositive
programme: business continuity and employee skills.
The full set of risks is set out in the 2023 Annual Report.

Reporting and communications
Non-financial reporting

We aim to give stakeholders visibility of the nonfinancial risks and opportunities we face and how
they are being managed. We do so principally
through this Sustainability Report but we also
participate in the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP),
complete customer sustainability questionnaires,
respond to environmental, social and governance(ESG) rating agency assessments and disclose
information in the corporate responsibility sectionof our Annual Report.

Assurance

Our Sustainability Policy sets out our commitment
to robust and transparent reporting and external
assurance of data and claims is a key component.
We obtain external assurance of our Sustainability
Reports to ensure the data and statements we makeare reliable and robust.

Details of our stakeholder engagement approach are set
out in the 2023 Annual Report.
Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

75

ACCOUNTABLE AND TRANSPARENT

Stakeholder engagement

APPENDIX

Independent assurance statement

Scope of engagement

Challenge Sustainability Limited (“Challenge Sustainability”,“us” or “we”) was commissioned by Spirent Communicationsplc (Spirent), acting through Brite Green Ltd (“Brite Green”)
with the objective of providing assurance on its Sustainability
Report 2023 (the “Report”) in relation to the AA1000
AccountAbility Principles and assurance over the Subject
Matter presented in the Report, for the reporting year ended
31st December 2023. When considering the Subject Matter,our agreed objective was to determine whether data are
fairly presented, in all material respects, in accordance withthe reporting criteria. Our assurance engagement does notextend to information relating to earlier periods or to any
other information included in the Report.

AA1000 Principles

We assessed the nature and extent of adherence of theReport to the AA1000 Principles of inclusivity, materiality,
responsiveness and impact (the “AA1000 Principles”).
To assess the AA1000 Principles we have used the publicly
available AA1000 AccountAbility Principles (AA1000AP, 2018),(the “Principles Criteria”).

Subject Matter

To assess the Subject Matter, which includes an assessmentof the risk of material misstatement in the Report, we haveused Spirent’s carbon emissions calculations methodology, asreported on page 82 of the Report (the “Reporting Criteria”).
The Management of Spirent is responsible for preparing theReport in accordance with the Reporting Criteria. We havenot performed any work, and do not express any conclusion,on any other information that may be published in the Reportor on Spirent’s website for the current reporting period or forprevious periods.
The scope and boundary of our work is restricted to thefollowing key performance indicators as reported in
the Report:• Energy use (MWh), as reported on page 31 of the Report• Scope 1&2 total GHG emissions, location (tonnes CO2e),
as reported on page 32 of the Report• Scope 1&2 total GHG emissions, market (tonnes CO2e),
as reported on page 32 of the Report• Scope 3 GHG emissions, upstream and downstream(tonnes CO2e), as reported on page 33 of the Report

Basis of our conclusion

We are required to plan and perform our work in order toconsider the risk of material misstatement of the Subject
Matter. Our work included, but was not restricted to:• Assessing the appropriateness of the Reporting Criteria
for the Subject Matter;• Reviewing the effectiveness of internal controls and theprocesses for collecting and consolidating relevant dataand information;• Conducting remote interviews with Spirent’s Management
to obtain an understanding of the key processes, systems
and controls in place to generate, aggregate and report
relevant data and information;• Remote meetings with Spirent’s staff to review the processes
for gathering and consolidating relevant data andinformation and checking its consolidation;• Examining, on a sample basis, source evidence to support
the reported Subject Matter, specifically to establish therelationship between data and information aggregated at
Head Office level, with the data and information gathered
at an operational level;• Reviewing the evidence, measurements and their scope
provided to us by Spirent for the Subject Matter to assess
whether it was prepared in line with the Reporting
Criteria; and• Reviewing the Report and narrative accompanying
the Subject Matter in the Report with regards to theReporting Criteria.

Our conclusion – AA1000 Principles

Based on the work we have undertaken; nothing has cometo our attention that leads us to conclude that the Report is
not in adherence with the AA1000 Principles as described in
the Principles Criteria. We comment on the nature and extent
of each individually below.

InclusivenessSpirent engages with all key stakeholder groups, most notably
over the past year with selected customers and suppliers onsustainability issues. We also note the efforts taken last year tostrengthen partnerships and Spirent’s employer profile with
Historically Black Colleges & Universities.
We understand that Spirent intends to further refine
its governance approach with respect to social andenvironmental issues in 2024 based upon experience of how
governance arrangements have been working in practice todate. In 2023, the company’s proposals for the Science-Based
Target initiative and People aspects of ESG were consideredat the Spirent Board.
We repeat our recommendation that Spirent should develop
a dashboard of performance metrics using data from each of
the issue-specific sustainability working groups, to provide amore structured view of ongoing progress across all material
issues. The development of metrics should specificallyintegrate the outcome of engagement with stakeholders
upon the specific issues.

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Materiality

We repeat our recommendation that in future years, thescope of assurance should be extended to cover additional
indicators to ensure coverage of other high materiality issues.

ResponsivenessSpirent has responded to increasing customer demands onsustainability impact through product design. Amongst thetechnology sector, customers are signalling a convergencearound the need to establish science-based targets for
reductions in carbon intensity. Spirent has submitted
science‑based targets to SBTi for approval and continues
to reduce emissions in a number of ways. The shift from
hardware towards software-based solutions and services;and the consolidation of Spirent’s laboratory and testing
operations has created the platform for considerable further
reductions in carbon intensity. We recommend that further
impetus should be provided to the programme to incorporate
mandatory consideration of sustainability factors in productdesign and development.

Impact

The most important sustainability-related issues areintegrated into Spirent’s sustainability strategy and relevant
performance measures are disclosed in the Report for someissues, supported elsewhere by case studies. We recommendthat Spirent should continue to explore opportunities tomeasure the social and environmental impacts of its products
and services.
It is noteworthy that Spirent has conducted a global gender
pay parity analysis in the last year, however the results
have not been disclosed and future management action
in response has not been described, beyond statutory
disclosures for the UK. Spirent should consider how to report
data on its gender pay according to the range of roles within
the company, in a way that supports an explanation of thecurrent position. Spirent continues to demonstrate incremental
improvements in the quality of data reported relating to
Scope 3 carbon emissions. The case study describing theemissions avoided through provision of lab automation
services for one financial services provider customer, illustrates
the scale of the potential for Spirent to have a positive climate
impact through its products and services.

Our Conclusion – Subject Matter

Based on the procedures performed and evidence obtained,
nothing has come to our attention that causes us to believethat the subject matter information is not prepared, in allmaterial respects, in accordance with the applicable criteria.
This conclusion relates only to the Subject Matter and is to beread in the context of this Assurance Statement, in particular
the inherent limitations explained below.

Responsibilities of the Management of Spirent

The Management of Spirent has sole responsibility for
preparing the Report, including presentation of Subject
Matter in accordance with the Reporting Criteria. Spirent’s
responsibilities also include maintaining effective internal
controls over the information and data, resulting in the
preparation of the Subject Matter in a way that is free frommaterial misstatements.

Responsibilities of Challenge Sustainability

Our responsibility is to plan and perform our work to obtainassurance over whether the Subject Matter has been
prepared in accordance with the Reporting Criteria and toreport to Spirent in the form of an independent assurance
conclusion, based on the work performed and the evidence
obtained. We must also express a conclusion over whether
the Report adheres to the AA1000 Principles, as describedin the Principles Criteria, and comment on the nature andextent of each Principle individually. The intended users of thisassurance statement are Spirent and its stakeholders. We do
not accept, or assume responsibility to anyone else, except
to Spirent, for our work or for the conclusions that we havereached. We have not been responsible for the preparationof the Report.

Standards and level of assurance – AA1000
Principles

Our assurance engagement was planned and performed
to meet the requirements of a Type 1 “moderatelevel” of assurance as defined by AA1000 AssuranceStandard (AA1000AS) v3.

Standards and level of assurance – Subject Matter

We performed a limited assurance engagement inaccordance with the International Standard on Assurance
Engagements (ISAE) 3000 revised – ‘Assurance Engagements
other than Audits and Reviews of Historical Financial
Information’ (revised), issued by the International Auditing
and Assurance Standards Board. We planned and performed
our work to obtain the evidence we considered sufficient
to provide a basis for our opinion, so that the risk of thisconclusion being in error is reduced but not reduced
to very low.

We note that progress against targets has been reported
and recommend that those that have been met during
the reporting period should be updated, to maintainthe momentum of progress. We recommend again thatquantitative targets should be developed and reported fordiversity and inclusion, to further expand on the diversity andinclusion themes and commitments described in the Report.

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

77

APPENDIX

Spirent undertook the last update to its materiality analysis
in 2022, which fed into the revision of Spirent’s sustainability
strategy and is again reflected in the content of the Report.
We understand that Spirent is committed to updating theanalysis again before publication of the 2024 Report, whichshould consider the significance of information security andgenerative AI, among other new and emerging potential risks.
The indicators within the scope of our assurance include twoof the issues identified most material by Spirent (energy use
and GHG emissions).

APPENDIX

Independent assurance statement continued

Inherent Limitations

Our competence, independence and quality control

Our assurance relies on the premise that the data andinformation provided to us by Spirent have been provided
in good faith. Challenge Sustainability expressly disclaims
any liability or co-responsibility for any decision a person
or an entity may make based on this Independent
Assurance Statement.

In relation to use of the AA1000 Assurance Standard,
Challenge Sustainability is bound by rules of conduct andprofessional practice relating to independence and quality
overseen by AccountAbility (www.accountability.org/
standards/licensing/aa1000as-licensed-providers).
The Statement has been reviewed for quality by AccountAbility
in relation to the use of the AA1000 Assurance Standard.

All assurance engagements are subject to inherent limitations
as selective testing (sampling) may not detect errors, fraud
or other irregularities. Non-financial data may be subject
to greater inherent uncertainty than financial data, given
the nature and methods used for calculating, estimating
and determining such data. The selection of different, but
acceptable, measurement techniques may result in different
quantifications between different entities. The procedures
performed in a limited assurance engagement vary in natureand timing from and are less in extent than for a reasonableassurance engagement and consequently, the level ofassurance obtained in a limited assurance engagement
is substantially lower than the assurance that would havebeen obtained had a reasonable assurance engagement
been performed.

Challenge Sustainability has established policies andprocedures that are designed to ensure that our team
maintain independence and integrity. Our quality
management arrangements are at least as demanding as
the relevant sections of ISQM-1 and ISQM-2 (2022). Challenge
Sustainability operates under a Code of Conduct to ensurethat its employees maintain integrity, objectivity, professional
competence and high ethical standards in their work. Our
processes are designed and implemented to ensure thatthe work we undertake is objective, impartial and free frombias and conflict of interest. Our management arrangements
covering independence and ethical requirements are at least
as demanding as the relevant sections of Parts A & B of the
IESBA Code relating to assurance engagements.

Challenge Sustainability had no additional engagementwith Spirent during the reporting year that would constitutea conflict of interest or otherwise compromise our
independence. This engagement was carried out by anindependent team of sustainability assurance professionals.
Further information on our competencies and experiencecan be found at www.challengesustainability.com.

Challenge Sustainability Limited
United Kingdom
20/03/24

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Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Compliance data

We monitor the weight of electronic equipment sold in
European markets and participate in WEEE complianceschemes. In 2023 we sold around 10 tonnes of electronicequipment in European markets, a 22 per cent increase
from 2022.

Any critical concerns can be communicated to theBoard through the Group’s “whistleblowing” procedure.
The procedure, which forms part of the Business Ethics
Policy, contains arrangements for a confidential reporting
facility for reporting to the Audit Committee as appropriate.
The Audit Committee reviews any reports and the actions
arising therefrom.

Electronic equipment sold in European markets by weight

The Group’s Business Ethics Policy sets clear
standards of professionalism and integrity for all
employees and operations. The Policy can be found athttps://corporate.spirent.com.

Data protection

Spirent takes data security and privacy seriously. We
continually review the security of our data systems andprocedures in order that we can react to areas of heightenedrisk promptly and effectively.
The Group’s processes are compliant with the General
Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and we operated an
Information Security Management system certified to ISO
27001 for our SecurityLabs business based in Plano and
San Jose and our Positioning Business in Paignton.
Our procedures restrict the type and quantity of confidential
information collected and stored and there are robust
procedures in place to protect customer data fromunauthorised access and disclosure.
Periodic information security risk assessments are performed
and training is provided to staff to prevent information
security breaches. Our internal controls are audited and wehave a whistleblowing procedure in place for staff to report
information security concerns.
Spirent has implemented a response procedure to manage
breaches of confidential information if they were to occur.
Confidential waste is shredded if in hard copy and certificatesof destruction are provided for any electronic storage devices
disposed of at end of life.

Electronic waste and use of hazardous materials

We aim to reduce the waste we produce including electronicand hazardous waste. We have not set formal waste
reduction targets.
The Group’s business units comply with the EU’s Waste
Electrical and Electronic Equipment Regulations 2013 andBatteries Directive and the California Electronic Waste
Recycling Programme.
Spirent’s hardware products are classified as Category Nine
(Monitor and Control Equipment) and came into scope of the
EU’s Restriction of Hazardous Substances Directive (RoHS)
in July 2017 and all products comply with the requirementsof the Directive. We also comply with the requirements ofthe EU Water Framework Directive and US Toxic Substances
Control Act (TSCA). We operate a software solution thatallows us to ascertain and document the compliancestatus of all components used in our products and we havecomponent compliance team who manage the process,working with engineers and our procurement team to ensure
effective controls.

APPENDIX

Ethics and integrity

Marketed products (kg)Country

Belgium1
FranceGermany
Netherlands2
UK
Total

2023

2022

Change(per cent)

196
857
1,551
501
6,914
10,019

595
2,310
1,080
1,180
3,038
5,744

-67%
-63%
44%
-58%
128%
22%

Note
1.	Belgian data for Q4 only.

Conflict minerals

We have robust processes in place to avoid the use of conflictminerals in our products. The Group is not directly required tocomply with or report under Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank
Act, the US Conflict Minerals Law. Our material, component
and supplier management processes ensure that it would
be in compliance if it were brought in within the scope of thislegislation. The Group will likely be subject to the EU Directiveon Conflict Minerals when it is enacted into national policy in
the UK. We are confident our existing practices will meet thestandards required and are monitoring their development.

Modern slavery

We comply with the requirements of the UK Modern Slavery
Act 2015 and the California Transparency in Supply ChainsAct 2010. We require slavery and human trafficking to beeradicated from our direct supply chain for the products wesell and monitor suppliers by performing regular evaluation
surveys to assure ourselves of each supplier’s commitmentin this area. Spirent’s full statement on modern slavery andhuman trafficking can be found on the Company’s website
at https://corporate.spirent.com.

Business ethics and labour rights

Our workplace practices are governed by a suite of HR
policies and our global Business Ethics Policy.
The Business Ethics Policy commits Spirent to the highest
standards in human and labour rights, employee conductand compliance with all applicable legislation. It prohibits
corruption and bribery, unethical business practices andpolitical contributions and governs conflict of interest and gifts.
The Board oversees implementation of the Business
Ethics Policy.
There were no reported incidents, dismissals or legal cases
related to corruption during 2023.

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

79

APPENDIX

Compliance data continued

Human rights

Spirent recognises human rights as set out in the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights and enshrined in EU and UK law
through the European Convention on Human Rights and the
Human Rights Act 1998. Our Business Ethics Policy sets out ourcommitment to protecting the human rights of all those whowork for or on behalf of the Company.
In 2023, all new hires and current members of the supply
chain team were required to complete human rights training.
9 members of staff completed the 30 minute course.

Freedom of association

Spirent’s Business Ethics Policy sets out our commitment
to ensuring employees have the freedom to associate orcollectively bargain without fear of discrimination against
the exercise of such freedoms. No Spirent employees weremembers of a trade union during 2023.
Spirent suppliers are expected to meet the same standardsof freedom of association and compliance of key suppliers
is assessed through supplier questionnaires. Given Spirent’s
supply chain includes a wide range of electronic component
manufacturing activities across a number of emerging
economies, the business ethics of suppliers are assessedas part of the procurement process and through announcedsite audits.

Corruption

Business ethics is a key issue, especially for those in sales,finance and HR. Those staff in higher-risk roles are given
regular anti-corruption and bribery training and the businessethics practices of our third-party sales partners are assessed
prior to and during the appointment.
In 2023 681 members of staff were identified as needing tocomplete anti-corruption training. 652 members of staff thatwere required to, completed the training (96 per cent).

0

Corruption incidents
during reporting year

0

Number of employees dismissed
for corruption during reporting year

0

Legal cases due tocorruption during the reporting year

80

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Health and safety

The Board has designated the Chief Financial Officer
as responsible for health and safety performance within
the Group and procedures are in place for incidents tobe reported through the Audit Committee to the Board
as necessary.
Spirent has health and safety committees at eachbusiness unit. Our site at Paignton has a health and safety
management system, certified to ISO 45001. Health andsafety committees cover 895 members of staff, which is
59 per cent (2022 51 per cent). The continued level is due tothe implementation of flexible/remote working; 34 per centof our team are remote works (2022 37 per cent).
The health and safety risk profile for the Group remained
low during 2023. There were no reported accidents andno incidents reportable under the RIDDOR regulations. There
no work-related disease incidents (including work-related
mental health, stress and anxiety) and three near-misses werereported, where it was deemed a dangerous incident was
narrowly avoided.
There are no roles which have high incidence or high riskof diseases related to their occupation. There are no formal
agreements with trade unions which cover health and safety
as no Spirent employees were trade union members in 2023.
Site

DeathsSerious injuries (e.g.
loss of limb or function,
loss of sight, etc.)
Over-seven-day
injuries (where aperson is unable
to work for atleast a week)
Work-related diseases(including work-related
mental health, stress,
anxiety, etc.)
Injuries to membersof the public(i.e not employees)
Dangerous
occurrences identified(e.g. where an accident
almost happened)North
America

EMEA

APAC

Total

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

0

2

1

0

3

Energy performance
2015

2016

2017

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

12,995

14,341

13,965

13,476

13,782

13,12012,796

12,266

12,576

12,1783,118
1,433
17,547

1,051
1,388
16,781

1,322
757
16,044

978546
15,001351
745
14,879269
798
14,187207
506
13,509205
548
13,019237
344
13,156226
402
12,807

38.4

35.2

35.0

33.0

31.2

28.2

26.9

25.9

21.6

27.0

Main energy using sites

The largest energy-using sites in 2023 were:
Site

Calabasas
Plano
Frederick
San Jose
Beijing
HolmdelPaignton
Honolulu
Bangalore
ParisInternal area
(m2)

Energy use(2023) MWh

Energy use(2022) MWh

Change(per cent)

7,789
2,370
3,706
3,332
2,198
3,195
2,575
1,295
1,404
585

4,250,687
1,591,950
1,330,791
1,327,659
1,034,301
990,718
650,213544,427
339,847
269,190

4,189,528
1,894,624
1,354,216
1,259,204
992,834
934,617728,171614,692
317,243
305,155

1%
-16%
-2%
5%
4%
6%
-11%
-11%
7%
-12%

ESOS

Spirent qualifies for stage 3 of the UK Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS). We will complete an ESOS complianceenergy audit and submitted the relevant disclosure to the Environment Agency.

Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR)

Spirent is within scope of the SECR Regulations and meets its requirements through this Sustainability Report and the disclosures
made in the Annual Report.

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

81

APPENDIX

Electricity (actual)(MWh)Electricity (Est.)(MWh)
Gas (MWh)
Total (MWh)Energy intensity(MWh per $ million)

2014

APPENDIX

Compliance data continued

Carbon emissions calculation methodology

We have reported on all of the emission sources required under the Companies Act 2006 (Strategic Report and Directors’
Reports) Regulations 2013. These sources fall within our consolidated financial statements. We do not have responsibility forany emission sources that are not included in our consolidated financial statements as reported in the Company’s Annual
Report 2023.
We have used the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (revised edition), data gathered to fulfil our
requirements under these Regulations, and location-based emission factors from the UK Government’s GHG Conversion Factors
for Company Reporting 2023, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the International Energy Agency. Contract-based
emissions factors were sourced from the energy providers.
Scope 3 emissions from all relevant emissions sources have been calculated. The methodology followed for each relevant
emissions source is set out below:
Upstream sources
Purchased goods
and services

Emissions from our main contract manufacturers are calculated using Group-level dataapportioned by spend. Manufacturers with a spend of greater than $3 million have been
calculated directly or, where data was not available, emissions have been estimated using the
average emissions intensity.
Emissions from all other spend has been calculated using sector emissions factors provided by
the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Capital goods

Emissions for capital goods have been calculated from capital spend by type using emissions
factors provided by the ONS.

Electricity transmission
and distribution losses

Emissions from transmission and distribution losses were calculated from electricity used andregional T&D factors. UK: DEFRA, US: US EIA, all other countries: Enerdata.

Upstream transportand logistics

Emissions for transport and logistics have been calculated based on emissions reported by thethree main logistics provider used, and extrapolated based on emissions intensity of spend.

Waste

Waste data is available for only some sites. Where site data was not available, it has been
estimated based on waste arising per FTE on similar Spirent sites.

Waste water

Waste water data is available for only some sites. Where site data was not available, it has been
estimated based on water consumption per m2 on similar Spirent sites.

Business travel

Emissions from air travel were calculated from data provided by travel agents and airlines on
distance flown. Detailed emissions data was provided for UK flights based on aircraft type used.
For all other regions, DEFRA short- and long-haul emissions factors were used. Business travel by
car has been calculated by mileage expenses using 2023 DEFRA emissions factors.

HotelsEmissions data was calculated based on the total number of nights booked using DEFRA 2023
emissions factors.

Home-working

Homeworking emissions calculated based on number of staff-days worked from home and energy
use assumptions from DEFRA 2023 emissions factors.

Employee commuting

Emissions from employee commuting were calculated from the results of the 2022 staff travel survey,
adjusted to reflect total employee numbers in 2023. The Journey distance, visits per week and modeof transport were reported and DEFRA emissions factors were used to estimate emissions.

Downstream sources
Downstream logistics

Downstream logistics is reported as part of upstream logistics due to the format of available data.

Use of sold product

Emissions from the use of sold products were calculated using the rated power for the top ten
products sold in the Positioning division and top ten products sold in the Cloud and IP division,
extrapolated to reflect all Spirent hardware sales during the year. The useful lifetime of products
was based on the product warranty. US emissions factors for grid electricity were used.

End of life of products

End-of-life emissions were calculated using shipping weight for all hardware sold from sales
reports. DEFRA emission factor for reuse/recycling of electrical items used.

CarbonNeutral certification

CarbonNeutral® company certification has been achieved through the Carbon Neutral Protocol. Certification provided by
Climate Impact Partners for the calendar year 2023 for the following emissions sources:• Scope 1: Direct emissions from fuel use and fugitive emissions• Scope 2: Emissions from purchased electricity (market-based)• Scope 3: Transmission and distribution losses, Waste,
Business travel, Employee homeworking
82

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Voluntary employee turnover

APPENDIX

We cannot avoid the fact that some of our employees
will move on but we can avoid a skills shortage byappropriately managing, recognising and rewarding ourpeople. Voluntary employee turnover is a measure of how
successful Spirent is in its strategy of retaining and investing
in its people.

Voluntary employee turnover
11109

Spirent’s success is dependent on its talented employees
and retaining them is extremely important. Voluntary
employee turnover compared to the industry average is themeasure used to assess how well the Group has performed.

8

Voluntary turnover rates decreased to 5.6 per cent in 2023
from 10.1 in 2022.

5

The rate is lower than the average for the last five years (7.4)
and is well below the global industry average of 14.2 percent1, which also saw a significant decrease in the year.

3

We aim to make Spirent a great place to work andone where everyone can thrive. Our staff turnover rate
demonstrates that we are succeeding in this.

0

7
6

4

2
1
7.9

7.6

6.6

7.2

10.1

2019

2020

2021

2022

2023

Parental leave

All staff entitled to parental leave in 2023 took leave. The return rates and retention rates after 12 months are as follows:
RegionGenderNumber entitled

Number who
took leave

Number returning
to work

Number employed
after 12 months

North America

Male
FemaleMale
FemaleMale
Female

21
8
12
3
3
2

21
8
12
3
3
2

21
8
12
3
3
1

19
5
11
3
3
0

APAC
EMEA

Support programmes at career endings

We recognise that we have a responsibility to help members of staff who leave the Group due to organisational restructuring
to find a new role, and we provide a flexible outplacement service which is tailored to the needs of the member of staff. Staff
are allocated a budget to spend as they see best on a range of support services including personal coaching, training and job
search support.
In 2023, 184 members of staff left the Group due to organisational restructuring.
RegionGenderNorth America

Male
FemaleMale
FemaleMale
FemaleAPAC
EMEA

Outplacement
services offered

Total

1.

96
31
12
3
32
10
184

Radford Technology Benchmark.

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

83

APPENDIX

Compliance data continued

Training and development

We have a number of courses that are mandatory for staff to complete every two years. This includes human rights, IT security,
legal compliance and anti-bribery courses, which include criminal finance, anti-harassment and GDPR. 652 members of staff
were required to take global anti-bribery courses and 13 were identified as needing to complete human rights training during2022. All those required to complete training did so.
Courses completed

Course content

2023

2022

IT security
Legal complianceTechnical training and IT skills
Global anti-bribery
Professional development
Health and safety
Diversity and inclusion
Total

355
1,086
4,485
652
433
62
1,239
8,417

1,784
450
3,273
146
3,849
87
6,449
16,038Training hours
completed

Total training
hours bycategory

Training and skills
Employee category

GenderEngineering

Male
FemaleOther or not disclosed
MaleFemaleOther or not disclosed
MaleFemaleOther or not disclosed

Sales and marketing

Shared services

Employee level

GenderExecutive

Male
FemaleOther or not disclosed
MaleFemaleOther or not disclosed
MaleFemaleOther or not disclosed
MaleFemaleOther or not disclosed

Management

Professional

Support84

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

3,972.50
942.25–3,431.25
960.50–1,851.25
1,759.75–

Training hours
completed151.7518.25–
1,976.45
841.00–6,862.75
2,130.50–
263.75672.75–

4,914.75

4,391.75

3,611.00
Total training
hours bycategory

170.002,817.75

8,993.25

936.50Performance reviews
RegionStatusFull time
Part time
Total

APAC

EMEA

FemaleMale

Other
or notdisclosed

102
0
102

318
0
318

–
–
–

Female47
451

APPENDIX

In 2023 performance reviews were completed for 1,505 members of staff:
North America

Male

Other
or notdisclosed

Female

Male

Total

218
2
220

–
–
–

192
4
196

615
3
618

1,492
13
1,505

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

85

APPENDIXGRI Index

This Report includes standard disclosures from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards. This index
sets out the indicators we have and have not included, and those that are not material to Spirent, andwhere we have provided partial information from a particular disclosure.
GRI Standard

Reported

Page number

2-1 Organizational details

Y

1, 9, 91

2-2 Entities included in the organization’s sustainability reportingY

1

2-3 Reporting period, frequency and contact point

Y

1, 91

2-4 Restatements of information

Yn/a

2-5 External assuranceY75, 762-6 Activities, value chain and other business relationships

Y

3-5, 62

2-7 EmployeesY44, 83

2-8 Workers who are not employeesN–

2-9 Governance structure and composition

Y

Annual report2-10 Nomination and selection of the highest governance bodyY

Annual report

2-11 Chair of the highest governance bodyY

Annual report2-12 Role of the highest governance body in overseeing the management of impacts

Y

71-72

2-13 Delegation of responsibility for managing impacts

Y

71-72

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

Y

71-72

2-15 Conflicts of interest

Y

Annual report2-16 Communication of critical concerns

Y792-17 Collective knowledge of the highest governance bodyY

Annual report2-18 Evaluation of the performance of the highest governance bodyY

Annual report2-19 Remuneration policies

Y

Annual report2-20 Process to determine remuneration

Y

Annual report2-21 Annual total compensation ratioN

Annual report2-22 Statement on sustainable development strategy

Y62-23 Policy commitmentsY72

2-24 Embedding policy commitmentsY39, 49, 71-72

2-25 Processes to remediate negative impactsN–

2-26 Mechanisms for seeking advice and raising concerns

Y792-27 Compliance with laws and regulations

Y80

2-28 Membership associationsY1

2-29 Approach to stakeholder engagementY71, 72, 74, 75

2-30 Collective bargaining agreementsY80

3-1 Process to determine material topics

Y72

3-2 List of material topics

Y72

3-3 Management of material topics

Y

72-74

GRI 2: General Disclosures 2021

GRI 3: Material Topics 2021

Key
Y
NM
P
N

Reported
Not material
Partially reported
Not reported

86

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Reported

Page number

Y

34-35

203-1 Infrastructure investments and services supported

NM–203-2 Significant indirect economic impacts

NM

–

N

–

205-1 Operations assessed for risks related to corruption

Y67, 73, 80

205-2 Communication and training about anti-corruption policies and proceduresY73, 80, 84

205-3 Confirmed incidents of corruption and actions takenY80301-1 Materials used by weight or volumeN–301-2 Recycled input materials usedN–

301-3 Reclaimed products and their packaging materialsN–

302-1 Energy consumption within the organizationY

29-31, 81

302-2 Energy consumption outside of the organization

Y

16-17

302-3 Energy intensity

Y

29-31

302-4 Reduction of energy consumption

Y

29-31

302-5 Reductions in energy requirements of products and services

Y

18

Y

57

303-2 Management of water discharge-related impacts

NM–

303-3 Water withdrawalNM–

303-4 Water dischargeNM–

303-5 Water consumptionN–

304-1 Operational sites owned, leased, managed in, or adjacent to, protected areas
and areas of high biodiversity value outside protected areasNM–

304-2 Significant impacts of activities, products and services on biodiversityNM–304-3 Habitats protected or restoredNM–

304-4 IUCN Red List species and national conservation list species with habitats in areas
affected by operationsNM–

GRI 201: Economic Performance 2016201-2 Financial implications and other risks and opportunities due to climate change
GRI 203: Indirect Economic Impacts 2016

GRI 204: Procurement Practices 2016
204-1 Proportion of spending on local suppliers
GRI 205: Anti-corruption 2016

GRI 301: Materials 2016

GRI 302: Energy 2016

GRI 303: Water and Effluents 2018
303-1 Interactions with water as a shared resource

GRI 304: Biodiversity 2016

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

87

APPENDIXGRI Standard

APPENDIXGRI Index continued

GRI Standard

Reported

Page number

305-1 Direct (Scope 1) GHG emissions

Y

32-33

305-2 Energy indirect (Scope 2) GHG emissions

Y

32-33

305-3 Other indirect (Scope 3) GHG emissions

Y

32-33

305-4 GHG emissions intensity

Y

32-33

305-5 Reduction of GHG emissions

Y

32-33

305-6 Emissions of ozone-depleting substances (ODS)

Y

32-33

NM

–

P

56, 79306-2 Management of significant waste-related impacts

P56, 79306-3 Waste generated

P56, 79306-4 Waste diverted from disposal

N–306-5 Waste directed to disposal

N–308-1 New suppliers that were screened using environmental criteria

Y

62-67

308-2 Negative environmental impacts in the supply chain and actions taken

Y

62-67

401-1 New employee hires and employee turnoverY

83

401-2 Benefits provided to full-time employees that are not provided to temporary or
part-time employeesY41

401-3 Parental leaveY41, 83

N–

403-1 Occupational health and safety management systemY49, 63, 64, 66, 73,
75, 80, 84

403-2 Hazard identification, risk assessment, and incident investigationY80403-3 Occupational health services

Y80403-4 Worker participation, consultation, and communication on occupational healthand safetyY80403-5 Worker training on occupational health and safetyY80, 84403-6 Promotion of worker healthY80403-7 Prevention and mitigation of occupational health and safety impacts directly
linked by business relationships

Y80403-8 Workers covered by an occupational health and safety management systemY80403-9 Work-related injuries

Y80

403-10 Work-related ill health

Y80

GRI 305: Emissions 2016305-7 Nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx), and other significant air emissions
GRI 306: Waste 2020306-1 Waste generation and significant waste-related impacts

GRI 308: Supplier Environmental Assessment 2016

GRI 401: Employment 2016

GRI 402: Labor/Management Relations 2016402-1 Minimum notice periods regarding operational changes
GRI 403: Occupational Health and Safety 2018

Key
Y
NM
P
N

Reported
Not material
Partially reported
Not reported

88

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Reported

Page number

404-1 Average hours of training per year per employee

Y84404-2 Programs for upgrading employee skills and transition assistance programs

Y

45-49

404-3 Percentage of employees receiving regular performance and careerdevelopment reviewsY85405-1 Diversity of governance bodies and employeesY44405-2 Ratio of basic salary and remuneration of women to men

PAnnual report

N

–

Y

67, 80

Y

67

Y

67

GRI 404: Training and Education 2016

GRI 405: Diversity and Equal Opportunity 2016

GRI 406: Non-discrimination 2016406-1 Incidents of discrimination and corrective actions taken
GRI 407: Freedom of Association and Collective Bargaining 2016407-1 Operations and suppliers in which the right to freedom of association andcollective bargaining may be at risk
GRI 408: Child Labor 2016408-1 Operations and suppliers at significant risk for incidents of child labor
GRI 409: Forced or Compulsory Labor 2016409-1 Operations and suppliers at significant risk for incidents of forced orcompulsory labor
GRI 414: Supplier Social Assessment 2016414-1 New suppliers that were screened using social criteria

62-67

414-2 Negative social impacts in the supply chain and actions taken

62-67

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

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

60-61

89

APPENDIXGRI Standard

APPENDIXSASB Index

Reported

Page number/disclosure

Description of approach to identifying and addressing
data security risks in products

N

61

Employee diversity
and inclusion

Percentage of gender and racial/ethnic grouprepresentation for (1) management, (2) technical staff,and (3) all other employees

Y

44

Product lifecycle
management

Percentage of products by revenue that contain IEC
62474 declarable substances

N–

Percentage of eligible products, by revenue, meeting
the requirements for EPEAT registration or equivalentn/a–Percentage of eligible products, by revenue, meeting
ENERGY STAR® criterian/a–Weight of end-of-life products and e-waste recovered,percentage recycled

Y

78

Percentage of Tier 1 supplier facilities audited in the RBA
Validated Audit Process (VAP) or equivalent, by (a) all
facilities and (b) high-risk facilities

Y

64-67

Tier 1 suppliers’ (1) non-conformance rate with the
RBA Validated Audit Process (VAP) or equivalent, and(2) associated corrective action rate for (a) priority
non-conformances and (b) other non-conformances

Y

64-67

Material sourcing

Description of the management of risks associated withthe use of critical materials

Y

67

Activity

Number of units produced by product category

N–

Area of manufacturing facilities

Y

62

Percentage of production from owned facilities

Y

0%

Topic

Accounting metric

Product security

Supply chain management

Key
Y
NM
P
N

Reported
Not material
Partially reported
Not reported

90

Spirent Communications plc Sustainability Report 2023

Spirent Communications plc
Origin One
108 High Street
CrawleyWest Sussex RH10 1BD
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0)1293 767676
Email: investor.relations@spirent.com
Website: corporate.spirent.com
Registered in England No: 470893
Spirent and the Spirent logo are trademarks orregistered trademarks of Spirent Communications plc.
All other trademarks or registered trademarks mentioned
herein are held by their respective companies. All rights reserved.