United Kingdom’s Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting will introduce additional due diligence and disclosure requirements addressing sustainability that will apply or we expect will apply, as applicable, to us in the coming years. Further, in September 2023, California passed the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act and the Climate-Related Financial Risk Act, requiring increased climate-related reporting. While currently stayed, the SEC’s recently adopted climate-related reporting requirements, to the extent they become effective, will also require extensive additional due diligence and disclosure regarding sustainability.
These requirements will, and new, or changes in, environmental or climate change disclosure laws, regulations or rules could, lead to increased costs of compliance, including remediations of any discovered issues, and changes to our operations, including our manufacturing practices and/or product designs, which may be significant and could negatively impact our business, results of operations, financial condition and competitive position. Any failures to comply could result in governmental action, including the imposition of fines, or demands or orders that we modify or cease existing business practices, which could adversely affect our financial results.
Our business is subject to evolving corporate governance and public disclosure regulations and expectations, including with respect to environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) matters, that could expose us to numerous risks.
We are subject to changing rules and regulations promulgated by several governmental and self-regulatory organizations, including the SEC, the Nasdaq Stock Market and the FASB. These rules and regulations continue to evolve in scope and complexity and many new requirements have been created in response to laws enacted by Congress, making compliance more difficult and uncertain. In addition, increasingly regulators, customers, investors, employees and other stakeholders are focusing on ESG matters and related disclosures. These changing rules, regulations and stakeholder expectations have resulted in, and are likely to continue to result in, increased general and administrative expenses and increased management time and attention spent complying with or meeting such regulations and expectations. For example, developing and acting on initiatives within the scope of ESG, and collecting, measuring and reporting ESG-related information and metrics can be costly, difficult and time-consuming and is subject to evolving reporting standards, including the SEC’s recently adopted and stayed climate-related reporting requirements, and similar proposals by other domestic or international regulatory bodies. Foreign governments have also enacted legislation to address ESG issues, such as the UK Modern Slavery Act.
Additionally, unfavorable perception regarding our social initiatives, governance practices, diversity initiatives, the perceived or actual impacts of our products and services, environmental policies or other growing concerns of our stakeholders, could adversely affect our reputation. Any negative effect on our reputation could have an adverse effect on the size of our customer base, which could adversely affect our business and financial results. We have been, and may be in the future, subject to informal private or public inquiries and formal proxy proposals by activists urging us to take certain corporate actions related to ESG matters, which may not be aligned with our best interests. These activities may adversely affect our business in a number of ways, since responding to inquiries or proposals can be costly, time-consuming, and disruptive to our operations and could meaningfully divert our resources, including the attention of our management team and our employees.
We may also communicate certain initiatives and goals, regarding environmental matters, diversity, responsible sourcing and social investments and other ESG-related matters, in our SEC filings or in other public disclosures. These initiatives and goals within the scope of ESG could be difficult and expensive to implement, the technologies needed to implement them may not be cost effective and may not advance at a sufficient pace, and we could be criticized for the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of the disclosure. Further, statements about our ESG-related initiatives and goals, and progress against those goals, may be based on standards for measuring progress that are still developing, internal controls and processes that continue to evolve, and assumptions that are subject to change in the future. In addition, we could be criticized for the scope or nature of such initiatives or goals or for any revisions to these goals. Given the dynamic nature of ESG expectations, standards and regulations, which may change over time, we may from time to time need to update or otherwise revise our current practices, initiatives and goals, including in response to legislative or legal developments. If our ESG-related data, processes and reporting are incomplete or inaccurate, or if we fail to achieve progress with respect to our goals within the scope of ESG on a timely basis, or at all, we may be exposed to potential liability or litigation, and our reputation, business, financial performance and growth could be adversely affected.