Trinseo | Investor Relations and Sustainability

September 29, 2021

Investor Relations and Sustainability

Amid increasing focus on societal challenges – like accelerated climate change, the need to achieve circularity, and the issue of plastic waste – industries are focusing on operating more sustainably. Therefore, stakeholders have taken an interest in sustainable solutions and want to know that their investments are responsible not only fiscally, but socially and environmentally as well. That’s why at Trinseo, our sustainability strategy and investor relations go hand in hand – because our stakeholders want to invest in a company focused on doing the right thing from a sustainability perspective.

Transparent Reporting for Our Investors

As investors are now more interested in environmental, social, and governance (ESG), it is important that we are always transparent in reporting our ESG performance and how our operations stack up against our goals. They want to know that as a company, Trinseo is taking measures to achieve these goals – whether it’s working to lower GHG emissions to mitigate climate change, making products out of recycled materials, or serving industries that support a sustainable economy.

Something we are proud of is that we have always had a high level of transparency with our reporting, and that we have released sustainability reports each year since Trinseo was created 11 years ago. Each year we strive to enhance our reporting from the prior year. We made an important step in 2019 by adhering to the Global Reporting Index (GRI) standards, in 2020 we publicly launched and started tracking against our sustainability goals, and this year’s report integrated the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) standards, which identify the subset of ESG issues most relevant to financial performance.

How Our Operations Align with ESG Efforts

Sustainability is part of our company’s ongoing transformation journey to become a specialty materials and sustainable solutions provider. Therefore, across all our business sectors, we are always working to ensure our operations stack up against ESG efforts. Over the years our MSCI ESG rating has continued to improve, which measures a company’s resilience to long-term, industry ESG risks. This year, MSCI gave Trinseo a rating of AA, an increase from the previously issued A rating.

Across our product portfolio, we are creating solutions that are not just innovative, but also sustainably advantaged. For example, unlocking the circularity of polystyrene is a major focus for us, and in the automotive space, our products are contributing to the light weighting of vehicles, which in turn supports better fuel efficiency. From a social perspective, one of our global priorities is to increase the number of women in the workforce and in leadership roles at the company. Other diversity initiatives are underway and remain a high priority. And as part of our governance initiatives, it’s important to us that our board construction is independent and focused so that our board members can dedicate their time and energy to Trinseo, rather than being “overboarded” with other commitments to different organizations.

As a company, we are proud of our sustainability efforts, and we value our investors who care about these initiatives. We use sustainability as a guiding principle as we embark on our transformation to become a specialty materials and sustainable solutions provider, and our employees work every day to meet our long-term sustainability goals.