Sustainability at CSL

^{Pictured: HAE Patients Cheryl, Leah & Emma}

Committed to a Healthier World

Family outside CSL is committed to a healthier world. Our vision is a sustainable future for our employees, communities, patients and donors, inspired by innovative science and a values-driven culture.
For over a century we have earned trust by striving to fulfill our promise to improve the lives of our patients and donors and safeguard public health. And we remain committed to providing innovative medicines with an unparalleled level of care to drive a sustainable future for generations to come.

This promise means we will never stop reimagining what it means to provide care. That extends to all our stakeholders. The sustainable growth of our business relies upon us staying true to our purpose, driving responsible and ethical behaviours with integrity and further embedding sustainability considerations and practices across our organisation. While it won't be without challenges, we are committed to this path.

Our Sustainability Strategy

Since first announcing our sustainability strategy in 2021, we continue to evolve our approach. Our sustainability efforts aim to complement and support achievement of CSL’s long-term strategy, establishing a foundation for shared value creation and enduring success through 2030 and beyond.

Driven by its vision for a healthier world, CSL has identified focus areas where it can have the most positive impact. These focus areas include existing emissions environmental targets as well as new initial goals for other focus areas that seek to enable healthier communities and environments.

We have also identified broader shared outcomes, otherwise known as cross-cutting themes, that can be realised across a number of our focus areas.

While our strategy directs our focus to areas of specific importance, we will always have a strong foundation of best-practice corporate governance, an area of strength for CSL. For example, CSL’s sustainability focus areas are guided by our material sustainability topics, which inform continuous improvement across its operations and transparency in areas that matter most to CSL’s key stakeholders.

Our sustainability strategy supports delivery of our 2030 plan.

Graphic of CSL's Sustainability Strategy Focus Area

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Healthier Environment

Delivering on our promise to preserve a healthier planet.

Energy – reduce carbon emissions across our operations and supply chain
Water – identify, prioritise and implement water reduction initiatives
Waste – minimise end-to-end production of waste through removal, reduction & recycling

Image of happy family playing in a green park

Healthier Communities

Providing better care for brighter days ahead.

Donor experience – create best-in-class donor experience in partnership with donors and communities by continuously innovating the donation process, supporting donors' holistic well-being, and investing in the health equity of donor communities
Patient experience - elevate the patient experience in drug development by embedding patient insights and lived experience through patient-informed clinical development programs and formalising diversity plans to include representative populations.
Access and affordability - advance equitable access to our medicines and vaccines by designing programs around vulnerable populations and expanding strategic donations.

Image of work colleagues shaking hands in an office and smiling

Promising Futures

It’s the people behind our promise that makes us different.

Talent and culture – attract, develop, and retain top talent with a diversity of identities, cultures, backgrounds, skills, and lived experiences through robust talent pipelines, personalised development journeys, and an embedded culture of inclusion where all backgrounds and perspectives belong, develop, and thrive
Supplier – extend commitment to sustainability beyond our four walls and across our value chain, by extending our inclusion and belonging values to tier 1 suppliers, setting higher supplier diversity targets and providing support for diverse suppliers

Our Approach to Sustainability

Stakeholder Engagement

Stakeholder engagement is a foundation of our approach to sustainability, and we have identified our key stakeholders as patient groups, employees, investors, regulators, suppliers, government, healthcare professionals, plasma donors, business partners and the academic and scientific community. Learn More about Our Engagement

Material Topics

Our sustainability focus areas are further guided by our material topics, which inform continuous improvement across our operations and transparency in areas that matter most to our key stakeholders.

CSL’s Executive Sustainability Committee has overall responsibility for the materiality process and executes a global materiality assessment on a biennial basis. In 2024, we concluded our sixth assessment and followed the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI 3) Material Topics 2021. Learn More About Our Material Topics

Sustainability Governance

Our Purpose and Values form the foundation of CSL's global commitment to sustainability. Our Code of Responsible Business Practice further guides and shapes the way we do business. It defines our ethical standards and sets out our commitment to sustainable development.

Sustainability is governed by CSL's Executive Sustainability Committee. The Committee facilitates the development of our sustainability strategy and targets and drives awareness, integration and continuous improvement throughout the Company. The Committee reports to the CEO/ Managing Director and is further supported by the Board's committees.

View Our Code of Responsible Business Practice

Support for the UN Sustainable Development Goals SDGs

We continue to be guided by the General Assembly of the United Nations’ (UN) 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which includes 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The goals seek to address global challenges, including those related to health and wellbeing, inequality, innovation and climate change.

For CSL, these goals continue to inform our sustainability strategy and we have identified SDGs 3, 5, 9 and 13 as key goals where our sustainability performance can positively support their achievement.

CSL develops and delivers innovative medicines that save lives, protect public health and help people with life-threatening medical conditions live full lives. CSL holds more than 5,000 active and valid product registrations (including varying vial sizes) in over 100 countries, supporting newborns through to the elderly. Our support for patient groups and their programs helps to raise awareness and diagnosis of rare and serious diseases, improve access to our life-saving therapies and protect public health.

More information is available in CSL’s Annual Report.

CSL strives to create an open and trusting work environment characterised by equal opportunity, as well as a diverse, inclusive, collaborative and values-based culture. We rely on our people’s unique perspectives, ideas, capabilities and experiences to deliver for our business, our patients and our shareholders. We believe diversity and inclusion are crucial to strong business growth and performance.

More information is available in CSL’s Annual Report.

Our product portfolio focuses on innovation in new products, improved products and manufacturing expertise, thereby ensuring our continued growth. We enter into collaborative partnerships to further the science and prospects for successful product development. These partnerships often result in shared knowledge, intellectual property or products.

More information is available in CSL’s Annual Report.

At CSL, we recognise that responsible management and efficient use of natural resources is a key to our sustainable growth and our ability to enable efficient and reliable supply of our life-saving medicines. We believe this makes us a stronger, more resilient business better prepared to navigate the future.

In 2022, we announced enterprise emissions reduction targets. In alignment with science-based targets, we commit to a 40% reduction in absolute Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions by 2030, using the average of CSL’s FY19-21 emissions as the basis. Further, we intend to ensure that suppliers who contribute 67% of our Scope 3 emissions have set Science Based Targets initiative or science-based targets aligned Scope 1 and 2 reductions by 2030.

More information is available in CSL’s Annual Report.

Our Performance

Performance across our focus areas will support execution of our 2030 Strategy and our promise to improve the lives of patients and protect public health. Our approach is further guided by our material topics, which inform continuous improvement across our operations and transparency in areas that matter most to our key stakeholders.

CSL’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance has been recognised by the FTSE4Good Index Series, a leading sustainability index, for the last 13 years.
In 2024, CSL achieved the highest possible rating of AAA (on a scale of AAA-CCC) in the MSCI ESG Ratings assessment. MSCI focuses on companies’ ESG rated performance in each sector to help institutional investors more effectively integrate ESG considerations into their investment processes, as well as manage, measure, and report on ESG mandates.
As at June 2023, CSL’s Sustainalytics ESG Risk Rating overall score is 24.4 with an ESG risk rating category of medium (on a 5-point scale from negligible to severe), ranking 196 out of 921 for the pharmaceuticals industry and 85 out of 405 in the biotechnology subindustry category (1st equals lowest risk). Sustainalytics provides analytical ESG research, ratings and data to institutional investors and companies.