Lilly Releases Corporate Responsibility Update

Eli Lilly released its annual report containing updates on progress and new initiatives in corporate responsibility. The Corporate Responsibility Report contains updates on longstanding programs, as well as data for 2011. The report also serves as the company's annual Communication on Progress to the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC). As a signatory of the UNGC, Lilly shares its progress annually on 10 principles related to human rights, labor, the environment, and anticorruption.

Included in the report are highlights indicating that Lilly:

• Gave more than $590 million in charitable contributions in 2011, including cash, products, and other in-kind donations, and also including contributions made through the company's patient assistance programs

• Introduced The Lilly Global Health Innovation Campaign. The campaign encompassses two corporate responsibility programs, the Lilly NCD Partnership and the Lilly MDR-TB Partnership, aimed at improving health for people in need in developing countries

• Received a perfect score of 100 on the Human Rights Campaign's "Best Places to Work: Corporate Equality Index" in 2011

• Selected 200 employees to volunteer two weeks each, on company time, in countries where people lack resources or access to quality healthcare

• Reduced serious injury and lost-time injury rates each by 50% since 2007

• Decreased water intake by more than 25% and waste to landfill by 40% compared with 2007

• Improved energy efficiency by more than 15% compared with 2007, and reduced corresponding greenhouse gas emissions by more than 15%.

"Increasingly, we are integrating the concept of 'shared value' into the way we operate," said John C. Lechleiter, PhD, Lilly chairman, president and chief executive officer in a company press release. "Using our business expertise to help address pressing social needs opens up new opportunities for us to provide solutions to health challenges the world over. We believe this approach will help to create enduring value for society and for Lilly."