Hasbro is the world’s second largest toymaker featuring iconic board games like Monopoly and Scrabble well as scores of toys based on licensed characters from Darth Vader to GI Joe and Dora the Explorer.

After a 2007 shareholder resolution asking for a sustainability report received a 44% vote, the company and shareholders including As You Sow began a dialogue on product and worker safety issues focusing on both occupational exposure to harmful substances by workers making toys and  consumers (i.e. children) who use them. Hasbro’s products have not been the focus of any lead paint recalls. The company outsources most of its toy production and uses an auditing system developed by the International Council of Toy Industries (ICTI) for monitoring worker safety in its global supply chain. ICTI certifies commercial auditors to perform social compliance audits at supplier factories, and suppliers found to be out of compliance are required to complete corrective action plans. However, the process is largely opaque with little public reporting on problems found and progress made to correct them. Hasbro’s biggest competitor, Mattel, posts summaries of many supplier audits on its web site.

Our investor group has had two meetings with Hasbro and urged the company to develop a public report summarizing compliance progress, Further, we have asked them to focus on whether the ICTI audits follow required procedures to perform air quality monitoring in factories to assure that workers are not expose to high levels of workplace toxics.