Sustainability—A Core Business

For the global pharmaceutical corporation Boehringer Ingelheim, sustainability is part of its core business and is practiced across all departments and by all of its 53,000 employees: “As a pharmaceutical research company, we’re especially interested in environmental protection and sustainable action because there’s a direct connection between our core business and climate protection,” notes Lars Murawski, Vice President for Environment, Health, Safety (EHS), and Sustainability at Boehringer Ingelheim. “You can only improve the health of people and animals if you have a healthy environment.”

One major pillar is the global “More Green” program, which is Boehringer Ingelheim’s network for ecological sustainability. It encompasses a range of activities designed to protect the planet, its resources, and forms of life. Special priorities are placed on achieving carbon neutrality for company processes by the year 2030, reducing supply chain emissions, improving circular economy systems, and reducing water use footprints. Murawski and his more than 350-strong EHS team rely on the power of the entire workforce to generate new sustainability innovations: New ideas are not just promoted from top down, but also from bottom up. In this way, employees become idea generators and drivers of new developments.