We have 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.

We believe the business case is strong, as a focus on sustainability helps us to:

• Develop innovative drugs for unmet medical needs
• Retain and attract employees
• Protect our reputation through good business ethics
• Receive fair compensation for our products to reward our innovation
• Maintain our 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 have a direct impact on business value. The value created by transparent business practices and our efforts to reduce risk is less obvious, but equally important.
As a result, we are fully integrating sustainability policies and practices into our business. We have:

• 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 us to measure, monitor and improve our social, environmental and economic performance.