Our sustainability strategy

We believe that we can harness science and technology to help tackle many global challenges such as climate change, resource scarcity and unequal access to health. Always guided by a robust set of values, we approach all our actions and decisions with a sense of responsibility. Sustainability has been vital to us for many generations.

We can only ensure our own future success by creating lasting added value for society through our core business. As a sustainable enterprise, we seek to balance environmental, social and governance aspects – for us as a business, for our stakeholders and for society at large.

For a global science and technology company like us, sustainability is an essential component of our Group strategy. Through our business activities, we want to be economically successful and create value for society. At the same time, we endeavor to avoid generating subsequent costs
for society.

We want to create long-term added value for society, which is why we have defined three goals within our sustainability strategy:

• In 2030, we will achieve human progress for more than one billion people through sustainable science and technology.  
• By 2030, we will fully integrate sustainability into all our value chains.
• By 2040, we will achieve climate neutrality and reduce our resource consumption.    

In order to reach our sustainability goals, we are concentrating on seven focus areas in which we are pursuing numerous initiatives and projects, measuring our progress along the way. This ensures that we successfully implement our sustainability strategy and that sustainability becomes a success factor across all our business sectors.

Read more about how we measure our sustainability performance.

In working towards these goals, we are helping reach the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The SDGs are a blueprint of how to achieve a sustainable future and are apart of the United Nation 2030 Agenda - a global plan to promote sustainable peace and prosperity and to protect our planet. To achieve this ambitious vision we all must work together. And we are all called upon to make our best possible contribution.

Out of 17 SDGs in total, we contribute the most to the following seven SDGs with our business and our behavior:

• SDG 3: Health and well-being
• SDG 5: Gender equality
• SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth
• SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure
• SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production
• SDG 13: Climate action
• SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals

In addition, our management approaches and projects also support SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation) and SDG 7 (Affordable and clean energy)