Definitions & Goals

Roche has developed a deep understanding of the business case for investing in sustainable policies and practices. This process involved a network of people from across the Roche Group, and was coordinated by the Corporate Sustainability Committee.

Roche believes the business case is strong, as a focus on sustainability helps to:

• Develop innovative drugs for unmet medical needs
• Retain and attract employees
• Protect Roche’s reputation through good business ethics
• Receive fair compensation for its products to reward innovation
• Maintain the licence to operate through stakeholder acceptance
• Reduce business risk
• Improve operational efficiency.

Sustainability can have a direct or indirect effect on value creation. For example, eco-efficiency initiatives that reduce costs have a visible financial impact. Attracting, developing, and retaining the best people also has a direct impact on business value. The value created by transparent business practices and efforts to reduce risk is less obvious, but equally important.

As a result, Roche is fully integrating sustainability policies and practices into its business. Roche has:

• Identified relevant sustainability issues arising from our business model and stakeholder expectations
• Analysed the link between those issues and our economic success
• Developed relevant key performance indicators (KPIs).

The final stage is to embed these KPIs into existing business processes. This will allow to measure, monitor and improve Roche’s social, environmental and economic performance.

It makes absolute sense for a research-based healthcare company like Roche to follow a long-term strategy with a focus on sustainability. Roche has made a series of commitments that form its sustainability policy and which the Corporate Sustainability Committee ensures to fulfil. These are to:

• Create more value for stakeholders both through Roche’s products and economic return
• Interact with stakeholders in an open, transparent, and trustful way.
• Foster a culture in which skilled, highly motivated stakeholders can perform to the best of their abilities and contribute to Roche’s competitive edge
• Ensure that protecting the people remains integral to the way Roche operates
• Focus on discovering and commercialising products that offer clear benefit to payers, clinicians, patients, and society in the fight against disease
• Apply rigorous standards in research and development
• Make sure every effort is made to ensure Roche’s medicines are effective, reliable and safe
• Help improve access to healthcare, focusing on countries designated by the United Nations as ‘least developed’
• Continue to make measurable and lasting progress in environmental protection
• Support humanitarian and science projects, career development for young researchers and contemporary arts and culture – in most cases through long-term partnerships
• Ensure accountability at every level of Roche’s operations through good corporate governance.

See the 2008 Annual Report (3.7 MB) for detailed information about our achievements in 2008 and more specific goals for the future.

Roche has implemented a number of policies, directives, position statements and guidelines that apply Group-wide. Employees at all Roche sites have access to all external and internal documents either electronically (e.g. on the Roche intranet) or as hard copies.

The Roche Corporate Principles – together with the Roche directives, guidelines and regulations – comprise the Roche Code of Conduct.