Chiesi is the largest global pharmaceutical group to be awarded B Corp Certification, a recognition of high social and environmental standards. It’s an achievement to be proud of, and yet it feels natural: caring for others is at the root of health science and it has always been at the core of our work.
While sustainability has always been important for Chiesi, today it is part of our strategic plan. It means we are committed to improve the quality of life of patients, to protect the planet and its inhabitants, to support our communities, to favour the development of our people and to guarantee the transparency of our work. As part of this process, we have chosen to become a Benefit Corporation, an innovative legal status that allows us to serve a double purpose: not just creating value for our shareholders, but pursuing the general public benefit. Internally, we launched “We Act - Actively Care for Tomorrow”, a sustainability program that engaged the whole Chiesi population into a coordinated effort.
Our B Corp certification has been a truly global and collective achievement. Since 2018, 28 branches were involved in a process of assessment and improvement. With a unified measuring standard we were able to identify areas of evolution in the whole company and to establish best practices that we then spread across all our branches in the world. A whole year was dedicated to defining actions for corporate and local improvement, involving dozens of people in country teams.
B Corps are companies that balance profit and purpose, meeting the highest standards of social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability. The B Corp movement includes over 2.700 companies in 64 countries, with a shared goal to use business as a force for good. Becoming a B Corp requires achieving a minimum score on the B Impact Assessment, a rigorous assessment of the company’s impact on its workers, customers, community, and environment, and publishing a yearly Impact Report for transparency.
Since 2016 Italy ranks top worldwide and was the first country after the US to introduce Benefit Companies, a new legal business entity forming a solid foundation with which to align and protect the company’s mission, in addition to generating long-term shared value. Chiesi became a Benefit Company in 2018 in accordance with Italian law no. 208/2015, incorporating into its articles 4 specific purposes concerning its patients, the community, its employees, its suppliers and the environment where it operates, as well as a more general purpose of common good.
Benefit Companies represent one of the most advanced models in terms of positive social and environmental business impact. They are for-profit companies whose business purpose has a dual objective: creating value for both shareholders and stakeholders. Combined, these constitute a global movement of ‘Purpose Driven Businesses’, whose aim is to ensure that a more evolved economic paradigm becomes more widespread, in which the company is seen as a key player in regenerating society and the biosphere. The Benefit Company movement intends to promote healthy competition between all companies, as the way they work is assessed and evaluated according to the same benchmark: their positive impact on society and the planet, as well as their financial results.
Benefit Companies are also required to present an annual Impact Report indicating a series of objectives regarding the specific business purposes set down in their company articles. Click here for the Chiesi Farmaceutici S.p.A. Impact Report included within the 2019 Sustainability Report.
