Universal Registration Document 2021

The ESG Committee was created pursuant to a decision of the Board at its meeting of May 26, 2021, with the aim of providing the Board with a specialized Committee that can prepare the Board’s work on environmental, social and governance issues.

The ESG Committee is governed by articles 10, 11 and 12 of the Supervisory Board’s internal rules.

The missions of the ESG Committee with regard to the Supervisory Board are as follows :

• in terms of social and environmental issues: :
  • reviewing the Groupe’s CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) policy and initiating any discussions on the long-term evolution of this policy,
  • examining the Groupe’s social policies, formulating proposals in terms of diversity and inclusion, professional equality, changes in working conditions,
  • prepare the work of the Board with regard to thedeployment of social and environmental policies and,when they are adopted, to measure progress and theachievement of objectives;
• in terms of governance issues :
  • lead a reflection, in conjunction with all stakeholders, on the Groupe’s purpose,
  • conducting discussions and proposing solutions aimed at taking into account the interests of stakeholders in the challenges and major strategic orientations of the Company and the Groupe ;
• in terms of non-financial criteria :
  • examining the non-financial reporting and control systems as well as the non-financial information published by the Groupe.

In 2021, the ESG Committee reviewed the Groupe’s ESG strategy and the actions already taken in the areas of diversity, equity, inclusion, responsible marketing and the fight against global warming. The Committee examined the strategic importance of actions related to the Company’s social and environmental responsibility, that of enhancing and retaining employees and clients and the need for the Groupe to take into consideration the value it creates for all stakeholders. The Committee was informed of Publicis Groupe’s ESG ratings. The Committee was informed of the commitment “Net Zero Gender Gap” signed by Publicis and 46 other companies as part of the Women’s Forum.

The Committee was informed of the work carried out on the monitoring of ESG performance indicators and their quantification and took note of the proposals made by the Management Board, which mainly concern more frequent monitoring and the simplification of ESG performance indicators. At the same time, the Committee discussed the many standards available in terms of non-financial performance. The topic of the Groupe’s “raison d'être” (purpose) was considered. In particular, 23 young talent took part in three reflection and discussion workshops to prepare the definition of a “raison d'être”. The Committee has undertaken work on the Groupe’s ESG communication strategy, which aims in particular to strengthen employees’ knowledge of ESG issues and improve communication on Publicis’ performance and achievements on ESG issues.

In addition, the Committee was informed of the new European regulations, which affect companies and Publicis, in particular those relating to the European Green Taxonomy, focused on the objectives of mitigation and adaptation to climate change, making it possible to identify the first so-called sustainable activities.