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SustainabilityThought Leadership

Driving change: a roadmap for impact

By July 24, 2024October 23rd, 2024No Comments

In this thought leader article, Herman Grobler, Vice President and Head of Impact & Sustainability at Cipla, delves into the intersection of corporate sustainability and the pharmaceutical industry. Drawing from his extensive experience in ESG integration and sustainable development, he explores the strategies driving Cipla’s commitment to sustainable growth, reduced inequality, and climate change mitigation. Herman highlights impactful initiatives like Miles for Smiles, Ajuga, and Sha’p Left, demonstrating Cipla’s holistic approach to creating lasting positive change for communities and the environment.

At Cipla, we ensure that our corporate social responsibility and sustainability initiatives align with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the South African National Development Plan (NDP) 2030 as part of our ethos of “Caring for Life.” In a nutshell, we seek to promote sustainable economic growth and development, reduce inequality, and combat climate change.

Paul Lucki, an executive at Gyan Consulting, underscores the importance of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) integration in driving sustainability. He argues that companies prioritizing ESG factors are better positioned to mitigate risks, enhance their reputation, and create value for all stakeholders. At Cipla, we ensure that any funding and corporate social responsibility spend is converted into worthy, self-sustainable, social enterprises and activities.

These days, a business is about so much more than just making money: it needs to align with purpose. That’s why at Cipla, we’ve built our business on three tenets: caring for life, caring for people and caring for the planet.  

As a result, our ESG goals are focused on:

  • Reducing our environmental footprint
  • Expanding equitable access to quality healthcare 
  • Making a tangible difference in needy communities through our Miles for Smiles (which helps to facilitate corrective surgeries for children born with a cleft condition), Ajuga (early childhood development centres) and Sha’p Left (primary healthcare in needy communities) initiatives

Integrating sustainability: Cipla’s strategic imperative

Cipla is working towards specific targets, such as reducing electricity and water usage, minimising carbon emissions, ensuring a zero-waste-to-landfill policy, and focusing on antimicrobial resistance stewardship. By minimising waste, conserving natural resources, adopting sustainable manufacturing processes, and expanding its renewable energy portfolio, we are on our way to reaching zero waste-to-landfill at all our sites by 2025.

Beyond setting annual environmental targets, we also measure the social impact of our Cipla Foundation initiatives, emphasizing our commitment to creating a positive difference – mainly through enterprise development models.

Implementing sustainable practices across the value chain

From sourcing raw materials to manufacturing processes to distribution and disposal, every stage of the pharmaceutical value chain presents opportunities for sustainability initiatives. At our central distribution facility in Cape Town, we’ve reached a zero-waste-to-landfill status and are harnessing eternal sunshine of the sustainable kind with the installation of 1,117 solar panels. This means that more than 19% of our total energy consumption is renewable energy. We have set similar targets at all our manufacturing sites in Durban and Johannesburg.

Better together

Together we are stronger. Through strategic partnerships and the pooling of resources, we can enable significant change in communities. The Sustainable Development Goals Report 2022 emphasises the importance of multi-stakeholder partnerships in achieving the SDGs.

Pharmaceutical companies can leverage collective expertise and resources to address complex challenges and drive meaningful change, by collaborating with the government, like-minded non-governmental organisations, and other industry stakeholders and suppliers. Collaboration, especially with those who possess diverse but complementary strengths in terms of both environmental and social partnerships, is a key element that we embrace to amplify and grow our initiatives.

A holistic approach

By ensuring sustainability across all our business practices, aligning with the SDGs and NDP, and joining forces with relevant stakeholders, we can create a healthier, more equitable, and sustainable future for all. Together, we have the power to make a real difference that has a positive ripple effect in local communities and for the planet. We truly believe in the power of purpose.

Caring for life, caring for people, caring for the planet

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