J&J integrates ESG into our business strategies, starting at the highest levels of leadership, where the Board has overall accountability for ESG risk management oversight. Our ESG strategy informs our approach to delivering positive impact for our stakeholders while managing ESG-related risks and opportunities.
Our Credo
Our Purpose
We blend heart, science and ingenuity to profoundly impact health for humanity.
ESG FOCUS AREAS
Champion global health equity
Foster better health for people, communities and planet, improving access and affordability around the world.
Empower our employees
Empowering employees through caring, learning, and inclusion.
Advance environmental health
Protect environmental health and the resilience of our business.
Lead with accountability and innovation
Commitment to science and data-driven decision making, compliance, integrity and responsible business practices across the value chain.
In 2023, we launched the Enterprise Compliance & Risk Committee (ECRC). The ECRC combines the functions of the former Enterprise Governance Council, which served as the Enterprise governance function for ESG and the Corporate Compliance Committee, which served as the primary governance structure for coordinating compliance-related risks across the Enterprise. The ECRC, chaired by our Chief Technical Operations & Risk Officer with representatives from our business segments and enterprise risk functions, operates as a single body providing governance and oversight over the management of current and emerging risks and facilitating action planning across the Company. (See also: Corporate governance).
ESG strategy
Our ESG strategy is grounded in Our Credo values, informed by both our Company’s purpose to profoundly impact health for humanity and the views of our external stakeholders. The strategy focuses our efforts on the areas where we are well positioned to achieve the greatest impact: championing global health equity, empowering our employees and advancing environmental health. Leading with accountability and innovation is foundational to these efforts. Our ESG approach is designed to effectively govern and manage risks, including ESG risks, while enabling us to identify opportunities that accurately reflect our business strategy.
For more information on how we are managing ESG risks and embedding sustainability into decision making, which is a critical component of our ESG governance, please see our Position on ESG Governance.
ESG priorities
We regularly undertake a process to identify and prioritize the ESG topics that are relevant to our business and serve to inform our strategic approach to ESG. We call this process our Priority Topics Assessment (PTA), and it involves analysis of business impacts, trends, and extensive engagement with stakeholders. To view our Priority Topics as of our last assessment (2021), see our ESG Performance Data and Indices.
ESG goals
Our Health for Humanity Goals are guided by Our Credo and PTA, and focused on areas where we believe we are best positioned to have the greatest impact. Developments in 2023, including the separation of our Consumer Health business, evolution in our portfolio and activities in the external environment prompted us to update our approach. For example, three goals—Access to HIV Treatment, Global Access Plans and Preventative Vaccine Capabilities—were impacted by changes within our portfolio mix. Additionally, we concluded certain goals early, including our Tuberculosis-related goals; Access to Schizophrenia Treatment; Women in STEM2D; Healthiest Workforce; Supplier Sustainability Program; and Partnerships for Good. We also highlight in the Global health equity section the two goals we achieved in 2023.
As part of our process, we engaged with stakeholders and received consistent feedback that we should clearly define our priorities and look for opportunities to streamline. Our updated Health for Humanity Goals, which are presented throughout this Report in the relevant sections, reflect this evolution. We will publicly track performance against these goals and continue to report our ongoing work in other areas. The data relating to our goals in this Report continue to be assured by a third party.
Stakeholder engagement
The longstanding relationships we have with our policy, advocacy and industry association stakeholders are vital to our business success and our ESG strategy. J&J interacts with numerous stakeholders at the global, national and local levels, through membership and participation in a broad range of forums. Policies & Positions: Position on Stakeholder Engagement
A selection of our activities in 2023 include:
Advancing the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) agenda
J&J engaged throughout APEC 2023 to advance three priorities: developing sustainable health financing models, enhancing data science practices and strengthening supply chain resilience. APEC is a forum comprising 21 economies that represent 40% of the global population and nearly 50% of global trade. J&J’s engagement included:
- representing the healthcare industry in engagements with Health Ministers to reinforce the importance of medical innovation to support better patient outcomes;
- opening new channels of communication and partnership on supply chain resilience with APEC Transportation and Trade Ministers;
- maintaining our decade-long involvement with the APEC Business Ethics Forum, to raise the bar in ethics for life science SMEs;
- convening policy dialogues on UHC in collaboration with the U.S. and other APEC economies to advance specific recommendations; and
- initiating a collaboration with United Parcel Service to advance policy reforms for strengthening healthcare supply chain resilience.
Advocating for health equity
We actively engaged with U.S. state and federal policy and advocacy partners to demonstrate our strategic commitment to advancing a policy environment that supports innovation and health equity for our patients.
In 2023, for example, at the Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) Legislative Leadership Summit, we affirmed our support for the passage of the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act—the first legislation in the U.S. focused on improving healthcare workers’ mental health. At the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation (CBCF) Annual Legislative Conference, J&J volunteers conducted peripheral arterial disease (PAD) screenings for conference attendees and provided resources from our My Health Can’t Wait effort. J&J also joined the National Conference of State Legislators (NCSL) Women In Government Summit to speak about eliminating racial disparities in healthcare.
We recognize we have a fundamental responsibility to leverage our resources to drive forward positive change in critical areas, such as health equity and greater economic opportunity. J&J is dedicated to helping eradicate racial and social injustice as a public health threat by eliminating health inequities for people of color.”
Supporting healthcare policymaking in Europe
As the founding knowledge partner and sponsor of All Policies for a Healthy Europe Coalition, we strengthened our advocacy through publications and policy dialogues in three areas: the economy of well-being, the digitalization of health and environmental health. Through The Coalition for Health, Ethics and Society, a joint initiative by the European Policy Center and J&J, we held multi-stakeholder dialogues covering the ethical aspects of access to healthcare, affordability and patient choice.
Participating in global convenings to advance healthcare systems
J&J’s participation in the 2023 UN General Assembly and related events centered on UHC, pandemic preparedness and response, TB, the intersection of climate and health and the rise of digital health. J&J assumed a leadership role in the UHC2030 multi-stakeholder platform (co-hosted by the World Bank and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development [OECD]), representing the private sector on the Task Force that that helped form the UHC Political Declaration (PD) draft. The final text emphasized sustainable financing, primary healthcare and addressing the global health workforce crisis as key to achieving UHC worldwide.
Supporting the healthcare workforce
We collaborated with several organizations in support of the healthcare workforce. Our engagements included:
- supporting an educational session on advocacy for UHC, gender equity, and the health workforce at the Women Deliver Conference in Kigali;
- continuing to participate in the Frontline Health Workers Coalition’s Policy Working Group, advancing the introduction of a Congressional Resolution.
Maternal mental health
We continued to promote maternal health and supported state efforts to advance legislation extending Medicaid postpartum coverage to 12 months for new mothers, helping address disproportionate maternal mortality outcomes in disadvantaged communities. J&J also convened state legislators and community stakeholders to improve awareness, diagnosis, access and treatment of maternal mental health conditions at the 2023 National Conference of State Legislators’ Annual Legislative Conference.
