Pfizers miljö- och ansvarsblogg

So, the year 2011 has soon come to an end…

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These days, in the end of the year, it is almost impossible to open a magazine or a newspaper without finding a list of the most important things that happened in 2011. My own list would look something like this (if I take it from a strictly professional perspective). It is worth mentioning that I have not put the “happenings” in any ranking order, these are just some things that come to my mind sitting here in front of the computer.

- The National Pharmaceutical Strategy was published and it did highlight some important issues around Pharmaceuticals and the Environment (e.g. the so called action items number 7.1 to 7.4). One very important action item in the Strategy is number 7.1: Sofia Wallström’s review on environmental considerations within the frame of the pricing and reimbursement system.

- In parallell with the work to develop the Strategy, LIF run a series of round-table discussions (and break-out work group sessions) to develop ideas around green criteria and green economic incentives. These discussions will both be important for action item number 7.1 in the Strategy (see above) and for 7.2: “Encourage voluntary control of emissions from pharmaceutical factories” (see for instance this link for more information)

- As a consequence of the discussions around the National Pharmaceutical Strategy and Sustainability, a work-group within LIF, consisting of among others members from the Environmental Committee, developed a strategy called “4 steps to a sustainable use of pharmaceuticals“.

- I started working part-time at LIF (the Swedish Association of the Research Based Pharmaceutical Industry). It is fun, interesting and challeging - exactly as I want it! I will be the project leader for action item 7.2 in the National Pharmaceutical Strategy, and also develop a CSR strategy or program for LIF.

- LIF has, in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders in the sector, planned for a campaign to be run during spring 2012 on the importance to bring back, to any pharmacy of your choice, any un-used medicines. This is regradless of where you have purchased them. More to come on this item during 2012.

- The All Party Committee on Environmental Objectives was initiated. One of the first priorities is the objective “A Non-toxic Environment”. See the blog post from the initial meeting of the work-group on Pharmaceuticals and the Environment, which is a prioritized issue in the review of the “Non-toxic Environment-objective”.

- One of the most discussed items within the field of pharmaceuticals and the environment was MPA’s report on how GMP can be amended with environmental requirements. An item that will be high on the agenda for several years to come, that’s for sure.

- When it comes to Public Procurement the most important thing that happened during 2011 was that County Councils finally started to follow-up their criteria, and company answers, on environmental and social responsibility issues. See this link for some more details.

- MistraPharma got funding for an additional 4 year period. If you would like to meet one of MistraPharma’s project managers “face-to-face” please have a look on the TEDx lecture given by Joakim Larsson on pharmaceutical substance releases from manufacturing.

- The end of the Dizza Tobak project. After three extremely fun and interesting years our collaboration with among others SAMBA and A Non Smoking Generation the project has come to an end. It will be interesting to see how we manage to build on the experiences we have gained and on the lessons we have learned when it comes to working with youth advocacy leaders and social media.

- The EU communication on CSR was published (see the communication, and also some of my comments on CSR and corporations, e.g. “an enterprise 2020 company“, and how a CSR program in a company can be communicated to colleagues). I will for sure come back to this issue several times during 2012 in my work on developing a CSR strategy/program for LIF.

- The political summit in Almedalen was as always stimulating as well as very interesting. See some of my reflections to seminars and meetings via this link.

- We saw a good participation in Earth Hour 2011, but few political achievements during the large UN Climate Conference in Durban. Cannot really say that I believe any real breakthrough to happen here during 2012…

- I received the award “Women’s Heart of the Year” (in Swedish: Årets Kvinnohjärta) from the Sollentuna Kvinnojour. I have to admit that I am very proud!

- My blogpost number 400 was written… It has become quite a few blog posts during these years… I am actually kind of proud of this as well! It presents a good opportunity for interactive communication, although I have to say that I would still welcome much more comments!

If you would like to read a summary of year 2010 and the ideas and expectations I had for 2011 roughly a year ago follow this link. As you see, some things hang around several years…

The final phase of the Dizza Tobak project…

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We are now in the final weeks of the Dizza Tobak project…

The project was initiated three years ago. It has been a collaboration between, among others, Pfizer Foundation, Pfizer AB, SAMBA, A Non Smoking Generation, and American Cancer Society (ACS). The project is a tobacco prevention initiative, where teenagers are creating e.g. videos to share the message that “tobacco is NOT cool” through their social media channels and through other communication channels. Their contributions have been uploaded on the Dizza Tobak web site. Have a look - there are so many good pieces there! If you want more details on the project please read any of my many blog posts on Dizza Tobak. You’ll find them in the “Dizza Tobak Category Archive“. 

Anders Lönegård, the project manager from SAMBA, is right now finalizing “Dizza Tobak - the Book” and “Dizza Tobak - the Movie” where stories, experiences, lessons learned etc will be told. I promise to come back to the topic as soon as there are more stuff to share. It has been a very successful project, and it is definitely worth sharing!

CSR - a topic with a number of different perspectives

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CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) or Corporate Responsibility (CR) as it is called more and more frequently, is a topic with a very broad range of possible perspectives. It includes everything from charity sponsorship in the local community, via large scale philanthropic programs on a global scale, to core operational strategies for corporations to adopt to longterm changes in the world such as demographic changes, climate change etc. It includes both social sustainability as well as environmental sustainability initiatives.

One thing that became very obvious for me yesterday is that depending on the forum for the discussion, the “local” or the “global” perspective tend to dominate. In the morning I sat down with the CSR reference group to Swedish ICC (International Chamber of Commerce). And for quite obvious reasons, the global and international perspectives were dominating our discussions. Issues on the agenda included anti-corruption programs, human rights, democracy issues in countries such as South Africa and how corporations’ investments are affected by these issues. In order to learn more on those perspectives I recommend you to read “John Ruggie’s principles on business and human rights“.

And later on yesterday I sat down with Marianne Bogle from CSR Sweden and discussed CSR issues in a more “Swedish context”. In addition to discussions related to Enterprise 2020 Companies and similar initiatives, we also discussed very local CSR initiatives. What kind of initiatives are undertaken in the local community? What are the drivers for “community investments”? Personally I believe that both local community initiatives as well as global programs are crucial for good CSR performance. And actually, very often the local initiatives are more embraced by your own colleagues since they can take an active part in those initiatives. It is of course often also easier to show direct positive impact on the local scale.

I think it is important not to forget any of these different perspectives when CSR initiatives are discussed. Very often the discussions tend to stick on the global issues such as human rights and anti-corruption, but as I said, the local programs are also crucial for success!

Charity or a Social Investment?

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Petra Wahlström has published an interesting article on csr-i-praktiken.se regarding the different views on charity or corporate donations in US and in Sweden. I have discussed the same topic quite often myself, based upon Pfizer’s philanthropic programs. Our so called Global Health programs include initiatives such as Infectious Diseases Institute, Diflucan Partnership Program, and International Trachoma Initiative, and have a magnitude of approximately 2,4 billion US dollars per year. I had the privilege in October last year to review these programs on-site in Africa, and I was heavily impressed. Read about my thoughts via e.g. these links:

- A day at the Infectious Diseases Institute

- A day with the International Trachoma Initiative

- A day with the Diflucan Partnership Program

What puzzles me is the different reactions I receive when I present these kind of programs for stakeholders in for instance the US and here in Sweden. As Petra Wahlström points out in her article, these initiatives are something looked upon as very positive, and to be honest almost expected from a large corporation such as Pfizer Inc., in the United States. However, here in Sweden stakeholders are “suspicious” - does Pfizer have a “hidden agenda” or something like that? Hence, I actually here in Sweden very often talk about these philanthropic or charity programs as longterm social investments. If we as a corporation help to build the needed healthcare infrastructure (e.g. via Infectious Diseases Institute), these countries have a better ability to fully utilize the large pharmaceutical product donations (in programs such as Diflucan Parnership and International Trachoma Initiative). Through this work we save lifes, we help to build these countries, and from a longterm commercial perspective build future markets for our products and services. Today we cannot charge for the products and services, but as the prosperity grow in those countries, we eventually will have that possibility. And it is so interesting to see that when people here in Sweden receive that perspective of the philanthropic programs they somehow loose their “suspicious mindset”. It is strange, but as Petra Wahlström says:

“I USA är välgörenhet en självklarhet. Men i Sverige är synen på att skänka pengar en annan.”

(In English: In the US charity is something taken for granted. But in Sweden, the view on money donations is different.”)

Sharing our CSR programs with colleagues

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Our best Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) ambassadors are of course our own colleagues. They meet customers and other stakeholders, including their own friends and families, on a daily basis. Their knowledge and participation is crucial for our success in interactively spreading the information about our environmental and social sustainability programs. It is also obvious that lack of knowledge, understanding and information among our collegues about those programs would make all CSR communication via web-pages etc look like a “fake facade without any content”…

Hence, I am happy to see, and participate myself of course, that our CSR programs are being shared with our colleagues. During this week at the “kick-off autumn conference” at Hasseludden outside Stockholm. There has been e.g. good opportunities for our collegues to visit a booth where Kristina Sandberg and others have shown Pfizer’s different products and services in addition to the medicines themselves. In the picture below, you’ll see Kristina presenting a brochure called “Pfizer och Ansvarsfullt Företagande - en introduktion till Pfizers hållbarhetsarbete” (in English roughly “Pfizer and Corporate Responsibility - an introduction to Pfizer’s Sustainability Programs).

Discussions about CSR-programs

The broschure is a very brief introduction which is intended to guide the reader to the CSR and sustainability information on pfizer.se. There you will find information in three levels - an introduction on Level 1, some more information about the programs on Level 2, and details on Level 3.

The CSR brochure

Visitors to the “more than medication-booth” were guided by a sign proclaiming “The grass is really greener here”. A funny and smart sign in my opinion!

The grass is greener here

I have given presentations in some more depth to colleagues. Important slides in those presentations are some of my old favourites that you will know if you have read my blog previosuly.

Giving a lecture on CSR

There was of course the slide about the “Sustainable Quadrant” that I have borrowed from Stina Billinger from SPP:

The Sustainable Quadrant

There was of course also the Walderik-Mattson pyramid:

Walderik-Mattson pyramid

These days have been fun and as I said in the beginning of the blog post, very important. Our colleagues are our strongest and most crucial ambassadors!