Global Supply Chain Preparedness
COVID-19 Response

At Corning, we recognize that the choices we make for our material and service providers must also reflect our Values. We require our suppliers to share our commitment to maintaining ethical, compliant, responsible, and sustainable operations and practices. In addition to full compliance with all applicable labor and employment laws, we expect our suppliers to be committed to upholding the human rights of workers and to treating them with dignity and respect as generally understood by the recognized international community. This applies to all workers, including temporary, migrant, student, contingent, and direct employees. This commitment is always expected of our suppliers, and especially during a global pandemic when the health and safety of all individuals is paramount. These expectations are laid out in the Corning Supplier Code of Conduct to drive supply chain Sustainability through supplier performance assurance. For details on our supplier assessment process, see our Supply Chain Social Responsibility pages on our website.

Employee safety and well-being is our first priority as we effectively maintain operations to support customers and our supply chain partners. Our comprehensive pandemic plan, Global Pandemic Preparedness, helps protect the health of our employees, their families and the communities in which we live and work, as well as our supply chain partners.

Our grievance mechanism, including the prevention of retaliation against stakeholders or employees for raising concerns during the COVID-19 crisis as outlined in our Speak Up Policy, remain in effect. Employees, suppliers, and other relevant stakeholders can submit any questions or report any violation or grievance to Corning’s confidential and anonymous Code of Conduct Line 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Concerns raised through our grievance mechanism regarding COVID-19 have been and will continue to be prioritized for review and corrective action. As an example of our expedited response to COVID-19-related grievances, Corning relayed a safety precautions concern to a supplier who then immediately implemented a variety of actions at their facilities including additional cleaning, temperature screening, further spacing requirements and capacity limitations in shared spaces, and remote working.

Specific to the COVID-19 pandemic, Corning developed a wellness tracker, in accordance with state regulations, to monitor illness across its entire workforce. This wellness tracker was shared with our suppliers, who are using this in partnership with Corning to assess illness across our respective organizations. Over the last few months, Corning has conducted periodic checks with suppliers to monitor the spread of COVID-19 in their businesses.

Corning also continued to utilize riskmethods to conduct real-time monitoring of COVID-19 and of any labor and human rights issues across our global supply chain. With this tool, we are able to track and monitor our suppliers to ensure they are upholding our Supplier Code of Conduct and address any identified risks. As a result of our proactive risk management strategy, we have not experienced any significant supply chain disruptions throughout the pandemic.  Also, by utilizing riskmethods to monitor the pandemic in real time, Corning was able to identify risks and respective impacts in communities where we operate. Our risk assessment allowed us to efficiently respond to community needs, including providing financial support for local businesses and establishing a process to donate needed PPE to local communities where we, and our suppliers, conduct business.

In addition to responding to community needs, we were able to support our business partners and suppliers by sharing our supply chain expertise and best practices to help manage our partners’ supply chains. Communication between Corning and its suppliers was critical to ensure success of all parties. Throughout the pandemic, Corning was able to honor take or pay contract commitments and maintained demand to production needs.