Building on Creating Shared Value

Looking to the future, Creating Shared Value remains a fundamental guiding principle for how we do business. The health of our company is intrinsically linked to the health and resilience of the society we operate in; this is why our purpose is to enhance quality of life and contribute to a healthier future.

Our focus areas are firmly embedded in our purpose. Individuals and families, our communities and the planet as a whole are interconnected, and our efforts in each of these areas are supported through our 42 specific commitments, the vast majority of which have been reframed and feature objectives to 2020. These commitments will, in turn, enable us to meet our ambitions for 2030 in line with the timescale of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Our purpose and timetable allow us to take Creating Shared Value a step further, while adhering to our fundamental belief that our business will be successful in the long term by creating value for both our shareholders and for society as a whole. Our positive impact on society focuses on enabling healthier and happier lives for individuals and families, on helping the development of thriving and resilient communities and, finally, on stewarding the planet’s natural resources for future generations, with particular care for water.

As we move into a new period in our company’s history, we will continue to evolve and strengthen our approach to Creating Shared Value as the way we do business, ensuring that its thinking continues to inform all our behaviours, policies and actions.

Our contribution to the global agenda

We are framing our Creating Shared Value (CSV) agenda closely with the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Having had the opportunity to participate in developing the SDGs, the private sector has also assumed responsibility towards delivering those goals.

We have integrated the SDGs into our CSV approach, allowing us to identify those goals where we can add most value. We have mapped our material issues against the SDGs to help us do this.

Driven by our company purpose, to enhance quality of life and contribute to a healthier future, we have defined three overarching ambitions, which will guide our work towards achieving our 2020 commitments and supporting the achievement of the SDGs. These ambitions are to:

• Enable healthier and happier lives: this will include helping 50 million children lead healthier lives;
• Help develop thriving, resilient communities: this will include helping to improve 30 million livelihoods in communities directly connected to our business activities; and
• Steward resources for future generations: this will include striving for zero environmental impact in our operations.

These ambitions stem from the recognition that we live in an interconnected world where our futures are inextricably linked.

We will leverage our scale to help meet these ambitions. However, achieving the SDGs will only be possible through more effective and dynamic partnerships at local, national and international levels. We strive to play our part and urge others to join this collective effort. We look forward to working with civil society, governments and others in making this a reality.

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