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Wesco 2024 Sustainability Report: Wesco Cares

WCC | 2 hours ago

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Read the 2024 Wesco Sustainability Report here

Wesco Cares

NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESSWIRE / October 9, 2024 / Corporate giving and employee volunteerism are a part of the vibrant Wesco experience. Employees are actively engaged in local communities through fundraising, volunteering, contributing products and performing advocacy to address local needs. Many of these initiatives include strategic partnerships with global organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and the American Red Cross.

In 2022, we launched Wesco Cares, our new corporate philanthropy program focused on affordable housing and humanitarian aid. In 2023, we also added STEM education (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) as a focus for the program. In 2022, June 22 became an annual day of caring for Wesco employees globally, a day on which employees are encouraged to volunteer in their communities.

Three key areas of focus for Wesco Cares are Humanitarian Aid, Affordable Housing and STEM/STEAM.

Contributions from 2023 include:

More than $671,050 in donations toward our partnership with Habitat for Humanity to sponsor builds toward our 100 builds goal.
A combined $241,720 to the American Red Cross to support relief for the earthquakes in Türkiye/Syria/ Morocco, the Hawaii Wildfires, and conflict in the Middle East.
Between employee donations and company matches, we donated over $205,000 impacting 220 different charities in 2023.

Our approach to giving has three aspects: volunteer day off, matching gifts and corporate giving. Wesco launched a new corporate giving platform in June, making it easier than ever for our employees to donate and volunteer and enabling us to get a broader picture of the impact employees are making around the globe.

Sponsored Events

Earth Day Clean-Up:
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Glenview, Illinois

In 2023, Wesco Cares organized employee volunteer opportunities with Friends of the Riverfront (Pittsburgh, Pa.) and the Forest Preserves of Cook County (Glenview, Il.) in honor of Earth Day.

In Pittsburgh, a group of approximately 70 volunteers from Wesco, US Steel and the Pittsburgh Penguins worked on a park and trailhead location along the 40th Street Bridge in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Volunteers planted native plants, weeded invasive species, mended fences, painted signs and placed new gravel on the trail. After the vegetation was cleared the team planted 26 native trees along the riverbank.

In Glenview, approximately 20 employees volunteered with the Forest Preserves of Cook County to beautify the park by picking up litter along the Des Plaines trail.

Volunteer Day Off:

We encourage employees to volunteer in their community by providing one day of paid volunteer time off per year. By connecting with and contributing to local charitable organizations Wesco supports the development of strong, vibrant and diverse communities. In 2023,
152 employees participated in a volunteer day off impacting 57 different charitable organizations.

Corporate Giving

Wesco Cares also supported a series of community programs through corporate giving or employee- organized efforts. A few 2023 highlights include:

Carter Work Project: Wesco sponsored the 2023 Jimmy & Rosalynn Carter Work Project with Habitat for Humanity. Over five days, future homeowners worked alongside hundreds of volunteers from around the world to build 27 single-family homes in Charlotte, NC.
Habitat for Humanity: Wesco sponsored the Chicagoland Habitat for Humanity Hero Awards. The company also served as Chicagoland Habitat for Humanity's inaugural Regional Repair program sponsor, supporting a dozen home repairs this past year. The company's other projects with Habitat for Humanity have ranged from a community renovations project in Sao Paolo, Brazil to a roof wind mitigation project in Orlando, Florida.
Boys & Girls Clubs of America: Wesco sponsored the Midwest Youth of the Year Awards, a program focused on fostering a new generation of leaders fully prepared to live and lead in a diverse, global and integrated world economy.

Wesco Cares Build-a-Thon

In 2022, Wesco launched our centennial build-a-thon
in partnership with Habitat for Humanity. Wesco has a strong, ongoing engagement with Habitat for Humanity focused on employee volunteerism and supporting affordable housing in the communities we serve. We kicked off our centennial year with the goal of 100 builds across the globe in partnership with Habitat for Humanity. We reached our goal and celebrated while commemorating our inaugural Day of Caring.

BRG Community Engagement

Wesco's Business Resource Groups (BRGs) have also made their mark on local communities around the world by contributing to various causes. In 2023, our BRGs donated to 18 different organizations, provided scholarships to four children of BRG members for pursuit of military service, trade school, or college and volunteered their time with additional philanthropic organizations.

To learn more, download the 2024 Wesco Sustainability Report here.

About This Report

Unless otherwise stated, this report covers activities, data and initiatives from our fiscal year 2023.

ESG Disclosure and Framework Alignment

The topics covered in this report include those that we have determined to be material for our business and stakeholders as noted on page 12. Wesco aligns with several ESG frameworks and disclosures in support of our commitment to transparency and our fulfillment of stakeholder needs and expectations. We leverage the following frameworks and standards to provide robust ESG information disclosure:

Global Reporting Initiative (GRI): GRI offers a list of global standards and guidelines around sustainability reporting.
Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB): SASB provides a comprehensive set of industry-specific disclosure topics and guidelines.
Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD): TCFD provides disclosure recommendations on thematic ESG topics such as governance, strategy, risk management, metrics and targets to provide stakeholders with fuller information surrounding climate risks.
CDP: Formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project, CDP is an international organization that helps companies and cities measure and disclose important environmental impact information through an annual questionnaire and rating system.
United Nations Global Compact (UNGC): UNGC is an initiative that aims to help businesses align their strategies and work toward the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals.
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (U.N. SDGs): U.N. SDGs provide a shared set of 17 toward peace and prosperity for people and planet goals and create a call to action by all countries in a global partnership.

We also regularly engage with our investors, employees, customers, regulators, ratings agencies and others on ESG and business issues. Additional information about Wesco can be found in our public financial filings-including our annual report and proxy filings-as well as on the Security and Exchange Commission's website at www.sec.gov or on the Investors page of our website at Wesco.com.

Wesco plans to continue to report annually as we monitor, measure, and deepen our ESG initiatives and disclosures.

Wesco endorses the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are a call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity.

More information about our SDG aligned initiatives is included throughout this report.

Assurance
We did not seek third-party assurance for this report; however, we will consider doing so for future reporting. The information and data contained in this report was vetted by internal subject matter experts on the various ESG topics included in this report.

Contact Us
We appreciate and welcome feedback on our ESG initiatives and reporting and invite you to contact us directly via email at Sustainability@Wesco.com.