Katie Cadge, Steph Barnes, Owen White
Business for Social Good
Pfizer One Young World Ambassadors continued to make an impact in the Sustainability Steering Committee in 2022, increasing the calibre and scale of the work under its three pillars of internal activation, governance, and external engagement. The initiative also welcomed two new Ambassadors into its ranks, Katie and Owen, following the Manchester 2022 Summit.
Following the success of its carbon footprint measurement reporting and the start of their employee engagement strategy in 2021, the team expanded the reach & impact of these efforts throughout 2022. They organised the One Pfizer, One Planet webinar for their colleagues, inviting Will Day, Fellow of the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL), to speak about the climate crisis. Steph connected with Will Day through a One Young World event in London. Off the back of that webinar, the team expanded the Today Do This workshop series from two pilots in 2021 to an additional five events in 2022.
The committee also developed a compulsory One Pfizer, One Planet e-learning module following the success of the aforementioned webinar. The module provided information on the climate crisis, and also Pfizer’s Net Zero by 2040 goal and subgoals. They have successfully grown the ‘UK Sustainability Team’ Champions group, doubling its membership and setting the foundations for future activation for sustainability causes within Pfizer. The committee plans to enable the implementation of sustainability initiatives from the Champions group that align with Pfizer’s overarching sustainability strategy.
Pfizer UK hosts an annual National Conference for around 700 employees, and for the first time ever, included Net Zero on the event agenda, led by the Sustainability Steering Committee. Peter Collins, Director of Global Health & Social Impact at Pfizer, gave a speech demystifying Net Zero for Pfizer and the broader healthcare system. Steph then spoke about five actions that her Pfizer colleagues can take to positively impact sustainability within the company.
The steering committee has expanded their educational engagement to senior leadership, building two bespoke workshops, one for commercial leaders and the other for Pfizer UK’s medical directors. The team continues to quantify the company’s carbon footprint annually, in line with government regulations. Katie was selected as one of four UN SDG Young Innovators, a programme that involved equipping participants with the tools to create change and prioritising solutions to sustainability challenges. This has led to Pfizer UK joining the Sustainable Medicines Partnership as a Founding Collaborator.
In 2023 the team is seeking to apply a sustainability lens to some of Pfizer’s core business activities in the UK to really integrate the knowledge built up with colleagues over the last two years with their everyday business responsibilities.
“I was blown away by my first One Young World Summit experience at Manchester last year. The most impactful part for me was being surrounded by so many young leaders, all with diverse experiences but united by their drive to create change for the better. It was inspiring to hear first-hand how Ambassadors are delivering meaningful innovation across the SDGs, industries, and the globe - just the motivation we needed as a team to push our ambitions for 2023 and beyond!” - Katie Cadge