For more than 130 years, Johnson & Johnson has worked toward one chief goal: help keep people healthy at every age and stage of life.
As the world’s largest healthcare company, Johnson & Johnson strives to ensure that each new generation is healthier than the last by investing in the people, products and initiatives that will have the biggest global impact into the future.
In its just-released 2017 Health for Humanity Report, the company is sharing the progress it made last year toward fulfilling that aspiration—through its commitments to the U.N.’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, as well as its own Health for Humanity 2020 Goals.
The report comprises five sections outlining the areas where the company is focusing its main sustainability efforts: Better Health for All, Innovation, Our People, Environmental Health and Responsible Business Practices.
Spoiler: Those efforts helped Johnson & Johnson recently rank #9 on Corporate Responsibility Magazine’s 2018 100 Best Corporate Citizens list, which recognizes the commendable environmental, social and governance performance of public companies across the U.S.
From conducting cutting-edge research to help tackle the world’s most devastating diseases to minimizing its global environmental footprint, here are just a few standout highlights from the 2017 report.
1.
Preventing the spread of diseases, like HIV/AIDS
The mission at Janssen Pharmaceuticals, part of the Johnson & Johnson family of companies, is to invest in tackling today’s most devastating illnesses—while also working to prevent those of tomorrow.
That’s true across its various focus areas—oncology, neuroscience, immunology, vaccines and such infectious diseases as HIV—and with the acquisition of Actelion in 2017, pulmonary hypertension.
“As part of our ongoing, 25-year commitment to make HIV history, we remain committed to the development of medicines to help those living with HIV achieve an improved quality of life,” says Brian Woodfall, Global Head, Late Development, Infectious Diseases & Vaccines, Janssen Research & Development.
That’s why, he says, new HIV drugs tend to focus on helping make patients’ treatment regimens simpler, so it’s easier to adhere to pill-taking protocols—making it less likely they’ll grow resistant to HIV medication along the way.
“Research has shown that reducing pill burden can improve outcomes for people living with HIV,” Woodfall says. “It’s an important step forward in the fight against the disease.”
Another important step is working to actually prevent HIV—one Johnson & Johnson took in 2017, with its initiation of the first efficacy study for a mosaic-based vaccine that could prevent a wide range of viral strains responsible for the HIV pandemic.
2.
Advancing environmental health through smart renewable energy projects
As part of its Health for Humanity 2020 Goals, Johnson & Johnson set future milestones of reducing carbon emissions by 20% and deriving 35% of its electricity use from renewable energy sources by 2020.
To help meet these goals, the company began a massive geothermal energy project at a Janssen site in Beerse, Belgium, in 2017.
In 2017, 13 new Johnson & Johnson sites earned LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.
The thinking: By drilling wells to pump up hot water for use on the property, and then capturing that energy in a heat exchanger before returning it to the earth, the site’s heating needs would be supplied in a sustainable way.
And that’s not all. In 2017, 13 new company sites earned LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification.
This brought the total number of LEED-certified Johnson & Johnson sites to 44—covering nearly 7 million square feet of building space.
3.
Using its reach and size for big-impact social good
GenH Challenge winner Karima Ladhani (right) created Barakat Bundle to provide such essential baby care items as clean birth kits to expectant mothers in South Asia
Take the GenH Challenge, a social innovation competition held in 2017 that invited scientists, doctors, nurses, mothers, midwives and all other aspiring entrepreneurs to pitch their early-stage ideas for helping to solve some of the world’s greatest unmet health needs. The prize: a collective $1 million in funding and other support to further develop their concepts.
“The GenH Challenge was grounded in our belief that a good idea can come from anyone, anywhere—and often comes from innovators on the front lines of community health,” explains Lauren Moore, Vice President, Global Community Impact, Johnson & Johnson.
After receiving more than 300 proposals for projects in 54 countries, in early 2018, six winners were chosen for such ingenious ideas as a necklace that helps doctors ensure a baby is up-to-date on vaccinations, and an affordable antibiotic that treats pneumonia and prevents malnutrition.
There’s also the company’s mMitra service, an innovative mobile-messaging program that sends vital health information to expectant and new moms living in low-income urban communities in India. To date, it’s reached 1 million women—helping earn Johnson & Johnson a top 10 ranking on Fortune’s 2017 Change the World list.
Says Moore: “Changing the trajectory of health for humanity will be most possible when we bring all of our company’s assets to bear—and the reach of our networks and expertise of our sizable employee base gives us a unique opportunity to do just that.”
4.
Reimagining how care is delivered to patients
Johnson & Johnson is intent on helping create a future where every person has access to the essential resources needed for good health—and that includes harnessing the power of cutting-edge technology.
Consumers’ behaviors have a significant impact on health outcomes, but they are often difficult to influence. Johnson & Johnson Health Partner applies proven behavior change techniques to motivate consumers toward those healthy behaviors.
The Johnson & Johnson Health Partner digital platform, launched in 2017 by Johnson & Johnson Health & Wellness Solutions, combines behavior science, data science, human-centered design and health technology to transform the way people prepare for—and recover from—knee, hip or weight-loss surgery.
It comprises three connected tools: a website that provides educational resources, a mobile app to help guide patients through surgery prep and recovery, and a portal designed for healthcare providers that better enables continuous, up-to-date care throughout a patient’s treatment journey.
“Consumers’ behaviors have a significant impact on health outcomes, but they are often difficult to influence,” says Len Greer, President, Johnson & Johnson Health and Wellness Solutions. “Johnson & Johnson Health Partner applies proven behavior change techniques to motivate consumers toward those healthy behaviors and drive improvement in patients’ experience and, ultimately, in health outcomes.”
5.
Prioritizing the health of its 130,000+ global employees
Since the company’s inception in 1886, its leaders have been unrelentingly committed to the well-being of its workforce. Case in point: Johnson & Johnson’s world headquarters in New Jersey has had on-site health and fitness facilities for over a century.
Today, the company offers such best-in-class benefits as an enhanced military leave policy, fertility and surrogacy support and, as of 2017, an expanded global parental leave policy, which enables employees worldwide to take a minimum of eight weeks paid maternity or paternity leave after a birth or adoption.
“Johnson & Johnson is committed to supporting our employees and their families through life’s big and small moments,” explains Peter Fasolo, Ph.D., Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Johnson & Johnson. “By extending parental leave benefits to fathers and adoptive parents throughout the globe, we also strengthened our commitment to diversity, inclusion and support for the modern-day family—no matter what shape that family takes.”
