Dr Reddy’s Laboratories announces major recognitions in gender equality and sustainability

Dr Reddy’s Laboratories has announced major recognitions in gender equality and sustainability. Dr Reddy’s has been included in the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index (GEI) 2023 for a sixth consecutive year, featuring as the only Indian pharma company. The 2023 index includes 484 companies representing 11 sectors, 45 countries and a market capitalisation of $16 trillion. The index measures gender equality across internal company statistics, employee policies, external community support and engagement, and gender-conscious product offerings. The Bloomberg GEI reporting framework includes over 70 metrics, each allocated to one of the following five pillars – leadership and talent pipeline, equal pay and gender pay parity, inclusive culture, anti-sexual harassment policies, and external brand.

A company statement informed, “In 2022, Dr. Reddy’s adopted bold social goals as part of its Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) agenda to contribute to a fairer and more socially inclusive world through diversity, equity and inclusion measures – at least 35 per cent women in senior leadership by 2030; gender parity across the organisation by 2035; three per cent of the workforce to be persons with disabilities by 2030; and 100 per cent living wages for on-premise extended workforce by 2025. Through the course of the year, the company introduced several measures to increase the proportion of women in leadership, in key business units, and to create an environment to support the hiring of women in ‘non-traditional’ areas such as sales and operations. The concerted efforts towards gender equality helped the company achieve year-on-year improvement in its score.”

Dr Reddy’s has been included as a member of the Sustainability Yearbook 2023 for a third consecutive year based on the S&P Global Corporate Sustainability Assessment (CSA) for 2022. The CSA covers assessment of 61 industries, 7,800 companies, 140,000 documents and 14 million data points. To earn inclusion in the Yearbook, companies must score within the top 15 per cent of their industry and must achieve an S&P Global Sustainability Score within 30 per cent of their industry’s top-performing company.

Relatedly, based on the CSA and further screening criteria, Dr Reddy’s has also been named among global sustainability leaders for the seventh year in a row in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) in the Emerging Markets category, highlighting our value-creation and risk-mitigation ESG potential. The DJSI Emerging Markets Index represents the top 10 per cent of the 800 largest companies in 20 emerging markets based on long-term economic, environmental and social criteria.

GV Prasad, Co-Chairman & Managing Director, Dr Reddy’s said, “We are pleased to earn continued recognition from prestigious global bodies such as S&P Global, DJSI and Bloomberg GEI. We have consciously attempted to set ourselves bold goals in order to contribute meaningfully to the shaping of a sustainable, fair and inclusive society. We started our sustainability journey two decades ago. Last year marked a major shift in our approach. Our ESG goals expanded from a heavy emphasis on environment to cover all aspects of ESG – environmental stewardship, helping patients, employees and community, and corporate governance. We moved from a good-to-do approach to placing ESG right at the core of our business strategy. This led to the adoption of distinctive patient-centric goals on access, affordability and innovation for patients. By making our goals clear and measurable, we have created strong accountability. With 20 years of leadership in sustainability in Indian industry, we see it as our responsibility to set the bar high and deliver on these ambitious targets.”

Dr Reddy’s released its first Sustainability Report in the year 2004. Subsequently, the company introduced a ‘sustainability by design’ approach in its operations in 2013. Over the years, Dr. Reddy’s’ efforts in various aspects of ESG such as waste minimisation, water management, carbon emissions, transparent governance, investment in people development and other areas saw industry-leading initiatives such as zero liquid discharge, zero waste to landfills and Self-Managed Teams. The company adopted its first set of ESG goals in 2010 followed by their materiality assessment in 2020. The same year, Dr. Reddy’s became the first pharma company in India and the third in Asia to join the Science-based Targets initiative (SBTi) to reduce its carbon footprint. In 2022, Dr Reddy’s announced its new ESG goals. Among recent recognitions, in December 2022, Dr. Reddy’s Foundation was recognised by the President of India for its work in empowering persons with disabilities.