Westlake Chemical - 1792 Exchange

Rating Overview

Westlake Chemical is Medium Risk.

Westlake Chemical 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	Lower Risk
Employment Protection	High Risk

Corporate Weaponization ⓘ

Corporate Governance and Public Policy Risk Levels
Criteria	Risk Level
Advocacy Bias	High Risk
Funding	Lower Risk
Political Actions	No Data

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:

Westlake integrates ESG into its business practices. From its 2024 Supplier Code of Conduct: “Suppliers are expected to implement and maintain high standards relating to environmental matters, including, but not limited to:… Operating in a way that reduces, as far as practicable within reasonable commercial limits, greenhouse gas emissions” (1). The company promotes divisive sex and gender policies. Its Supplier Code of Conduct requires international vendors to include sexual orientation in their nondiscrimination policy (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:

Lower

Rationale:

Westlake does not appear to discriminate against charitable organizations based on views or beliefs. The company’s charitable giving focus areas are supporting communities, education, and disaster relief efforts (1).

Criteria:

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

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Westlake offers DEI training to its employees (1). The company appears to prioritize diversity over merit in its leadership composition. From its Nominating and Governance Committee Charter: “the Committee shall take diversity into account into account in evaluating the qualifications of prospective nominees to the Board, broadly defined to include gender, ethnicity, national origin, geographic location, expertise, and level and type of career experience” (2). The company appears to prioritize diversity over merit in its recruiting. From its 2023 Sustainability Report: “The development of a diverse and inclusive working environment supports our ability to recruit, motivate, and retain the talent we need to achieve our business objectives” (3). The company appears to prioritize diversity over merit in its business structure through the establishment of gender and racial targets for its leadership composition. The company is reports “women represented 11.1% of the global senior leadership roles, which is a 6.1 percentage point increase over 2021. In the US, 22.2% of senior leaders were from Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) represented groups, which is a 17.2 percentage point increase over 2021” (4). The company does not provide viewpoint protections for its employees (5).

Corporate Governance and Public Policy

Criteria:

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

Risk Level:

High

Rationale:

Westlake is committed to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 (1). The company supports DEI within its business practices. From its 2023 Sustainability Report: “Westlake has a deeply rooted commitment to diversity and inclusion” (2). The company supports ESG within its business practices. From its 2023 Sustainability Report: “In addition to an assessment of our priority topics, we continually gather feedback on our sustainability performance and reporting from a range of stakeholders and sources throughout the year, including stakeholder engagement and ongoing communications with ESG rating organizations” (3).

Criteria:

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

Risk Level:

Lower

Rationale:

Westlake has not used corporate funds to advance ideological causes, organizations, or policies (1).

Criteria:

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

Risk Level:

N/A

Rationale:

Westlake’s PAC has been defunct since 2016 (1)(2). The company does not report on its lobbying at this time (3).