Sponsored Insight
As an innovation-driven company, Lilly believes sustainability enhances the ability to discover, develop, and bring medicines to patients that make their lives better. Science and medicine have a significant impact on humankind. But discovering, developing, and delivering new medicines alone is not enough. That’s why Lilly is investing in new ways to make medicines and care more accessible, affordable, and useful for everyone who needs them because sustainability starts with the purpose of Lilly’s business.
As Lilly celebrates its 145th anniversary, the company is continuing to evolve its environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) efforts. Going forward, Lilly will be focusing its ESG reporting on 13 key topics: access and affordability, diversity and inclusion, community engagement, employee well-being, human rights, patient safety, climate, waste, water, product stewardship, corporate governance, business ethics, and supply chain management.
Lilly has adopted the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) and the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) frameworks. And, as a signatory to the United Nations Global Compact since 2009, Lilly plans to continue to report progress on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
With the support of their stakeholders, Lilly believes its employees and partners across the health care system can fulfill the charge of Eli Lilly, the company’s founder: “Take what you find here and make it better and better.”
Increasing access and affordability
Lilly is taking action to help improve equity more broadly by strengthening communities and making a positive difference in greater social issues that matter to the business, its employees, and society. Lilly made a $30 million commitment to the Unseen Capital Health Fund LP to help support minority-owned, early-stage health care companies, and signed the Indy Racial Equity Pledge along with a coalition of leading corporate and civic organizations across Central Indiana.
Globally, Lilly aims to improve access to quality health care for 30 million people living in limited-resource settings annually by 2030. Recently, Lilly worked with Direct Relief to supply 90,000 vials of insulin to Lebanon and also contributed $100 million to the Antimicrobial Resistance Action Fund, which aims to bring two to four new antibiotics to patients in the next decade.
The company continues to implement solutions to improve accessibility and affordability in the U.S. for patients who depend on its medicines, including steps that make anyone, regardless of insurance status, eligible to obtain their monthly prescription of Lilly insulin for $35.
Diversity and inclusion is foundational
At the end of 2020, women comprised 50% of Lilly’s global workforce, and between the end of 2017 and the end of 2020, the number of women in management roles globally increased from 41% to 46%. Diverse representation in U.S. management positions also increased from 16% at the end of 2017 to 22% at the end of 2020.
Protecting the planet
Lilly has set ambitious 2030 environmental goals, including securing 100% of purchased electricity from renewable resources, making operations carbon neutral, sending zero waste to landfills from routine operations, and continuing to have 100% of Lilly sites meet predicted no-effect concentrations for Pharmaceuticals in the Environment, among others. The company also reduced its greenhouse gas emissions intensity by 22.2% from 2012 through 2020, surpassing their 2020 goal.
Learn more about Lilly’s approach and progress on the company’s new, one-stop ESG information source at esg.lilly.com.
For additional information about Eli Lilly and factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those indicated in the forward-looking statements in this communication, please see Lilly’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.