HIW CRR 2023 v8 - Flipbook - Page 43
ETHICS AND INTEGRITY
Our Board of Directors is committed to corporate
governance practices that promote an ethical work
environment and believe that setting the “tone at the
top” with a strong governance structure is critical to our
long-term success. We are guided by corporate
governance guidelines and a code of business
conduct and ethics and require all directors, officers
and coworkers to complete an annual conflict of
interest questionnaire. Similarly, all vendors are
required to comply with our Vendor Code of Conduct.
To ensure greater transparency and preserve the
trust of our stakeholders, our governance guidelines
and codes of conduct are available in the “Investors/
Governance” section of our website.
Highwoods has a zero-tolerance policy for activities
that violate any laws or regulations, including those
covering bribery, copyrights, information privacy,
political contributions, insider trading, occupational
health and safety, discrimination and harassment.
Employees are prohibited from offering, promising,
or providing anything of value to any person for the
purpose of influencing that person to assist Highwoods
in obtaining an improper business advantage. All
corporations, including Highwoods, are prohibited from
directly or indirectly making any kind of cash or in-kind
contribution to candidates for federal office and, in
many areas in which we operate, state or local office.
Corporate donations to any candidate for public office
may only be made with the prior approval of our
General Counsel and only to the extent permitted by
applicable laws.
All coworkers receive periodic training on ethicsrelated topics and we have an open-door policy
to encourage our coworkers to disclose any issues
concerning regulatory compliance, accounting, audit or
internal control issues. We maintain an ethics hotline
via ethicspoint.com for anonymous disclosures. All
reported ethical concerns are promptly reviewed
and addressed by our legal team and, if applicable, a
committee of our Board of Directors.
Click here to view Highwoods Governance Documents
CAPITAL PLAZA TWO | ORLANDO
2827 PEACHTREE | ATLANTA
43
