Modern Slavery Act

Emerald is committed to ensuring that there is no slavery, servitude, forced or compulsory human labour, abuse of power over vulnerable individuals, human trafficking or any other form of exploitation as contemplated by the Modern Slavery Act 2015 (MSA) in any part of our business or in our supply chain. We welcome the transparency encouraged by the MSA and this statement sets out for the public, our clients, suppliers and employees, the steps we are taking to ensure that we have practices in place to combat slavery and human trafficking.

About Emerald

Emerald equips decision makers, whether in an academic, public or corporate setting, with the evidence and tools to make smart choices, so that incrementally they can make a difference and contribute towards tackling real world challenges. This reflects our founding philosophy of bringing together research and practice. We are independent of our thinking, nimble and care about the communities we serve and are members of.

Our business and supply chains

We are a provider of high-quality academic content and publishing solutions across a global market. Our ultimate parent company is Cambridge Information Group whose head office is in the United States. Emerald has over 300 employees worldwide and has offices in 7 countries. We work with thousands of universities and business schools across the world to share knowledge and provoke the kind of debate that leads to positive change.

At Emerald we strive for transparent business operations and performance. We adhere to a high set of ethics and values that guide our governance procedures and daily management decisions. To have long term valuable impact on the social context of all its stakeholders, Emerald recognises that it must be a profitable business operating above and beyond existing ethical and legal standards.

Emerald recognises that it is crucial for us as an organisation to have oversight of our supply chains so that we can understand the risks of modern slavery along the chain and take action to mitigate against those risks. Our business model includes editorial supply chains (authors, editors, reviewers and guest editors), production supply chains (printing, typesetting, digital conversion and hosting) and corporate supply chains (facilities, IT, recruitment and office services).

Our policies on slavery and human trafficking

Emerald aims to have appropriate policies in place that underpin our commitment to ensure that there is no modern slavery or human trafficking in our supply chains or in any part of our business. We continuously review and update all our policies.

We are looking to roll out a new Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking policy which will reflect our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships and to implementing and enforcing effective systems and controls aiming to ensure slavery and human trafficking is not taking place in our supply chains.

We also have the following policies in place relevant to modern slavery which we continuously review and update:

• Supplier Code of Conduct. We require all suppliers to confirm that they will abide by our Supplier Code of Conduct which explicitly states that suppliers must oppose illegal or inhumane labour practices, including the use of forced or child labour, modern slavery or human trafficking, and they must monitor their supply chains for compliance with this.
• Whistleblowing Policy. This gives employees a confidential and anonymous method to report any issues of modern slavery they have identified within the company or its supply chain.

As an organisation, Emerald is committed to expanding its operations globally and in a sustainable manner for the benefit of its customers, its employees, and the wider communities and environments on which it impacts. The business takes a pro-active approach to its corporate responsibility, which is deeply rooted in its corporate strategy and business decisions. For example, at the point of recruitment, appropriate checks in accordance with the relevant laws are carried out on prospective employees and our HR team works closely with the relevant teams in the local territories to make sure that pay and conditions are appropriately managed. Emerald ensures that it applies the Living Wage for employees based in the UK and salaries in the local territories are above the relevant national minimum wage.

Due diligence and risk management processes for slavery and human trafficking

In accordance with our commitment to acting ethically and with integrity in all our business relationships, we have developed effective systems and controls to ensure modern slavery is not taking place in our supply chains. This involves ensuring the effective communication and reinforcement of our relevant policies, in particular our supplier code of conduct, which give a clear view of the values and the principles that underpin all of our work and that we expect all persons involved in our business and supply chain to adhere to.

Additionally, we are currently updating our third-party procurement process to put in place an effective supplier risk profile and due diligence process. As part of this we will put in place controls and new standards for suppliers, including the requirement that they ensure their downstream supply chains are slavery and human trafficking free.

As part of our approach to prevent and mitigate the risk of slavery and human trafficking we have certain grievance mechanisms in place where employees can report any concerns regarding slavery and human trafficking. In addition to our usual grievance policy where employees should report concerns to their managers, employees also have access to an anonymous whistleblowing helpline (EthicsPoint) through which any concerns can be raised.

Training

We have identified a gap in our internal training programme around slavery and human trafficking. As a priority over the next year, we will update our mandatory code of conduct training module to encompass the issue of modern slavery and human trafficking. We will ensure that all employees undertake the updated training and that this is refreshed on an annual basis.

Monitoring and evaluation: our effectiveness in combating slavery and human trafficking

This section sets out our anti-slavery goals (MSA Goals) which aim to improve our ability to identify, prevent, mitigate and respond more effectively to modern slavery risks in our business and supply chains. Our MSA Goals have been informed by specific risks we have identified in our operations and supply chains.

We have a set of organisational MSA Goals that we establish every 2 years, to ensure that Emerald makes year-on-year progress in identifying, preventing and responding to modern slavery. Firstly, we aim to update our third-party procurement process to include more effective supplier risk profiling and due diligence processes. Secondly, we aim to update our internal training modules to include specific content relating to slavery and human trafficking to ensure that all employees are aware of the risks and their responsibilities around this. Lastly, we aim to improve our supplier code of conduct, to include new standards requiring all suppliers to ensure that their downstream supply chains are slavery and human trafficking free.

We have a collaborative approach to ensuring compliance, with input from our Legal, Risk & Compliance and People teams, used to achieve our MSA Goals and to monitor the effectiveness of the actions taken by Emerald to combat slavery and human trafficking. We will monitor and evaluate the effectiveness of our anti-modern slavery measures using data, such as the number of suppliers who confirm their compliance with our supplier code of conduct and the risk profile created for each supplier working with Emerald. We will use the findings from our monitoring and evaluation to influence our business practices regarding managing modern slavery risks.

This statement is made pursuant to section 54(1) of the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and constitutes our slavery and human trafficking statement for the financial year ending 31 December 2025.
 

Emma Tregenza
Director
30 May 2026