Novartis and Sustainable Practices: A Business Sustainability Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of Novartis's business sustainability practices, focusing on its alignment with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It explores the company's sustainability focus, including its commitment to stakeholders, healthcare access, employee welfare, and environmental management. The report identifies the driving forces behind Novartis's sustainable development initiatives, such as market competition and risk reporting, and examines the relevant SDGs, including Goal 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), Goal 3 (Good Health and Well-being), and Goal 13 (Climate Action). It also discusses recommended strategies for enhancing long-term sustainability, like key performance indicators. The report concludes by highlighting the benefits of these practices, including increased brand awareness and competitive advantages, while also suggesting steps for further improvement. The report examines Novartis's sustainable business practices, their alignment with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and recommends strategies for long-term sustainability.

Running head: BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY
Business sustainability
Name of the student
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Abstract
This report discussed about the sustainable practices initiated by Novartis in relation to the
sustainable development goals stated by the United Nations. In addition, the driving forces for
Novartis in initiating the sustainable practices are also being discussed in this report. It is
identified that initiation of these practices are helping Novartis in gaining competitive
advantages. Furthermore, it is also identified that brand awareness for them is also increasing due
to this. However, a few recommended steps are being discussed in this report, which will further
help Novartis in having effective long term sustainability.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Sustainability focus of Novartis.......................................................................................................4
Driving forces for managing sustainable development...................................................................4
Competition in the market...........................................................................................................4
Risk reporting..............................................................................................................................5
SDGs initiated by Novartis..............................................................................................................5
Relevant sustainable development goals for Novartis.....................................................................6
Recommended strategies.................................................................................................................8
Identification of the key performance indicators...........................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................11
Reference.......................................................................................................................................13
Appendix........................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction
In the current business scenario, sustainability of the business organizations is one of the
major factors being identified for long term effectiveness. This is due to the reason that in the
current time, profit maximization is not only the only objective of the corporate organization
rather they are also expected to look after the social causes also (Le Blanc 2015). In line to this
situation, United Nations have initiated a few goals for the business organizations, which will
help them in gaining the business sustainability in the long term. However, on the other hand,
there are number of challenges also be faced by the organizations in implementing these
sustainability development goals mainly due to the rapid change in the external factors. This
should also be noted that sustainability development goals are more relevant for the larger scale
business organizations due to the fact that they are capable and resourceful enough to implement
these goals along with enhanced impact of their activities on the society (Barkemeyer et al.
2014).
Novartis is one of the leading healthcare brands in the world with having their operations
across the world and having their presence in different healthcare sectors. Thus they are serving
to millions of customers in each day and their sustainability will also have huge impact on most
number of stakeholders (novartis.com 2019). Novartis is also known for their extensive
sustainable management system in holistic manner. This report will discuss about the
sustainability approach being maintained by Novartis along with their focus. In addition, the
driving forces for their sustainability will also be discussed and the probable challenges they are
facing. In accordance to the identified factors, a few strategies will be discussed to have more
meaningful contribution towards the sustainable goals.

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Sustainability focus of Novartis
According to the identified reports regarding Novartis, their sustainability focus is to be
responsible enough towards each of the involved stakeholders of the company. In line to this
approach, the sustainability management system of Novartis has included a number of
stakeholder’s interests including the environment management also. One of their major elements
of their sustainability approach is meeting the need of the external stakeholders. It is reported
that Novartis is working towards having access of healthcare facilities to the remote regions in
the low income countries (Voegtin and Scherer 2017). This is to achieve the goal providing
healthcare facilities to everyone across the world. In addition, their sustainability is also being
focused on the welfare of the employees, which is helping them in having effective internal
management mechanisms. It is reported that as of 2017, 46 million people are being covered
under the global access program by Novartis. They are also working towards reducing the usage
of natural resources and minerals such as water and reducing the emission of greenhouse gas
from their operations. Novartis is being recognized as the one of the top 100 most sustainable
companies in the world. Thus, it can be concluded that the focus of Novartis is to gain
sustainability from different sectors (Anadon et al. 2016).
Driving forces for managing sustainable development
Competition in the market
One of the major driving factors for Novartis in managing sustainable development is the
competition in the market. This is due to the reason that in the recent time, competition is
increasing in the global healthcare sector with the emergence of new competitors. Thus, it is
need of the moment for the healthcare firms to initiate differentiation strategy, which can be done

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by the help of sustainable development (Griggs et al. 2013). With the help of the extensive
activities of sustainable development and communication of them through different mediums,
Novartis is gaining goodwill and distinctive image in the market. This is further helping in them
in having favorable branding and market situation for their operation. Furthermore, adhering to
the United Nation’s sustainable development goals is also helping them in communicating their
effectiveness in gaining sustainability and it is further helping in achieving the favorable market
situation.
Risk reporting
Legislations and regulations regarding the reporting of risks are getting stricter with the
amendments of different laws of the governments. For instance, it is made mandatory for the
business operations in Europe to disclose the environmental and social risks. Thus, it is
becoming challenges for the large business organizations to maintain their goodwill and
communicate the ill impacts of their business activities (Said Mokhtar and Mellett 2013). This is
forcing the major business firms in initiating the sustainable activities to adjust with their adverse
impacts on the environment. For instance, with the strict regulations in place, Novartis is being
forced to disclose their impact on the environment and with their sustainable activities in place; it
is helping them in communicating the stakeholders about what they are doing in mitigating the
negative factors.
SDGs initiated by Novartis
It is identified that sustainable development goals of the United Nations are being
adhered by Novartis in their business operation. This is due to the fact that these sustainable
development goals are being explicitly stated in their corporate responsibility report. It is also

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being stated about the particular sustainable development goals, which are followed in
maintaining the corporate responsibility report (Nilsson, Griggs and Visbeck 2016). The
particular goals, which are being met, are being stated in the report and this denotes the explicit
way of stating them by Novartis. For instance, it is being stated that goal 3 that refers to the
ensuring of good health and well being and of the United Nation’s sustainable development goals
is aligned with the company mission of Novartis. In addition, they are also following and
adhering to the goal 13 in initiating different activities for protecting climate. Novartis is also
maintaining GRI content index map, which furthers states about the mapping of the activities in
relation to the sustainable development goals (Le Blanc 2015).
Relevant sustainable development goals for Novartis
There are number of sustainable development goals being followed by Novartis and some
of them are most relevant for them in terms of the current business scenario. One of the most
relevant sustainable development goals for Novartis is goal 9 of the United Nations, which states
about the importance of having resilient infrastructure, sustainable industrialization and
innovation (Hak, Janouskova and Moldan 2016). This is majorly important for Novartis due to
the fact they are also extending their operations across the world and coverage of more number
of people across the world is depending on their effectiveness of innovation. It should be noted
that Novartis is operating in the healthcare sector, which is much competitive in nature and this
sector is highly relied on sustainable innovation. This is due to the fact that the medicines and
other healthcare facilities offered by Novartis should be affordable enough across different
segments around the world (Lu et al. 2015). In addition, the innovation of Novartis should enable
to withstand different geographical challenges in order to provide healthcare facilities to the
remotest place in the world.

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According to this sustainable development goal, Novartis is enhancing their infrastructure
and innovation in order to deal with the increased challenge of global healthcare offerings. In
addition, they are focusing on the increasing number of under reserved population deprived from
the healthcare facilities by innovating more cost effective solutions (Schmidt, Gostin and
Emanuel 2015). Furthermore, it is also being identified that Novartis is having different elements
in terms of their expanding access to healthcare such as Novartis Oncology access and The
Novartis foundation. Thus, it can be concluded that in accordance to the goal 9 of sustainable
development goals of the United Nations, Novartis is working towards increasing the access to
their healthcare facilities to more regions around the world (Burford et al. 2013).
It is also identified that goal 3 of the United Nations is also relevant for Novartis. This is
due to the reason that according to the goal 3 of the sustainable development goals, it is
important to ensure the well being and health of the people across all ages (Hsu and Zomer
2014). This goal is relevant for Novartis due to the fact that they are operating in the healthcare
sector and health enhancement services are their core objectives. With the achievement of the
goal 3 of the sustainable development goals, Novartis is working towards the health and well
being of the people across the world. On the other hand, this goal also includes the well being of
the internal stakeholders also. For instance, there are number of activities being maintained by
Novartis in order to enhance the well being of the employees. One of the major activities of them
is to manage the diversity of the workforce in the team (Charles, Schmidheiny and Watts 2017).
This is due to the fact that Novartis is having their operations across the world and thus they are
having employees from different cultural and social backgrounds. Diversity and inclusion is
being followed and differences among the workforce is being managed and nurtured. In addition,
it is also identified that Novartis is also aligning their corporate responsibilities with their

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employee management programs by launching the community engagement and volunteering
programs. These activities are also relevant for their business due to the reason that effective
relationship with the community and employees will only help Novartis in gaining
competitiveness in the current competitive business scenario (Clark et al. 2016).
Another major relevant sustainable development goal for Novartis is the goal 13 of the
sustainable development goals, which states about the actions to be taken for mitigating climate
change. This is also relevant from the perspective of the business of Novartis due to the fact that
they are very much dependant on the natural resources as their raw materials and extensive
business operations of them are having impact on the environment (Redclift 2014). For instance,
water resources are one of the major and affected natural resources by the activities of Novartis
as they are extracting a good amount of water for their activities. Hence, it is important for
Novartis in adhering to the goal 13 for sustainability reporting. In line to this goal, Novartis has
focused on reducing the greenhouse gas, which is one of the major contributors in climate
change. It is targeted that they will reduce the emission of greenhouse gas by 50 percent within
2030 (Pogge and Sengupta 2015). In addition, they also planned for growing own forestry to
compensate with the emission of the greenhouse gas. Thus, achieving carbon neutrality is one of
the major aims for Novartis to adhere to the goal 13 of the United Nation sustainable
development goals. The more they will be able to reduce the emission, the more they will have
profitability in terms of spending less on carbon tax, which makes this sustainable development
goal relevant to the business of Novartis (Fehling, Nelson and Venkatapuram 2013).
Recommended strategies

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It is identified that Novartis is working towards enhancing the health and wellbeing for
the internal stakeholders including the employees. Thus, it is recommended that they should
adaptation strategy over the standardization strategy in managing the global diverse workforce.
This is due to the fact that Novartis is having their operations across different countries around
the world and each of these countries is having different cultural and social backgrounds. Hence,
rather than implementing the standardized approach in each of these countries, it will be
effective if the different dominant culture in different regions can be adopted. This will ensure
more comfortable working environment for the employees, which will further ensure their health
and wellbeing. In addition, it should also be noted that the employee management activities
initiated by Novartis should also be made more culturally adoptive rather than standardized. This
is due to the fact that different activities will have different level of effectiveness for the
employees and each of these activities should be initiated based on the dominant culture. Thus,
the employee management activities should be made more employees oriented and flexible.
Having more flexibility will ensure that existing activities can be changed based on the change in
the business scenario.
In terms of the goal 9 of the sustainable development goals, Novartis is already initiating
a number of activities to increase the access to the underprivileged people across the world.
However, it is recommended that Novartis should have innovative strategy in terms of
distribution also. This is due to the reason that effectiveness of the distribution will determine the
access of the healthcare products to the different sections across the world. In this case, Novartis
can have partnerships with the government bodies or with the World Health Organization in
reaching out to remotest areas in the world. This strategy will have dual advantages with one
being the increase in the access and another being the reduction in the price of the products. On

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the other hand, innovation of Novartis should also be diverse to have the solutions for diverse
challenges around the world. In terms of the healthcare, health challenges and issues are different
in different regions around the world and thus if Novartis can have their innovation in different
areas, then it will enable them to cover larger sections.
In terms of the goal 13 of the sustainable development goals, Novartis is already working
towards reducing the emission of the greenhouse gas and carbon. However, on the other hand, it
is also recommended that they should initiate the use of renewable source of energy. This will
also have dual advantages with one being the reduction in the cost of energy for them and
another will be the reduction in the carbon emission. This strategy will also help Novartis in
gaining long term energy sustainability due to the reason that extensive usage of renewable
sources of energy will ensure that Novartis can deal with the shortages of non-renewable sources
of energy in the long term. It is also being recommended that they can also initiate public
awareness program to have indirect influence of climate actions. Initiation of the public
awareness program will ensure that larger stakeholders are getting involved in fighting with the
climate degradation and the effectiveness of Novartis in dealing with the situation is also getting
more.
Identification of the key performance indicators
KPIs Target Indicator
Coverage area To cover more regions and
more stakeholders under the
sustainability activities
Determining the increase of the
awareness of the sustainable
activities of Novartis across the
world.

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Employee performance To achieve the highest level of
employee performance and
effectiveness
Determining the increase in the
performance of the employees
by adapting to their respective
cultures.
Energy usages To achieve more usage ratio of
renewable sources of energy
over the non-renewable sources
and reduce the carbon footprint
Determining the increase in the
percentage of renewable sources
of energy per year and
measurement of the changes in
the emission rate.
Conclusion
This report concludes that Novartis is much effective in initiating the sustainable business
practices and they are also being considered as one of top sustainable companies in the world.
This report discussed about the current sustainability focus of the company and it is identified
that Novartis is considering holistic approach in initiating their sustainable practices. In addition,
the driving factors for Novartis in managing sustainable development are also being discussed.
The most relevant sustainable development goals for Novartis are being identified and in
accordance to these goals, a few recommended strategies are discussed. Implementation of these
strategies will help Novartis to have more effective sustainable practices in place.
However, in doing this report, a few weaknesses are being identified such as absence of
primary data, which reduced the authenticity of the report to some extent. In addition, the real

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world effectiveness of the sustainable strategies of Novartis may be different to that assumed in
this report.

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Reference
Anadon, L.D., Chan, G., Harley, A.G., Matus, K., Moon, S., Murthy, S.L. and Clark, W.C.,
2016. Making technological innovation work for sustainable development. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, 113(35), pp.9682-9690.
Barkemeyer, R., Holt, D., Preuss, L. and Tsang, S., 2014. What happened to the ‘development’in
sustainable development? Business guidelines two decades after Brundtland. sustainable
development, 22(1), pp.15-32.
Burford, G., Hoover, E., Velasco, I., Janoušková, S., Jimenez, A., Piggot, G., Podger, D. and
Harder, M.K., 2013. Bringing the “missing pillar” into sustainable development goals: Towards
intersubjective values-based indicators. Sustainability, 5(7), pp.3035-3059.
Charles Jr, O.H., Schmidheiny, S. and Watts, P., 2017. Walking the talk: The business case for
sustainable development. Routledge.
Clark, W.C., van Kerkhoff, L., Lebel, L. and Gallopin, G.C., 2016. Crafting usable knowledge
for sustainable development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 113(17),
pp.4570-4578.
Fehling, M., Nelson, B.D. and Venkatapuram, S., 2013. Limitations of the Millennium
Development Goals: a literature review. Global public health, 8(10), pp.1109-1122.
Griggs, D., Stafford-Smith, M., Gaffney, O., Rockström, J., Öhman, M.C., Shyamsundar, P.,
Steffen, W., Glaser, G., Kanie, N. and Noble, I., 2013. Policy: Sustainable development goals for
people and planet. Nature, 495(7441), p.305.

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Hsu, A. and Zomer, A., 2014. Environmental performance index. Wiley StatsRef: Statistics
Reference Online, pp.1-5.
Le Blanc, D., 2015. Towards integration at last? The sustainable development goals as a network
of targets. Sustainable Development, 23(3), pp.176-187.
Lu, Y., Nakicenovic, N., Visbeck, M. and Stevance, A.S., 2015. Five priorities for the UN
sustainable development goals. Nature, 520(7548), pp.432-433.
Nilsson, M., Griggs, D. and Visbeck, M., 2016. Policy: map the interactions between Sustainable
Development Goals. Nature News, 534(7607), p.320.
novartis.com (2019). Energy & Climate | Novartis. [online] Novartis. Available at:
https://www.novartis.com/our-company/corporate-responsibility/environmental-sustainability/
energy-climate [Accessed 8 Jan. 2019].
Pogge, T. and Sengupta, M., 2015. The Sustainable Development Goals: a plan for building a
better world?. Journal of Global Ethics, 11(1), pp.56-64.
Redclift, M., 2014. Sustainable development and popular participation: A framework for
analysis. In Grassroots Environmental Action (pp. 39-65). Routledge.
Said Mokhtar, E. and Mellett, H., 2013. Competition, corporate governance, ownership structure
and risk reporting. Managerial Auditing Journal, 28(9), pp.838-865.
Schmidt, H., Gostin, L.O. and Emanuel, E.J., 2015. Public health, universal health coverage, and
Sustainable Development Goals: can they coexist?. The Lancet, 386(9996), pp.928-930.

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Voegtlin, C. and Scherer, A.G., 2017. Responsible innovation and the innovation of
responsibility: Governing sustainable development in a globalized world. Journal of Business
Ethics, 143(2), pp.227-243.

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Appendix
Dear HR manager,
This letter is to communicate my interest for the position of the sustainable development
goals consultant of Novartis. It is well known to me that Novartis is being considered as one of
the leading sustainable companies in the world. Hence, working with them will help me in
further enhancing my skills and expertise in the selected field. Moreover, being a sustainable
organization, Novartis is also adhering to the sustainable development goals of the United
Nations and I wish to further contribute as the consultant in effectively adhering to the above
stated goals.
I have gained knowledge and expertise regarding sustainability from working in different
projects in my university as well community based services. In my university, I led an eco club
with some of my friends and worked in gaining sustainability in different activities of the
University. I have worked in initiating solar power sources in the premises. On the other hand, I
have done different projects based on sustainability and I have also done sustainability projects
on Novartis. In this, I have gained knowledge about the particular sustainable development goals
followed by them and how they are managing their sustainable practices. In this project, I have
recommended a few strategies that can further help Novartis in enhancing their sustainable
practices and thus, in the case of work integrated learning placement, I can further contribute to
the company by coming up with more practical solutions for different challenges.
I am associated with a nonprofit organization in working for community engagement
services. This is helping me in gaining knowledge about the need and requirement of the
underprivileged population and I can help Novartis by assisting them in effectively mitigating

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the health challenges of the underprivileged population. In working with this nonprofit
organization, I gained extensive knowledge about the sustainable development goals stated by
the United Nations. This knowledge will be beneficial for Novartis in designing their strategies
to adhere to these sustainable development goals in the long term.
It is also my advantage that I prefer challenging and dynamic working environment and
where I can contribute for long term sustainability. I wish that Novartis is the perfect and ideal
workplace for me and this organization can help me in gaining the corporate experience. I have
gained enough experience and knowledge in terms of sustainability and the corporate exposure
from this organization will further enhance my expertise. This will develop both my prospect as
well as potentiality for Novartis. I can assure you that my knowledge and your working
environment will provide the maximum desirable outcome and value for both the entities.
I am looking forward in meeting with you and please feel free in calling me at any time.
It will be my privilege if you consider me for the said position.
Sincerely,
(TO BE FILLED BY STUDENT)