We have introduced management targets covering environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics, in alignment with our company-level priority of building trust with society. The topics covered include innovation and access to medicines, ethics, risk and compliance, environmental sustainability.
  • Invest USD 250 million to advance R&D for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and malaria over five years (2021-2025)
  • Implement a global access strategy for all new medicines launched
  • Increase the number of patients reached with strategic innovative medicines in LMICs1 by at least 200% by 2025 (compared with 2019 baseline)
  • Increase the number of patients reached with Novartis global health flagship programs (Malaria, leprosy, Chagas disease, sickle cell disease) in LMICs by at least 50% by 2025 (compared with 2019 baseline)
  • Conduct risk assessments for all new eligible suppliers

Climate targets

  • 2025: Become carbon neutral in our own operations (Scopes 1 and 2)2; include environmental criteria in all supplier contracts
  • 2030: Become carbon neutral across our value chain (Scopes 1, 2 and 3)
  • 2040: Achieve net zero carbon emissions across our value chain (Scopes 1, 2, and 3)3

Learn more about our efforts to reduce our impacts on climate

Water targets

  • 2025: Reduce water consumption in our operations by half, with no water quality impacts from manufacturing effluents4
  • 2030: Become water neutral in our own operations5, while enhancing water quality wherever we operate6

Water | Novartis

Waste targets

  • 2025: Eliminate polyvinyl chloride (PVC) in packaging7 and reduce the amount of waste sent for disposal by half4
  • 2030: Become plastic neutral8, with all new products meeting sustainable design principles

Learn more about our efforts to reduce our impacts on water

  • Maintain gender balanced representation in management
  • Review our human resources practices beyond base pay to eliminate any further potential sources of bias from the system by 20279
  • Make the requirements of the EU Pay Transparency Directive our global minimum standard for internal pay equity and pay transparency reporting by 20279

Explore our Novartis in Society Integrated report (PDF 8.4 MB) to see how we performed in 2023.

Learn more about our approach to ESG topics

References:

  1. Low- and middle-income countries as defined in Novartis sustainability-linked bond Final Listing Prospectus Annex A
  2. Scopes 1 and 2 from energy
  3. In accordance with Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) Corporate Net-Zero Standard
  4. Vs. 2016 baseline, restated in 2023 to exclude Sandoz
  5. All Novartis sites to reduce water consumption in all areas and be water neutral in water-stressed regions by not depleting local water reserves. Water-stressed regions are determined using the WWF Water Risk Filter
  6. 100% of manufacturing effluents released comply with all permit regulations related to water quality and meet our water quality requirements. This applies to Novartis manufacturing operations and priority 1 high-risk suppliers that can potentially have an impact on water quality due to the discharge of APIs.
  7. From Novartis owned and operated sites that are involved in packaging; defined as secondary and tertiary packaging. In addition, this is supported by efforts to eliminate PVC from primary packaging where feasible.
  8. Plastic neutrality is achieved when the weight of plastic packaging entering the environment for disposal is approximately the same as weight being recovered for recycling
  9. Where legally and operationally feasible