Hillenbrand - 1792 Exchange

Rating Overview

Hillenbrand is Medium Risk.

Hillenbrand is Medium Risk. The company often yields to political activism in shaping corporate governance, potentially alienating consumers, dividing employees, and harming shareholders. The company implements race and identity-based policies that replace merit, excellence, and integrity with preferential treatment and outcomes. The company occasionally embraces corporate initiatives that redirect its central focus from business goals to partisan policies and divisive issues at times. This approach fails to safeguard free exercise, free speech, and free enterprise.

Rating Criteria

Corporate Weaponization Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Cancellations	Medium Risk
Discriminatory Philanthropy	Medium Risk
Employment Protection	High Risk

Corporate Weaponization ⓘ

Corporate Governance and Public Policy Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Advocacy Bias	High Risk
Funding	High Risk
Political Actions	Lower Risk

Corporate Governance and Public Policy ⓘ

Rating Criteria Detail

Criteria Risk Level Rationale

Corporate Weaponization

Criteria:

Has canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors due to their political views or religious beliefs OR corporately boycotts, divests, or sanctions regions, people groups, or industries.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

Hillenbrand integrates ESG into its business practices. From its 2022 Sustainability Rerport: “We have now embedded ESG topics into our ERM process to better understand key sustainability risks, like climate change, energy, and supply chain, and integrate it into the organization‘s overall risk management practices” (1). The company integrates ESG into its business practices, tying executive compensation to ESG goals. From its 2024 Proxy Statement: Collective Performance Goals for executive officers include requirements to “progress and execute on our efforts on ESG activities” (2). However, the company has not canceled customers, suppliers, or vendors based on political views or religious beliefs (3).

Criteria:

Charitable giving (including employee matching programs) policies or practices discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or religious beliefs.

Risk Level:

Medium

Rationale:

Hillenbrand’s charitable giving guidelines require that organizations abide by its nondiscrimination policy, including on the basis of sexual orientation, thereby excluding some religious charities (1).

Criteria:

Employment policies fail to protect against viewpoint or other discrimination and/or are ideological in nature.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Hillenbrand offers DEI training to its employees (1). Hillenbrand appears to prioritize diversity over merit in its supply chain. From its Supplier Diversity Policy: “Hillenbrand’s policy is to include qualified diverse suppliers as part of our strategic sourcing and procurement process” (2). The company appears to prioritize diversity over merit in its leadership composition. From its 2023 Sustainability Report: “To increase the diversity of our candidate pools and ensure an inclusive hiring process, we require mandatory diverse external candidate slates and interview panels for our leadership roles at the Director-level-and-above” (3). The company does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (4).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy

Criteria:

Uses corporate reputation to support causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Hillenbrand supports DEI within its business practices, hosting a DEI Steering Committee (1). The company supports DEI within its business practices. From its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion page: “The Inclusion at Hillenbrand Council (IHI) is a cross-functional, diverse team of associates, who consult on DEI programs and develop and drive DEI actions across our company” (2). The company supports ESG within its business practices. From its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion page: “This was a year of celebrations and progress, which was recognized on a global scale by our nomination as a finalist in the Reuters Responsible Business Awards for our work to communicate our Purpose and by the increase in our MSCI environmental, social, and governance (ESG) rating from A to AA, which puts us in a leadership category in our industry” (3). Hillenbrand partners with the United Nations Global Compact and is committed to the UN Sustainable Development Goals in their core business management (4)(5)(6).

Criteria:

Uses corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies hostile to freedom of expression.

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Hillenbrand was a Silver Level sponsor of HRC’s 2023 Cincinnati Color Ball (1). The company funded the Human Rights Campaign and the National Diversity Council (2)(3). Otherwise, there are no publicly known cases of the company using corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies (4).

Criteria:

Uses corporate political actions and/or financial contributions for ideological, non-business purposes.

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

Hillenbrand’s PAC has been defunct since 2014 and it does not report on its lobbying at this time (1)(2)(3).