Our Approach to Sustainability
As a 150-year old company, sustainability is firmly embedded at many levels in our business.
Ever since, we have been contributing to a future where more people have access to innovative medicine. The United Nations’ sustainability goal ‘Good Health and Well-Being’ is thus an integral part of our core business.
To determine which other SDGs are related to Sartorius’ business activities, we conducted a comprehensive materiality analysis in 2018 which defined a total of nine SDGs as important in connection with our business operations.
Our Core Business And Corporate Purpose
Good health and well-being is considered a basic human rights and a major indicator of sustainable development.
The purpose of our business is to help our customers develop and manufacture biotechnology-based drugs and vaccines and, in doing so, enable the development and safe production of vaccines and biopharmaceutical medicines to treat serious and, in some cases, rare diseases. The United Nations’ sustainability goal ‘Good Health and Well-Being’ is thus an integral part of our core business.
What we do
With our technologies, we help researchers and engineers achieve faster, easier progress in the life sciences and bioprocess technology, thus enabling the development of new and better treatments and vaccines and affordable medical care.
Why it's important
Many people in industrialized countries suffer from diseases, such as cancer or autoimmune diseases, for which there is no effective treatment yet. At the same time, diseases that would have proved fatal not long ago can now be cured or treated. Combined with declining birth rates, this has led to an aging society.
In developing and emerging countries, the availability and affordability of healthcare is well below the standards in industrialized nations: more than half the world’s population has either no or inadequate access to medical care.
Our Contribution to Further Goals
Quality Education
Quality education empowers people to improve their political, social and economic situations. According to the United Nations it is a basic human right and a requirement for sustainable development. We contribute to this by continuously training our employees and through many forms of support for young scientists.
Gender Equality
We believe, gender equality is not only a UN human right, it is also a lever for economic growth. It gives women better access to education, medical care and financial resources. We support equality in our own business activities and expect our business partners to behave accordingly.
Clean Water and Sanitation
In 2008, access to clean drinking water was recognized as a human right by the United Nations. Within the scope of our product stewardship, we try to keep the water consumption of our products as low as possible throughout their entire life cycle. We also make sure that our business partners also handle water and wastewater responsibly.
Decent Work and Economic Growth
Both are an urgent sustainability goal, as more than 60% of all workers worldwide do not have an employment contract and fewer than 45% of all workers are employed on a full-time, permanent basis. Bad working conditions are often associated with poverty, discrimination and inequality and mainly affect groups of people such as women, people with a disability, young people and migrants. Therefore, at all process stages, we make sure that no human rights are endangered at any point within our supply chain.
Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
This SDG aims to expand scientific research in all countries throughout the world. While Sartorius does not have a direct influence on the areas of infrastructure or sustainable industrialization, it does contribute in a wide variety of ways to achieve this innovation goal. By having our production sites serve as centers of competence, we develop scientific expertise at many sites across the globe. Our promotion of young people helps us spread and network the scientific basis worldwide and, as a result, strengthen future innovation activities.
Responsible Consumption and Production
For Sartorius, this means, among other things, the transition to a circular economy. Sterile plastic products are a key component of Sartorius’ product portfolio – for a good reason: the properties of these products are beneficial for the patients at the end of the supply chain, for the environment and for the basic availability and development of innovative medical care. At the same time, single-use products inevitably raise the question of the product’s end of life. We are addressing this issue and considering the end of life of our products as well as their overall ecological footprint.
Climate Action
Action to combat climate change is taken within the company and also in our supply chain. Human-induced climate change is one of the greatest challenges of our time. It requires action from everyone concerned, especially the private sector. A key issue is to reduce emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases. We accept this responsibility within the scope of our climate strategy.
Partnership for the Goals
Partnerships to achieve aims are a standard approach for Sartorius. We especially strengthen our innovation activities through partnerships and cooperation agreements. Achieving sustainability targets requires a cooperation approach because they concern the entire supply chain and success can be achieved only through cooperation with customers, suppliers, contractual partners and science.
