TAG overview

Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of aspirations aimed at all countries and organizations across the globe. We too are making every effort to help reach these objectives. Recently, for instance, we conducted a materiality analysis to identify the goals with which our daily operations currently align.

Our approach

Underpinned by 17 Sustainable Development Goals, the international community has identified 169 targets aimed at facilitating the actions necessary to accomplishing the mission. We recognize that companies too are duty-bound to support the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals. In 2018, we examined the SDG targets in an effort to pinpoint the ones where our business activities make the greatest direct impact.

A closer look at our efforts

With our CR commitments we especially support the goals of Good Health & Well-Being (SDG 3), Quality Education (SDG 4) and Affordable & Clean Energy (SDG 7) (see graphic below). However, our contribution towards achieving the SDGs does not limit itself to the strategic spheres of activity established in our corporate responsibility strategy. This means that we not only contribute to solving global challenges within the areas of “Global Health”, “Sustainable Solutions” and “Broad Minds”, but rather that many of our activities have positive effects that go beyond. This is the case with seven of the 17 SDGs. In our 2018 CR-report, for the first time, we show which SDG targets we support with our management approaches and projects. Beyond these seven SDGs, we are also pursuing activities in support of eight other goals, albeit to a lesser extent. For this reason we do not report on them on a target level.

Sustainable Development Goals (graphic)

SDG 3: Good health and well-being

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages.

Across the globe, two billion people lack access to medicines, with an estimated 400 million lacking access to effective and affordable essential health services. Given this reality, we are striving to rectify the situation through our Global Health Strategy. However, recognizing that we cannot solve these challenges alone, we have joined forces with strong partners to work towards a solution.

Target 3.3: By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases.

Target 3.b: Support the research and development of vaccines and medicines for the communicable and noncommunicable diseases that primarily affect developing countries, provide access to affordable and vaccines, in accordance with the Doha Declaration on the Agreement and Public Health, which affirms the right of developing countries to use to the full the provisions in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights regarding flexibilities to protect public health, and, in particular, provide access to medicines for all.

SDG 4: Quality education

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.

SDG 5: Gender equality

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.

SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation

Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.

Around the world, the number of areas suffering from water scarcity is on the rise. At our sites, we are dependent on a reliable supply of water. We have made sustainable water management a key focus of our environmental stewardship.

Target 6.3: By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally.

SDG 7: Affordable and clean energy

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.

SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all.

We expect all suppliers and vendors to adhere to the same high social standards as we do. These are set forth in the core labor standards of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the United Nations Global Compact.

Target 8.4.: Improve progressively, through 2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavour to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, in accordance with the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production, with developed countries taking the lead.

SDG 9: Industry, innovation and infrastructure

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation.

We are always on the lookout for pioneering developments and trends. We develop products and technologies that improve people’s lives. New technologies, especially advances in digitalization, enable us to create innovative products, services and business models.

Target 9.4: By 2030, upgrade infrastructure and retrofit industries to make them sustainable, with increased resource-use efficiency and greater adoption of clean and environmentally sound technologies and industrial processes, with all countries taking action in accordance with their respective capabilities.

SDG 10: Reduced inequalities

Reduce inequality within and among countries.

SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable.

We take on social responsibility. Focusing especially on those areas where we can best leverage our expertise, we promote health, education and cultural projects. Beyond these efforts, we provide disaster relief and assist people in need in the countries where we operate, particularly in the immediate vicinity of our sites.

Target 11.6: By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management.

SDG 12: Responsible consumption and production

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns.

Respect for the environment is the bedrock of our approach to sustainability. We see it as our duty to not only conserve resources when developing our own products, but also to help our customers enhance the sustainability of theirs.

Target 12.4: By 2020, achieve the environmentally sound management of chemicals and all wastes throughout their life cycle, in accordance with agreed international frameworks, and significantly reduce their release to air, water and soil in order to minimize their adverse impacts on human health and the environment.

Target 12.5: By 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse.

Target 12.6: Encourage companies, especially large and transnational companies, to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle.

SDG 13: Climate action

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

SDG 14: Life below water

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development.

Our wastewater may contain traces of substances such as heavy metals or pharmaceutical active ingredients. For us, sustainable water management means not negatively impacting the aquatic ecosystems from which we obtain , or into which we discharge purified wastewater.

Target 14.1: By 2025, prevent and significantly reduce marine pollution of all kinds, in particular from land-based activities, including marine debris and nutrient pollution.

SDG 15: Life on land

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt loss.

SDG 16: Peace, justice and strong institutions

Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

SDG 17: Partnerships for the goals

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development.

Neglected tropical disease (NTD)
Diseases that occur primarily in developing countries. NTDs include schistosomiasis, intestinal worms, trachoma, lymphatic filariasis, and onchocerciasis. This group of diseases is called neglected because, despite the large number of people affected, they have historically received less attention and research funding than other diseases.
Essential medicines
Defined by the World Health Organization as “those drugs that satisfy the health care needs of the majority of the population”.
TRIPS
The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights is an international legal agreement between all the member nations of the World Trade Organization. TRIPS seeks to ensure that the measures and procedures for enforcing intellectual property rights do not become a barrier to lawful trade.
Freshwater
Water containing 1,000 mg or less of dissolved solids per liter.
Biodiversity
The diversity of ecosystems, habitats and landscapes on earth, the diversity of the species, and the genetic diversity within a biological species or population.

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