Sustainability

Over the past century, Zuellig Pharma’s Board has upheld the company’s commitment to ensuring the health and wellbeing of communities across Asia. We recognise the impact we have in making healthcare more accessible to the communities we serve, alongside our environmental and social contributions which continue to be key in our strategic development.

The Board regularly monitors the company’s sustainability strategy and performance, and our work with Zuellig Pharma’s management focuses on four impact areas around which our sustainability programme is structured: Improving Health Outcomes; Nurturing Talent; Respecting the Environment; and Setting the Highest Standards of Integrity. The four pillars were carefully defined following engagements with 45 key external stakeholders to identify issues that are relevant and meaningful to our business and the industry at large. 

As we position our organisation for success, we implemented strict governance frameworks to ensure that we carry out our sustainability ambitions in an impactful manner. We set up the Sustainability Steering Committee, comprising our CEO John Graham, our executive management team, and relevant key functions across the organisation to monitor and oversee our efforts. Each of the 22 material sustainability issues Zuellig Pharma identified is sponsored by a key member of our executive and senior management team.

This year’s Sustainability Report provides a broad overview of our sustainability performance and reinforces our commitment to drive sustainability. In this report, we have enhanced our disclosures and aligned our reporting with the updated GRI Universal Standards, which have been revised to incorporate reporting on human rights and environmental due diligence, in line with intergovernmental expectations. A new summary section has been added to highlight our key targets and commitments which were established to drive continuous progress on how we manage our material topics across the four sustainability pillars, alongside more than 200 metrics to track and measure performance. This forms the foundation of our efforts to drive sustainable value creation for the business and our stakeholders. 

The Board values our teams’ dedication in contributing to the wellbeing of current and future generations. In 2022, we acquired the highest EcoVadis Platinum sustainability certification for the second consecutive year, cut our overall greenhouse gas emissions by 20%, and enhanced our Climate Change CDP score to a B, the highest score obtained in our sector worldwide. In addition, we had our carbon reduction targets approved by SBTi in alignment with the ambitious 1.5°C aligned targets, which is currently the most ambitious designation available through the SBTi process. 

It is no doubt that people are our most valuable asset. The organisation rallied close to 8,000 employees across the region to proactively participate in events with a focus on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), joined forces with clients to sponsor a full year of treatment for 140 children suffering from type 1 diabetes and led programmes to target access, affordability, awareness, and disease management for 7.2 million people. 

Zuellig Pharma will continue to be evaluated by its success in executing the company’s sustainability agenda and achieving the ambitious targets set out in this report. We will remain steadfast in steering the organisation to make further impact, as we look ahead to the next century of making healthcare more accessible. This is our commitment to the communities we serve. Thank you for being with us on this journey.

In 2022, we marked a major milestone in Zuellig Pharma’s history. We celebrated our 100-year anniversary, a century dedicated to making healthcare more accessible across Asia. The centennial presented a valuable opportunity to set the stage for the future, rally employees in support of the company’s purpose, and commemorate this important milestone both internally and externally with celebrations focused on championing Sustainability in one way or another. 

Our mission of making healthcare more accessible underpins our business and enables us to build world-class standards in healthcare access, quality, and compliance across the region. We believe that having a strong sustainability framework is important and will continue to remain fundamental to our business as we look beyond immediate needs and carefully consider long-term goals.

Our ability to deliver strong results, accelerate our strategy and make our mission a reality every day comes from being grounded in our values and purpose. We stand on a legacy of service excellence and traditions that are supported by our commitment to integrity and trust, collaboration, a passion for excellence, innovation and personal growth. It is these core values that inspire us to always put first the needs and well-being of the people and communities we serve.

I am proud to present to you through our third Sustainability Report, our contribution to a better present and future. In this report we set forth the new milestones achieved by Zuellig Pharma in 2022, which is a result of our strong culture of accountability, entrepreneurship and the willingness and ability to contribute to the communities we operate in. 

A testament to our commitment is the achievement of the EcoVadis Platinum Medal, the highest accolade to be awarded to a company for its sustainability efforts, from the world’s most trusted sustainability rating. This places Zuellig Pharma within the top 1% of all accessed companies worldwide, with the top industry score globally among 2,800 logistics leaders.

Zuellig Pharma is now one of more than 4,000 global companies to have our carbon reduction targets approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). Our commitment to reduce direct and indirect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across our operations by 42% and cut GHG emissions across our supply chains by 25% by 2030 has been recognised as being in sync with the 1.5°C aligned targets, currently the most ambitious designation available through the SBTi process. Meaningful environmental commitment requires no less than across-the-board transparency.

Within our activity group, Zuellig Pharma has been awarded by the Carbon Disclosure Protocol – the highest rating obtained worldwide, B, in climate change. We are also the first company globally to reach a score of A- in supplier engagement. This score further solidifies our long-standing commitment to climate action, aimed at significantly improving our carbon footprint to build a sustainable future. A point further proven by our 31% reduction of our carbon footprint in 2022.

People lie at the heart of Zuellig Pharma’s success and these achievements would not be possible without the hard work of teams across the business. We adopt a people-centric focus in our sustainability efforts, as we leverage our diversity, which is one of our greatest strengths. Taking pride in our workplace that is built on the values of openness, dialogue, tolerance, and integrity, we continue to take a proactive approach to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). In 2022, we launched a comprehensive DEI implementation framework, raising awareness and sharing authentic conversations through DEI Inspire Talk series, initiatives around International Women’s Day, Global Pride Day and World Mental Health Day to build a workplace where people are embraced for their uniqueness and empowered to realise their full potential. A great example of Zuellig Pharma’s commitment to DEI is the average gender pay gap, which is contained to 0.16%, compared to the global average of 20%. 

Our flagship Sustainability Month in November 2022 saw 7,800 employees and clients participate in initiatives supporting our four sustainability pillars. A key highlight of the month was our ZP “Step Up” challenge, jointly organised with Action4Diabetes, where Zuellig Pharma donated more than SGD$100,000, equivalent to a year of treatment for 140 children suffering from Type 1 Diabetes in Southeast Asia. Over the past decade, major leaps in healthcare technologies have transformed and elevated the quality and delivery of care. However, these breakthroughs in innovation have in some cases widened existing gaps in healthcare access and equity. As part of Zuellig Pharma's mission of making healthcare more accessible, we saw the participation of almost 1,200 clients, customers, government representatives, suppliers, employees, and partners for our second virtual Healthcare Access Summit, titled “Building a Healthier Asia”. Working with the support of the EU ASEAN Business Council and PRMA, the event brought together top experts in access solutions, financing models, public health, digital solutions, logistics and pharmacoeconomics through a series of panel discussions and presentations, to discuss innovative ways to effectively improve access to healthcare. 

Gaining our stakeholders’ confidence in transparency and accountability is at the heart of our approach. This is the second consecutive year that we have selected key metrics for validation and external assurance by Bureau Veritas. This exercise aims to ensure that the data we share is of the highest quality and integrity.

As we embark on the next 100 years, we are building on a strong foundation and will continue to work to expand our impact, strengthen our approach and leave no stone unturned. We count on your continued support as we ramp up our efforts for a more sustainable future that will benefit generations to come.