Sustainability
Governance for sustainability
It is for everyone in the business to play their part; from our Board of Directors through to all of our employees.
CEO Alan Hirzel has overall responsibility for delivering our linked business and sustainability objectives, supported by every member of the Executive Leadership Team (ELT), the Global Leadership Team (GLT), and championed by SVP of HR, Nick Skinner as our Global Sponsor for Corporate & Social Responsibility.
Oversight of impact is built into our Board structures and our robust governance framework is bolstered by committees, groups and colleagues who feel empowered to instigate and drive activity. This means many of our more impactful programmes are bottom-up.
Not all employee-led activities are instigated through formal groups. Our culture of innovation, collaboration and entrepreneurialism means our people are empowered to be audacious to push for change. Our initiatives to reduce packaging waste in our supply chain, for example, are owned by passionate people in our logistics team.
“I am a passionate advocate of Abcam being the very best place to work that it can be and helping create an environment where our people thrive – not just in their roles but in doing things that they love. From supporting their communities and taking part in charitable activities, to inspiring the next generation of scientists and encouraging diversity. Being energised by a shared cause underpins our business performance, personal wellbeing, engagement, and ultimately the impact that we have in society and on the planet.
To achieve our growth plans we need to attract the very best talent to Abcam so that we are able to continue to help our customer discover more, faster. More and more, a clear stance on sustainability, transparent data and well-articulated stories that demonstrate positive impact in the world are a ‘must have’. People want to love what they do, feel proud of their work for and be part of something bigger than themselves. At Abcam, our culture is what sets us apart and I’m excited by having this channel to tell our sustainability and impact story to all our stakeholders.”
Nick Skinner, SVP HR and Global Sponsor for Corporate & Social Responsibility
Integral to our sustainability journey so far has been our collaborative approach. We listened to all our stakeholders to develop our sustainability framework and inform our next steps.
The assessment process brought in views from external stakeholders, the Board and many senior leaders including all of our Executive Leadership Team. It identified three meta-trends and 17 issues of material importance. Though many others were of interest, we want to focus on what matters most.
Our sustainability framework weaves together our purpose, culture and strategy, and sets out our priority areas.
I am immensely proud of the work we do, the discoveries we enable through our customers, the contribution we make to science, and to the lives and communities we support.
As we continue to create sustainable value, we recognise the actions we take and progress we make are dynamic and ongoing.