Social Impact and ESG Report 2021

100% score Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index

Comparably – Best Companies for Best Global Culture, Best Teams Product & Design, and Best Company Outlook 2021

Nearly 67,000 volunteer hours logged by employees

100% renewable energy for all global operations

Nearly 20M* globally by TrustLaw in free legal assistance for NGOs and social enterprises

*Decreased amount in free legal assistance in 2021 was due to a range of factors, including the continued effects of the pandemic on TrustLaw’s members and a significant increase in billable hours for many fee earners, impacting their capacity to take on pro bono work.

Any company choosing to have a positive impact is also choosing to learn. That decision is at the heart of responsible business. We believe asking the right questions not only leads to continuous improvement but also deepens our understanding of how Thomson Reuters can help professionals, institutions, and society progress. As Thomson Reuters transitions from a holding company to an operating company, we are taking this opportunity to reassess our material ESG risks and opportunities.

We are in the process of completing a comprehensive global ESG materiality assessment and integrating the results with our enterprise risk frameworks. This is helping us identify and prioritize the ESG topics and issues that are most important and could affect our business and stakeholders, informing our strategy, targets, risk management, and reporting.

We have considered more than 280 possible material topics, drawing from several frameworks, including the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB), the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and others. We are using “double materiality” as our lens — not just how ESG topics affect our business, but how our business could positively or negatively impact people, economies, and the environment.

In addition, last year we initiated a company-wide human rights impact assessment of our global operations, products, and services. The methodology includes desk-based research, internal and external stakeholder interviews, and detailed analysis and discussions of the findings. The recommendations from this assessment work will help us evaluate how to address salient human rights issues. Our commitment to respecting human rights throughout our operations will continue to guide our work.

As part of this effort, Thomson Reuters has aligned with the United Nations Guiding Principles (UNGPs) on Business and Human Rights, which augments our longstanding commitment to the UN Global Compact, the UN Declaration on Human Rights, and other international standards.

Thomson Reuters has partnered with Article One, a specialized strategy consultancy with expertise in human rights and responsible innovation, to carry out this ongoing human rights impact assessment. We have also engaged outside legal counsel to assist us with part of our human rights impact assessment process.

As material ESG topics and human rights issues will evolve, we plan to monitor these areas so they remain relevant to our business and stakeholders.

We are one of the only companies in the world that helps its customers pursue justice, truth, and transparency. Together we help uphold the rule of law, turn the wheels of commerce, catch bad actors, report the facts, and provide trusted, unbiased information to people all over the world. Through our people, products, and partnerships, we made significant strides in 2021 in tackling crucial global issues.  

Broadening access to justice

Prior to the pandemic, an estimated 5 billion people globally had unmet justice needs, according to the World Justice Project. With barriers ranging from an inability to take time off of work, to an outright deprivation of basic human rights, access to justice has been a perennial challenge for legal systems around the world.

In the past two years, as COVID-19 shuttered courtrooms everywhere, that challenge grew into a full-fledged crisis. By the end of 2021, jurisdictions around the world were facing backlogs of thousands of unheard cases. Thomson Reuters was able to play an important role in getting courtrooms back on track with its cloud-based digital exhibit and evidence solution Case Center, which made it possible for cases to be heard virtually. The technology introduced a new way of working that is redefining access to justice for a new generation. 

Combating online exploitation and abuse

Online sexual exploitation and abuse (OSEA) is growing at an alarming pace globally. Digital technology and the internet provide significant opportunities for advancing gender equality and women’s and children’s empowerment, but ever-increasing internet and digital connectivity and online anonymity are making it easier to groom, recruit, and sexually exploit with impunity.  International and national laws have not kept pace with changing technology, and this needs to change.

Using thorough legal research conducted through Thomson Reuters’ Foundation’s TrustLaw program, Equality Now and a team of lawyers examined the laws relating to OSEA, focusing on five countries. With the research in hand, Equality Now then partnered with the Thomson Reuters Social Impact Institute to bring the issue to the forefront with a breakthrough report: Ending Online Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Women and Girls: A Call for International Standards. 

Drawing on their deep legal and editorial expertise, a team of Thomson Reuters Practical Law volunteers helped craft the report, which put the survivor at the center to illustrate the impact of OSEA, including an executive summary, country studies, and survivor stories. Lending design and copywriting support, along with photography from the Reuters catalogue and promotion from Thomson Reuters communications experts, this multidisciplinary team invested over 460 hours of pro bono work to create a bold call-to-action that is now being heard by lawmakers and technology companies around the world. 

Hear more about the project and read the full pro bono case study.

Innovating for social good

Thomson Reuters has a longstanding commitment to supporting pro bono work as part of our legal corporate responsibility practice. For Pro Bono Week we took a page from our roots in technology development and launched our first IMPACTathon. The event brought teams of innovators together in a series of problem-solving challenges and tackled a range of critical issues spanning media literacy, human rights, and access to justice.

Over five hours, a group of six non-profit organizations from across the U.S. presented a challenge statement and were matched with a cross-functional team of Thomson Reuters employees who tackled these challenges together, drawing on their expertise in marketing, strategic planning, business development, diversity and inclusion, communications, social media, technology, and customer relationship management.

Much of the work focused on helping the organizations develop necessary capacity-building tools to enhance their own abilities in areas not typically supported by foundation grants and individual donors. Ultimately, Thomson Reuters employees provided the equivalent of US$46,000 in consulting services and each organization left the day with tangible, sustainable action items that could immediately be implemented. In most cases, they also inherited long-term pro-bono consultants, with many of the teams committing to continue working together after the event.

View the IMPACTathon infographic here.

Driving legal literacy

Despite global supply chain issues, we continued our longstanding partnership with Books for Africa, a non-profit organization dedicated to collecting, sorting, shipping, and distributing books to children and adults in Africa, by providing a 40-foot sea container with a complete law library to Zimbabwe.

The shipment marked the 108th law library we have delivered to Africa through our work with the organization. Our global footprint at Thomson Reuters affords us a unique position to provide law libraries in multiple languages and in support of various legal structures. The resources we’ve contributed often go to organizations or countries with no existing law library, and it is humbling for Thomson Reuters to help provide this crucial foundation.

Title IX Research Project for Gender Justice  

In one week this past fall, Thomson Reuters volunteer lawyers logged more than 50 hours researching decisions from every Circuit Court in the U.S. to critical precedents for lawsuits involving claims of sex discrimination in school sports, lawsuits involving transgender students in sports, and use of restrooms for transgender students.

This was part of our annual participation in national Pro Bono Week, a week-long celebration of public service that connects attorneys nationwide. Our lead partner was Gender Justice, a non-profit working to create a world where everyone can thrive no matter their gender identity, expression, or sexual orientation. Based on this research, Thomson Reuters volunteers delivered a 70-page document containing caselaw research that Gender Justice can use to pursue Title IX cases on behalf of students nationwide.

Continuing to combat misinformation globally  

Social media platforms have increased our access to information but have also made it easier to access unverifiable and misleading data. While these platforms have provided global audiences a faster, better understanding of events such as wars, humanitarian disasters and historic political events, the challenge of combatting misinformation has become a global imperative.   

As one of the world’s most trusted and largest news providers, this challenge is core to the Reuters mission. Reuters launched further initiatives focused on rooting out misinformation at its source in 2021, including an expansion of its Fact Check unit to review Spanish-language content from Facebook and Instagram in Mexico, and a partnership with Twitter to help identify and contextualize emerging narratives on social media and provide users of the platform with credible information to make informed decisions. 

Digital news trends in 2021  

TikTok reached an amazing milestone last year as more than one billion people were drawn into the app’s mix of dance videos, funny animals and pop culture parodies. Add the legions of social media consumers who now get the majority of their news from platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, and it becomes clear how critical understanding trends in digital news distribution has become.

The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, funded by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, drives conversations around the future of news while working to ensure that journalists, editors, and media executives face the opportunities and challenges of a changing media environment from a position of strength. Their flagship, preeminent study on digital news consumption globally focused on changes in how people access news, changing perceptions of trust, and rising concern about misinformation in the tenth addition of its Digital News Report. Expanded to cover 46 global markets, this year’s report explores how the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated many of the long-term trends that have been building over the last decade and weighs in on how they will affect the role of the media long into the future.

Our work to reduce our environmental impact globally continues. Our continued commitment to using 100% renewable energy for our global operations has helped reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. A new initiative, Reuters IMPACT, further solidified our commitment to focusing on the importance of environmental issues. Over 52,000 people engaged with content from the event, a free virtual global conference to drive action and accelerate innovation towards the global economy’s top priority, the climate emergency. Through our work with The Chancery Lane Project, employees moved the needle forward on implementing practical contractual clauses to fight climate change.

Update on climate change targets

In 2020, Thomson Reuters joined the Science Based Targets initiative, committing to reduce Scope 1 & 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 50% by 2030 from 2018 baseline levels, as well as reduce absolute Scope 3 GHG emissions from fuel and energy-related activities, business travel, and employee commuting by 25% by 2025 from 2019 baseline levels. Additionally, Thomson Reuters aims to require 65% of suppliers by spend to have Science Based Targets by 2025.

This year, we report an update on those goals. Largely through investment in renewable power for our facilities, we’ve been able to drive more than a 93% reduction in GHG emissions from our 2018 baseline. To date, business travel emissions are 91% lower than our 2019 baseline and we have made progress on our engagement target with our supply chain, with 27% of suppliers by spend committed to Science Based Targets. In addition to the switch to renewable energy, Thomson Reuters is carbon neutral through offsetting the remaining portion of its GHG footprint through carbon offsets, and we continue to refine our procurement process to incentivize working with suppliers who share our commitment to sustainability.

Reuters IMPACT unites global leaders to drive climate action 

If there is a common theme that cuts across everything we do, it is empowerment through trusted information. The insights, perspectives, and solutions we deliver are trusted every day to guide critical decisions and form the foundation for action.

Last year, we brought that trusted platform to life with Reuters IMPACT, a unique 3-day event that combines unbiased journalism with business audiences to engender new ideas, opportunities, and partnerships all focused on the environment. Uniting world leaders, big business, and forward-thinking pioneers in an agenda-setting summit to mobilize global leaders on climate action, Reuters IMPACT resonated with audiences. The event was watched by over 52,000 people across various media platforms, covered by over 150 media outlets, resulting in 1.1 billion media impressions. Speakers included Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the UN Environmental Program, Jakob Stausholm, Chief Executive, Rio Tinto, Ali Tabrizi, Director of the award-winning documentary Seaspiracy, Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States, and dozens of world leaders, business executives, academics, and journalists.

Making a global impact with The Chancery Lane Project  

The world’s largest corporations made history this past November at the UN Climate Change Conference when they pledged $100 trillion through 2050 to fund investments for new clean energy technologies. These kinds of high-profile commitments are only part of the equation. If sustainable climate policy is going to stick, it will need consistent legal frameworks, clauses, and contracts.

Thomson Reuters is in a unique position to make that happen. Our Practical Law Editors continued their work with The Chancery Lane Project (TCLP), a collaborative effort of legal professionals from around the world to make every commercial agreement and law firm precedents address climate change. The team volunteered over 200 hours to review content, facilitate brainstorming sessions, and draft legal clauses, helping to create a Net Zero Toolkit, which includes over 100 free-to-use climate clauses that can be used to help businesses align their contracts with Paris Agreement climate goals. In addition, Practical Law has continued to make progress in integrating TCLP resources into its content, making these clauses available to an even wider audience. To date, approximately 50 of 104 TCLP clauses have been referenced in Practical Law’s materials.

We believe that diversity drives innovation and connects us to our customers and communities. Our diversity and inclusion strategy focuses on inclusive culture, diverse talent, customers, and brand. We strive for continued progress and have been recognized for our achievements to date. In 2021, we scored 100% on the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index for the ninth consecutive year, were listed among Comparably’s Best Companies for Global Culture and one of America’s Best Employers for Diversity by Forbes, among other awards and recognitions.

Having an environment in which colleagues can authentically be themselves, thrive, feel respected, and grow their careers is critical to driving inclusion and belonging. Equally critical is transparency. This year, we are expanding our external reporting as part of our increased transparency, including disaggregated data on racial and ethnic representation and the introduction of additional diversity talent representation data, where available, for LGBTQ+, disability, and veterans.  

Driving diversity and inclusion

In 2020, Thomson Reuters committed to reaching new goals for increasing representation of women, racial/ethnically diverse, and Black talent in senior leadership by the end of 2022. Over the past year, we saw positive progress in hiring and promoting diverse talent in senior leadership while also experiencing attrition of diverse talent at a near similar rate. Thus, our overall progress is a small net improvement. Across senior leadership roles, by the end of 2021, 41% were women (+2% YOY), 16% were racially and ethnically diverse (+2% YOY), and 37 roles were held by Black talent (+5 YOY). We recognize there is still work to do, and we are steadfast in our commitment to increasing diverse representation.

Count Me In

The Count Me In initiative encourages employees to share attributes including race, ethnicity, disability, gender identity, and sexual orientation. This is completely voluntary and not required of our employees. Ultimately, this data provides a more complete view of the diversity of Thomson Reuters and provides us with insights that power our diversity and inclusion strategy – including opportunities to improve equity and belonging, increase diverse representation, and drive further accountability for progress towards our talent goals.

In addition, by encouraging employees to self-identify, we’re removing stigmas, raising awareness, and creating space to celebrate our differences. Response to the program has been incredibly positive and we have continued to expand the countries in which our employees can voluntarily share this information with us – including a new category for religion in select countries, allowing our employees to share this important part of their identity.

Compiling better diversity data also helps in building a more inclusive newsroom, as referenced in the 2021 Reuters Newsroom Diversity Report, published for the second time this year.

Forging a brighter future through discussions and learnings

Racial justice has advanced over the past two years, and although we still have a long way to go, it is clear we are on the cusp of major transformation. Through increased awareness and a refusal to accept the status quo, people everywhere are moving the needle on equity and inclusion.

Our largest office in the U.S. is located just outside Minneapolis, Minnesota, and our $1 million Rebuild MSP investment in 2020 to the local community has been a beacon of hope in a region that became a flash point for human rights. To help Rebuild MSP, we launched a new internal educational series that continued throughout 2021 exploring topics such as racial bias in law enforcement, economies of class, race and ethnicity, the competitive edge of diversity and inclusion, and how the arts can help foster equality.

Introducing new career and leadership development tools  

Mentorship, learning, and networking have always been a focus of our career development efforts. This year, we made sure our offerings provide increased access to diverse talent across our organization.

This includes the launch of new mentor filters in our Workday Mentoring app to increase opportunities for colleagues to connect with a mentor based on shared identities and similar experiences. We also teamed up with McKinsey & Company to bring their Black Leadership Academy to Thomson Reuters. This year, we are expanding the reach of our leadership development with the introduction of their Asian and Hispanic/Latinx Leadership Academies, allowing us to reach over 280 colleagues in 2022. And to further democratize access to social learning, networking, and mentorship, we expanded the use of Ten Thousand Coffees, a career development platform. This technology provides us with the ability to connect thousands of colleagues globally for one-on-one coffee chats and leader-hosted office hours, creating more meaningful career conversations and connections.

Embracing our differences: Autism Spectrum Internship Program  

We recognize that our differences, our unique experiences, and different ways of seeing the world are part of our competitive advantage, and we’re doing everything we can to nurture that spirit of diversity. This includes our Autism Spectrum Internship Program, which we introduced in Thomson Reuters India in 2020 to give neurodiverse individuals hands-on work experience, mentorship opportunities, and real-world skills to set themselves up for future success.

The initial pilot was such a success that a second phase was launched in 2021, with plans to continue and expand the program in India and to other countries. To date, 32 interns have participated in the program, helping to open the door to new career opportunities and a bold new way of thinking about workplace diversity, employee recruiting, and onboarding.

Launching of Breaking Bias  

Diversity of thought and perspective is what we need to serve and understand our customers, but it is also what we need to help each other grow professionally and personally. Helping one another embrace our differences and get past biases is important.

We launched the Breaking Bias program, a company-wide initiative designed to provide all Thomson Reuters colleagues with tools and a common language to recognize and address bias in our everyday decisions impacting our talent, customers, and communities. So far, 74% of employees have completed the program, which will serve as the foundation on which we will continue building our inclusive culture.

Employees continued to use their time, skills, and money to make an impact in their communities and globally. Whether in their free time or by utilizing their 16 hours paid time off to volunteer, colleagues logged nearly 67,000 volunteer hours, both virtually and in-person. We also offered pilot programming, encouraging employees to use their professional skills to help charitable organizations with projects. This builds on our longstanding Legal Pro Bono Connection program that saw Thomson Reuters attorney-editors and attorneys contribute over 2,500 hours in free legal work last year.

Team volunteer efforts were also rewarded with grants through our Hour Power and Community Champion Grant programs. Through the Matching Gifts and Volunteer Grants programs, we donated over $1 million to charitable organizations globally. In addition, several teams participated in Global Days of Impact, coming together to volunteer on one day of the year.

Providing paths to technology careers

The rising cost of post-secondary education tuition can be a barrier for many high school students to follow the traditional path to a career in the technology industry, but it should not stop students from underserved communities from pursuing their dreams.

The Pathways to Technology Internship Program from Thomson Reuters addresses this challenge. The initiative, which is run in partnership with the Dallas Independent School District and the Dallas Community Relations team, provides students with the academic, technical, and real-world professional skills needed to work in the technology industry. Upon completion of the program, students receive an Associate’s degree and internships with Thomson Reuters. This year, we’re proud to report that eight students from the program were offered full-time employment with Thomson Reuters in the Customer Success segment.

Supporting children in India - Youth For Seva

Each year, we recognize employees who have demonstrated selfless commitment to volunteerism with the Carla Jones Social Impact Award. This recognition is a testament to the power of individuals to drive real change in their communities.  

The winner of the 2021 award, Yesha Kushwah, partnered with Youth for Seva, a non-profit organization located in India that helps support schools, homeless shelters, and hospitals throughout the country. Her work focused on providing financial support, mentoring and counseling to 32 students who lost parents during the COVID-19 pandemic. As part of the award, Youth for Seva received a $10,000 grant to further aid their mission to help children. 

The power of employee impact

Our employees continued to make an impact in their communities. Members of our Communications, HR, Legal and Social Impact teams volunteered over 1,800 hours as part of Global Days of Impact. Volunteering ranged from pro bono legal work to assistance with neighborhood clean-up projects. Similarly, members of our Global Volunteer Network, working in conjunction with the non-profit Feed My Starving Children, volunteered nearly 200 hours to pack over 46,000 meals for starving kids around the world. This partnership has spanned over a decade, and to date, employees have packed over a million meals. Whether it’s lending professional expertise or a supportive pair of hands, our people continue to demonstrate our enormous power to make a difference. 

The Thomson Reuters Foundation works to advance media freedom, foster more inclusive economies, and raise awareness of human rights issues.

The Foundation combines its unique media and legal expertise to drive change through a number of services, including its journalists who report from the ground in more than 70 countries. It also offers media development and support to independent journalism, facilitates free legal assistance to NGOs and social enterprises around the world, and hosts convenings including its annual human rights forum Trust Conference. Its mission is to inspire collective leadership, empowering people to shape free, fair, and informed societies. Additional information on the Foundation can be found at http://www.trust.org.

Media freedom – launching of the Legal Network for Journalists at Risk

The last decade has seen a drastic deterioration of media freedoms around the world. Laws have been weaponized against independent journalism, leaving thousands of small publishers and journalists vulnerable to legal attacks that aim to censor their reporting, which can impact their financial sustainability.

Whether fighting criminal charges or civil lawsuits, or challenging the suspension of blocked social media accounts, high-quality legal representation is often the most effective tool to ensure that the media can continue critical work unhindered. Several organizations are providing support to journalists at risk, but in the face of the increased legal threats to independent media, more effective coordination is urgently needed.

The Thomson Reuters Foundation partnered with the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Media Defence to launch the Legal Network for Journalists at Risk in 2021.

This network comprises 15 media freedom organizations and will strategically coordinate the different types of legal support needed, with the goal of providing journalists and independent media outlets a single-entry point into an ecosystem of support.

Assistance offered through this network will range from urgent legal representation to ongoing assistance for the duration of a case to systemic support to improve the legal environment in which the media operates. The network will also produce practical legal tools that will help journalists navigate the ongoing complexities arising from weaponized legal measures used against them.

Inclusive economies – publishing our ESG White Paper

The ESG framework, which looks at Environmental, Social, and Governance issues, is becoming increasingly critical across sectors, with legal and tax professionals playing a key role in shaping this transformation with the advice they provide to their clients. But whilst the E and the G criteria of ESG are largely developed, data standardization and key criteria are yet to be identified for the ‘S’.

In 2021, as a result of a multi-stakeholder convening led by the Thomson Reuters Foundation, we launched a White Paper entitled Amplifying the ‘S’ in ESG; Investor Myth-Buster which challenges the misconceptions most often cited by investors to explain the lack of meaningful adoption of ‘S’ indicators. Our partners included the Global Reporting Initiative, Rep-Risk, SASB – the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, and Refinitiv. We consulted more than 100 stakeholders across sectors, ranging from the biggest asset managers in the world to civil society organizations.

The Foundation co-hosted and participated in several events to promote the paper, which has since been downloaded more than 3,500 times from the Foundation’s website. The Foundation is now developing several training programs based on the paper’s findings. These include ESG data and financial journalism training to upskill reporters on how to use data to report on corporate social performance. We also partnered with social impact experts to run training for lawyers on Social Enterprise, ESG and Impact Investing and have been convening law firms and responsible businesses at a series of virtual roundtables to discuss issues related to human rights risks in supply chains.

Human rights – breaking down barriers to accessing healthcare

Those most in need of health services around the world often cannot access them, with significant human rights-related barriers fueled by stigma and discrimination, gender inequality, punitive laws, and violence.

Since 2019, the Foundation has partnered with the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to support its “Breaking Down Barriers” initiative with a focus on gender and LGBT+ human rights-related barriers to accessing healthcare in 40 African countries.

The Foundation’s contribution harnesses its combined legal and journalism expertise by facilitating pro bono legal research on human rights laws, legal guidance for NGOs, and legal capacity-building for civil society partners in key countries supported by the Global Fund, alongside training journalists and implementers of Global Fund-funded programs on how to interact with the media and decision-makers more effectively. Four 6-week training hubs have been delivered to date, and a fifth commenced in March 2022. 80 participants have been trained so far, and 17 journalists have produced articles highlighting human rights barriers to healthcare, in several cases in collaboration with their civil society counterparts.

We are now planning to deepen and expand the partnership with the Global Fund to focus on criminalization and overcoming stigma and discrimination.

Thomson Reuters is dedicated to upholding the Trust Principles and to preserving its independence, integrity, and freedom from bias in the gathering and dissemination of information and news.

Thomson Reuters itself is obliged and committed to apply the Trust Principles to its operations. The charter documents of Thomson Reuters Corporation include provisions to safeguard the Trust Principles as they apply to the Thomson Reuters business.

The Trust Principles are:

• That Reuters shall at no time pass into the hands of any one interest, group, or faction
• That the integrity, independence, and freedom from bias of Thomson Reuters shall at all times be fully preserved
• That Reuters shall supply unbiased and reliable news services to newspapers, news agencies, broadcasters, and other media subscribers and to businesses, governments, institutions, individuals, and others with whom Reuters has or may have contracts
• That Thomson Reuters shall pay due regard to the many interests which it serves in addition to those of the media
• That no effort shall be spared to expand, develop, and adapt the news and other services and products of Thomson Reuters so as to maintain its leading position in the international news and information business