Corporate Social Responsibility

Our CSR Approach

As the world leader in serving science, we understand that we have a unique opportunity and responsibility to use our position to make a positive impact on society – not only by enabling our customers’ success, but also through our actions as a Company to make the world a better place. Our CSR approach is focused on four key pillars – Operations, Colleagues, Communities and Environment. This strategic framework allows us to effectively manage ESG priorities that are fundamental to our business, driving competitive differentiation, and creating sustainable value for all our stakeholders.

 

Our CSR strategy supports our long-term success as we continue to create a great place to work for our colleagues, provide high-quality products for our customers, deliver strong returns for our shareholders, make a difference in our communities and reduce our impact on the environment.

 

Reporting

In line with our commitment to transparency, we publish an annual CSR Report that outlines our progress consistent with our CSR strategy. Sustainability reporting standards, guidelines and frameworks are important tools for understanding and communicating the impact of business on critical sustainability issues.

 

To prepare this report, we consider internationally recognized standards, guidelines and frameworks including United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards, the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), Foundation’s SASB Standards for Medical Equipment and Devices, and the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).

Download the 2022 Corporate Social Responsibility Report

Our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports are available to provide further detail to our CSR Programs and the progress we make each year. You can download current and previous years reports in PDF format below.

CDP Reporting

 

Climate change 2023 2022 2021
Water security 2023 2022 2021
Assurance statements   2022 2021

 

Stakeholder engagement

We are committed to creating sustainable value for all our stakeholders.

 

Our robust stakeholder engagement program includes proactive outreach on a regular basis throughout the year to help us understand our stakeholders’ evolving interests and expectations as we build strong relationships and mutual understanding of the issues most relevant to the Company’s success. These interactions are invaluable and stakeholder input informs our CSR strategy, which is actively refreshed to identify opportunities to create value and minimize risk.

Materiality assessment

In line with the Company’s growth and evolution, we conducted an initial materiality assessment in 2019 through an in-depth process led by an independent third-party advisor to evaluate the environmental, social and governance (ESG) topics most material to our business and our stakeholders.

 

The first such helped to identify and prioritize ESG topics using critical inputs from both internal and external stakeholders. The output of that process has shaped our holistic CSR approach, aligning it directly with our business strategy and providing us with insights to drive stronger risk management and greater long-term value creation through the implementation of our plans.

 

Our CSR approach includes regularly refreshing our full materiality assessment in addition to interim assessments to allow us to more actively monitor the dynamic global landscape for real-time insights.

 

Sustainable finance

At Thermo Fisher, we embed our environmental, social and governance (ESG) priorities within the business to drive ownership and progress toward our commitments. Sustainable financing is part of our approach and helps advance initiatives that are fundamental to our Company and deliver positive social and environmental impacts.

 

Sustainable financing framework

Our  Sustainable Financing Framework supports innovations and investments that enable the following:

  • Increasing access to healthcare, vaccines and medicines

  • Advancing racial equity and social justice

  • Enabling sustainable scientific discovery 

  • Protecting and preserving the environment

We intend to allocate 100% of the net proceeds of any sustainable financing instrument to a portfolio of eligible social and green projects that meet the requirements outlined in our framework. We will report annually on both the allocation of net outstanding proceeds and the positive impacts related to financed projects. 

Our framework was developed in alignment with the Green Bond Principles (2021), Social Bond Principles (2021), and Sustainability Bond Guidelines (2021) as published by the International Capital Markets Association (“ICMA”).

Following an independent review, a Second Party Opinion (SPO) of our framework was issued by Sustainalytics, a leading global provider of environmental, social and corporate governance research and ratings.

Sustainability bond report

On November 18, 2021, we issued a €550.0 million sustainability bond in line with our Sustainable Financing Framework. We are pleased to report we have fully allocated the net proceeds of this bond.

 

Our Sustainability Bond Report 2022 details the allocation of proceeds and the impact of investments with the accompanying management attestation and auditor limited assurance.

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