Danone // 2020 Universal Registration Document

5 Social, Societal and Environmental Responsibility 5.4 Building the future with Danone employees 177 DANONE UNIVERSAL REGISTRATION DOCUMENT 2020 force. It has also developed an online recruiting platform to put them in contact with Danone as well as with other companies in Brazil. Parental policy Danone is committed to creating the conditions every employee needs to make the most of parenthood, and to developing a fa- mily-friendly culture. Danone’s global parental policy is based on three key elements: • pre-natal support, including modified working conditions and nutrition counseling during pregnancy; • extended parental leave for both men and women, including 18 weeks for a birth parent, 14 weeks for a legally adoptive parent and 10 working days for a secondary caregiver; • post-natal support, including job protectionmeasures and return- to-work support, flexible working conditions and breastfeeding support by providing lactation rooms for mothers at all sites that employ more than 50 women. For example, in 2020 Danone North America extended its parental policy to all its employees, including at the production sites level, enabling them to take up to 18 weeks of paid leave after the birth or adoption of their child. Globally, Danone’s goal was to deploy the parental policy in every country where it does business by 2020. At the end of the year, the Company had implemented this policy in 49 countries covering ap- proximately 80,000 employees (vs. 18 countries in 2019). In 2021, the remaining countries will roll out action plans that will help achieve the Company’s ambition. Governance In 2019, two Executive Committee members were named sponsors of Inclusive Diversity: the EVP, Chief Financial Officer, Technology & Data, Cycles and Procurement and the EVP, Waters and Africa. Danone also initiated a movement to encourage employees to act within their sphere of influence to help achieve inclusive diversity targets. More than 400 inclusive diversity champions around the world are thereby driving change at the local level and in the various functions, working with the Human Resources departments and management teams. In order to implement inclusive diversity at Danone globally, an Inclusive Diversity steering committee is working on a transfor- mational approach based on three pillars: people, brands and partners/communities. Action plans In 2020, Danone also held several events: • for International Women’s Rights Day, the Company encouraged the sharing of various countries’ best practices regarding gender equality; • in Benelux, Spain and Italy, some brands and their employees joined in pride celebrations; • during the second edition of Inclusive Diversity week, to engage and raise awareness among Danone employees, including through workshops on unconscious biases, sharing of a local roadmap for Inclusive Diversity and motivational sessions led by outside speakers; Meanwhile, Danone is still an active member of the HeForShe movement and LEAD network. Commitment to the HeForShe campaign HeForShe is a global campaign by UNWomen that encourages men to take an active role in empowering women. In Brazil, Indonesia, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands and Spain, Danone has deployed HeForShe through its Leadership Mentoring program for women, enabling newly appointed women leaders to seek advice from experienced managers. The Company’s commitment to gender equality was recognized by the United Nations, which named Emmanuel FABER, Chairman and CEO of Danone (until March 14, 2021), “Inaugural Thematic Champion”. External recognition Danone maintained its position in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality 2021 index. The Company is ranked 39 th in the Top 100 World for gender equality by Equileap. In 2019, Danone received the GEEIS-SDG (Gender Equality European and International Standard-Sustainable Development Goals) trophy of the Arborus Foundation at the United Nations headquarters for the “Social School for Women Empowerment” project launched with the support of the Danone Ecosystem Fund and that is conti- nuing with Danone Spain and Fundación Ana Bella. The project helps women escape domestic violence and rejoin the labor force by supporting a sales and nutrition training program. Meanwhile, Danone’s headquarters in Paris and Singapore along with all the subsidiaries (including the production sites) based in Italy and Poland received GEEIS certification. Opportunities Danone is committed to fostering an inclusive working environment that represents all forms of diversity, both visible and invisible. The Company’s aim is to create a workplace environment that promotes both personal fulfilment for employees and efficient teamwork, with a view to developing solutions that are culturally relevant to consumers. With its Inclusive Diversity strategy, Danone seeks to leverage its brands in order tomake its consumers agents for change. In Mexico, Danone’s bottled water brand Bonafont made gender equality a cen- terpiece of its brand commitment and took an active stance to help advance this cause. Over the past two years, Bonafont joined with UNWomen to launch a support program for women entrepreneurs. This partnership includes the creation of limited edition HeForShe bottles and the donation of all proceeds from this program to charity.