Introduction from
Peter Butterfield,
Alliance’s CEO
It gives me great pleasure to introduce Alliance’s first online sustainability report. Here you’ll find out how we’ve progressed against our sustainability framework in 2022 and our plans for 2023.
Environmental considerations continued to be a major focus, as we put in place targets for reducing our direct carbon emissions and increased our understanding of the emissions that lie outside our direct control. We will shortly be publishing our first voluntary stand-alone TCFD report, supporting the more extensive voluntary TCFD disclosures included in our 2022 Annual Report. Undertaking the scenario analysis and risk assessment required by the TCFD has served to increase our understanding of the business risks we may face as a result of climate change.
Whilst 2022 may have been a challenging year for Alliance, our commitment to being a responsible corporate citizen, minimising the negative impacts of our operations on the environment, whilst making a positive contribution to society, remains strong.
people
We work hard to maintain our reputation for being a business that respects, values and has a positive impact on our stakeholders, from our colleagues, suppliers and distributors, to our shareholders and our consumers and patients.
MATERIAL FOCUS AREAS
- People & human capital management
- Social impact
- Business ethics
planet
We recognise that everything we do has an impact on the natural environment and on the people and communities within it and we are committed to looking for ways to reduce our impact in these areas to ensure a better future for all.
MATERIAL FOCUS AREAS
- Environmental impacts – supply chain & logistics
- Environmental impacts – our own operations
- Packaging lifecycle management
- Product environmental H&S
Product
We work hard to ensure the quality, safety and efficacy of our products and to maintain reliable supplies. That's how we secure our stakeholders' trust, both in our products and in our business.
MATERIAL FOCUS AREAS
- Product quality & safety
- Ethical sales practices
- Supply chain management
purpose
We empower people to make a positive difference to their health & wellbeing.
2022 Highlights
People
79%
employee engagement (up from 76% in 2021) - as measured by Great Place to Work® Trust Index rating
People
5
People
18
New roles created to support future business growth
People
12,000
products donated to International Health Partners
People
£50,000
Donated to the disasters Emergency Comittee's humanitarian appeal for Ukraine
Planet
26%
reduction in Scope 1 & 2 emissions in 2022 (versus 2021)
Planet
65%
Targeted reduction in Scope 1 & 2 emissions by 2025 (versus 2018)
Product
41
Routine internal audit assessments carried out (in line with target 10% coverage)
Product
19
Supplier site audits carried out (69% coverage – 3-year rolling average)
Product
53
Finished goods supply partners monitored by our Know Your Supplier programme ( >95% coverage)
Product
Partner Code of Conduct published
People
79%
employee engagement (up from 76% in 2021) - as measured by Great Place to Work® Trust Index rating
People
5
People
18
New roles created to support future business growth
People
12,000
products donated to International Health Partners
People
£50,000
Donated to the disasters Emergency Comittee's humanitarian appeal for Ukraine
Planet
26%
reduction in Scope 1 & 2 emissions in 2022 (versus 2018)
Planet
65%
Targeted reduction in Scope 1 & 2 emissions by 2025 (versus 2018)
Product
41
Routine internal audit assessments carried out (in line with target 10% coverage)
Product
19
Supplier site audits carried out (69% coverage – 3-year rolling average)
Product
53
Finished goods supply partners monitored by our Know Your Supplier programme ( >95% coverage)
Product
Partner Code of Conduct published
People
We are committed to operating our business in an ethical and responsible way, helping our people and culture to thrive and considering our customers and supply chain in all our decision making. We also have a social impact strategy to support those in need.
Our overriding objective is to ensure our resourcing adequately supports the business’ medium-term growth ambitions – and that our strong collaborative and inclusive culture, and the people who comprise it, continue to thrive. Detail on our people and culture, and metrics on headcount, gender diversity and employee engagement can be found in our 2022 Annual Report. Additional metrics around the make-up of our employee base and retention rates can be found at here.
Progress in 2022
- Increased employee engagement (as measured by GPTW Trust Index rating) – 79% (up from 76% in 2021)
- Great Place to Work certified in UK, China, Singapore, US (new) & France (new)
- 18 new roles created to support future business growth
- 5% improvement in employee retention versus 2021
- Total headcount increased by 40
- 2,600 meals packed our US team for those in need in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
Focus for 2023
We will be continuing to invest in our capability development and the talent acquisition and retention strategies which support this, as we look to transition the business to becoming a more agile organisation, better equipped to respond to the increasingly fast paced and dynamic environment in which we operate.
.png)
In 2022, we continued our support for International Health Partners. We donated 12,000 products to enable 149,000 treatments to be sent to 10 countries around the world, helping to give people access to the medicines they need.
We also made a £50,000 donation to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s humanitarian appeal, to support those affected by the war in Ukraine.
Our US team prepared and packed meals for Rise Against Hunger, an international hunger relief not-for-profit organisation. In just two hours, the team packed 2,600 meals for distribution to those in need in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
In 2023, we plan to review and develop our social impact strategy to see how we can best support those in need – both in our local communities and across the wider world. We will be looking to increase awareness and take-up of the annual volunteering day we offer and considering possible larger scale charitable fundraising events.
We continue to ensure that we have appropriate mechanisms in place to train all employees on policies regarding modern slavery, bribery and corruption, gifts and hospitality, trust and competition, GDPR, and other ethical business practices and to escalate any cases of non-compliance.
Progress in 2022
- 1,381 online course completions1 (2021: 1,407); absolute completions fell by 2% in 2022, due to a more targeted approach to course completion
- Total amount of monetary losses incurred as a result of legal proceedings associated with bribery, corruption and other ethical business practices in 2022 was £nil (2021: £nil)
- New global eLearning provider appointed to enhance our compliance training programme for 2023
- Data protection hub designed, with data protection training provided to all employees
- Alliance joined the Slave-Free Alliance (SFA), a charity with a mission to prevent exploitation, rescue victims, restore lives and reform society. SFA provided workshop-based training to colleagues who carry out supplier site visits and audits to enable them to recognise the “red flags” of modern slavery
- Partner Code of Conduct (Supply Chain Management) published, setting out our ethical expectations of our partners
- Independent, third-party Speak Up helpline put in place to enable individuals to raise anonymous concerns without fear of retaliation
Focus for 2023
- Launch our Employee Code of Conduct, setting the benchmark for the ethical behaviours we expect from colleagues
- Modern slavery gap analysis to be undertaken by SFA to help us improve our processes
1. Suite of modules covering anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, competition law, GDPR, market abuse, modern slavery, sanctions and the prevention of tax evasion.
People & Human Capital Management
Our overriding objective is to ensure our resourcing adequately supports the business’ medium-term growth ambitions – and that our strong collaborative and inclusive culture, and the people who comprise it, continue to thrive. Detail on our people and culture, and metrics on headcount, gender diversity and employee engagement can be found in our 2022 Annual Report. Additional metrics around the make-up of our employee base and retention rates can be found at here.
Progress in 2022
- Increased employee engagement (as measured by GPTW Trust Index rating) – 79% (up from 76% in 2021)
- Great Place to Work certified in UK, China, Singapore, US (new) & France (new)
- 18 new roles created to support future business growth
- 5% improvement in employee retention versus 2021
- Total headcount increased by 40
- Diversity, Equality & Inclusion Policy published
Focus for 2023
We will be continuing to invest in our capability development and the talent acquisition and retention strategies which support this, as we look to transition the business to becoming a more agile organisation, better equipped to respond to the increasingly fast paced and dynamic environment in which we operate.
Social Impact
In 2022, we continued our support for International Health Partners. We donated 12,000 products to enable 149,000 treatments to be sent to 10 countries around the world, helping to give people access to the medicines they need.
We also made a £50,000 donation to the Disasters Emergency Committee’s humanitarian appeal, to support those affected by the war in Ukraine.
Our US team prepared and packed meals for Rise Against Hunger, an international hunger relief not-for-profit organisation. In just two hours, the team packed 2,600 meals for distribution to those in need in Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
In 2023, we plan to review and develop our social impact strategy to see how we can best support those in need – both in our local communities and across the wider world. We will be looking to increase awareness and take-up of the annual volunteering day we offer and considering possible larger scale charitable fundraising events.
Business ethics
We continue to ensure that we have appropriate mechanisms in place to train all employees on policies regarding modern slavery, bribery and corruption, gifts and hospitality, trust and competition, GDPR, and other ethical business practices and to escalate any cases of non-compliance.
Progress in 2022
- 1,381 online course completions1 (2021: 1,407); absolute completions fell by 2% in 2022, due to a more targeted approach to course completion
- Total amount of monetary losses incurred as a result of legal proceedings associated with bribery, corruption and other ethical business practices in 2022 was £nil (2021: £nil)
- New global eLearning provider appointed to enhance our compliance training programme for 2023
- Data protection hub designed, with data protection training provided to all employees
- Alliance joined the Slave-Free Alliance (SFA), a charity with a mission to prevent exploitation, rescue victims, restore lives and reform society. SFA provided workshop-based training to colleagues who carry out supplier site visits and audits to enable them to recognise the “red flags” of modern slavery
- Partner Code of Conduct (Supply Chain Management) published, setting out our ethical expectations of our partners
- Independent, third-party Speak Up helpline put in place to enable individuals to raise anonymous concerns without fear of retaliation
Focus for 2023
- Launch our Employee Code of Conduct, setting the benchmark for the ethical behaviours we expect from colleagues
- Modern slavery gap analysis to be undertaken by SFA to help us improve our processes
1. Suite of modules covering anti-bribery, anti-money laundering, competition law, GDPR, market abuse, modern slavery, sanctions and the prevention of tax evasion.
Planet
Environmental strategy has been a key area of focus for us in 2022. We continued the development of our carbon action plan and our response to climate change, looking at how we quantify and reduce our emissions, deliver sustainable change across our packaging estate and how we build an understanding of the impacts of climate change on our business, as a precursor to reporting under TCFD.
More on our TCFD reporting, together with our more extensive voluntary TCFD disclosures, can be found in our 2022 Annual Report. Our first voluntary TCFD report will be published shortly on the sustainability section of our website.
supply chain & logistics
own operations
We have a responsibility to work with our partners to understand product-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other environmental impacts associated with our supply chain and logistics activities (product manufacture, storage and distribution), including onward transportation of products by our distributors. Whilst we have limited control over these emissions, we are engaging with partners on the steps they're taking to quantify and reduce their GHG emissions, to help us refine the calculation of our Scope 3 emissions. Ultimately, we would like to be able to determine the carbon footprint of each of our products on an individual basis, however we face significant challenges in getting to this point around the availability of data and lack of a comparable basis of measurement.
Progress in 2022
- Commenced engagement with all our contract manufacturers (CMOs) and our top 10 logistics partners to establish where they are on their climate change journeys, what emissions data they have and that they are able to share with us
- Findings used to inform both our follow-up engagement plans for 2023 and our Scope 3 emissions calculations for 2022
Focus for 2023
- Follow-up engagement with our CMOs & logistics partners around climate change to help improve the accuracy of our emissions calculations with better-quality data and to increase our understanding of their emissions reduction strategies
- Progress the optimisation of our EU / US logistics network, building on analysis carried out in 2022
- Continue to develop the understanding of our distributor logistics management activities and identify where there may exist opportunities to support our distributors to reduce the emissions associated with the downstream transportation of our products
- Work towards setting emissions reduction targets for our product-related Scope 3 emissions, together with associated delivery plans
.jpg)
This covers both our direct (Scope 1 & 2) GHG emissions, and operational emissions which lie outside our supply chain (i.e., non-product related emissions) – such as those associated with non-stock purchases, business travel, waste from our offices, and employee commuting. Collectively, these accounted for 10% of our total emissions in 2022 (2021: 16%).
Progress in 2022
- Set Scope 1 & 2 net zero targets (and offset Scope 1 & 2 UK emissions for 2021)
- Achieved a 26% reduction in Scope 1 & 2 emissions in 2022 vs 2021
- Identified and started to implement a number of initiatives aimed at raising awareness of these emissions and improving the basis of calculation – e.g. employee travel survey, business travel guidance, more accurate data collection / reduction initiatives around waste
Focus for 2023
- Continue to look for opportunities to raise awareness of and identify / implement reduction strategies and/or improved calculation methodologies for our other operational emissions
- Work towards setting emissions reduction targets for our non-product-related Scope 3 emissions, together with associated delivery plans
Our Scope 1 & 2 emissions target
.jpg)
Our Scope 1 & 2 emissions target, including the rationale behind the numbers and how we plan to achieve it,
is discussed more fully in our 2022 Annual Report.
Reducing the environmental impact of our product packaging, through reducing packaging volume / weight, increasing the use of recycled materials, and ensuring that as much of our packaging as possible is made from materials that can be recycled, reused and/or composted.
Progress in 2022
- Developed the understanding of our packaging estate (primary and secondary), enabling focus areas to be identified, together with proposed targets (for finalisation and publication in 2023)
- Additional head recruited & onboarded, to lead all aspects of our sustainable sourcing activities, including the development of our sustainable packaging strategy
- Pilot projects initiated to inform ease of delivery/ timelines and a high-level delivery plan put in place for 2023
Focus for 2023
- Continuing to develop our packaging strategy, confirming and publishing sustainability improvement targets for both primary and secondary packaging, underpinned by baseline metrics and delivery plans
- Further detail around our packaging estate, what it’s made up of, and some of the challenges we face in making it more environmentally friendly are discussed in our 2022 Annual Report.
Ensuring our products are made with environmentally friendly ingredients and that our processes for identifying and managing emerging materials and chemicals of concern remain robust and any REACH substances of very high concern are eliminated from our products on a timely basis.
We do not disclose specific metrics or detail around our processes for the management and elimination of emerging materials and chemicals of concern on the grounds of commercial sensitivity, however we believe that our processes continued to operate effectively in 2022, with any identified risks being managed as part of our company-wide risk management process.
REACH – Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals
Environmental impacts – supply chain & logistics
We have a responsibility to work with our partners to understand product-related greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and other environmental impacts associated with our supply chain and logistics activities (product manufacture, storage and distribution), including onward transportation of products by our distributors. Whilst we have limited control over these emissions, we are engaging with partners on the steps they're taking to quantify and reduce their GHG emissions, to help us refine the calculation of our Scope 3 emissions. Ultimately, we would like to be able to determine the carbon footprint of each of our products on an individual basis, however we face significant challenges in getting to this point around the availability of data and lack of a comparable basis of measurement.
Progress in 2022
- Commenced engagement with all our contract manufacturers (CMOs) and our top 10 logistics partners to establish where they are on their climate change journeys, what emissions data they have and that they are able to share with us
- Findings used to inform both our follow-up engagement plans for 2023 and our Scope 3 emissions calculations for 2022
Focus for 2023
- Follow-up engagement with our CMOs & logistics partners around climate change to help improve the accuracy of our emissions calculations with better-quality data and to increase our understanding of their emissions reduction strategies
- Progress the optimisation of our EU / US logistics network, building on analysis carried out in 2022
- Continue to develop the understanding of our distributor logistics management activities and identify where there may exist opportunities to support our distributors to reduce the emissions associated with the downstream transportation of our products
- Work towards setting emissions reduction targets for our product-related Scope 3 emissions, together with associated delivery plans
Environmental impacts – own operations
This covers both our direct (Scope 1 & 2) GHG emissions, and operational emissions which lie outside our supply chain (i.e., non-product related emissions) – such as those associated with non-stock purchases, business travel, waste from our offices, and employee commuting. Collectively, these accounted for 10% of our total emissions in 2022 (2021: 16%).
Progress in 2022
- Set Scope 1 & 2 net zero targets (and offset Scope 1 & 2 UK emissions for 2021)
- Achieved a 26% reduction in Scope 1 & 2 emissions in 2022 vs 2021
- Identified and started to implement a number of initiatives aimed at raising awareness of these emissions and improving the basis of calculation – e.g. employee travel survey, business travel guidance, more accurate data collection / reduction initiatives around waste
Focus for 2023
- Continue to look for opportunities to raise awareness of and identify / implement reduction strategies and/or improved calculation methodologies for our other operational emissions
- Work towards setting emissions reduction targets for our non-product-related Scope 3 emissions, together with associated delivery plans
Our Scope 1 & 2 emissions target
Our Scope 1 & 2 emissions target, including the rationale behind the numbers and how we plan to achieve it,
is discussed more fully in our 2022 Annual Report.
Packaging lifecycle management
Reducing the environmental impact of our product packaging, through reducing packaging volume / weight, increasing the use of recycled materials, and ensuring that as much of our packaging as possible is made from materials that can be recycled, reused and/or composted.
Progress in 2022
- Developed the understanding of our packaging estate (primary and secondary), enabling focus areas to be identified, together with proposed targets (for finalisation and publication in 2023)
- Additional head recruited & onboarded, to lead all aspects of our sustainable sourcing activities, including the development of our sustainable packaging strategy
- Pilot projects initiated to inform ease of delivery/ timelines and a high-level delivery plan put in place for 2023
Focus for 2023
- Continuing to develop our packaging strategy, confirming and publishing sustainability improvement targets for both primary and secondary packaging, underpinned by baseline metrics and delivery plans
- Further detail around our packaging estate, what it’s made up of, and some of the challenges we face in making it more environmentally friendly are discussed in our 2022 Annual Report.
Product environmental H&S
Ensuring our products are made with environmentally friendly ingredients and that our processes for identifying and managing emerging materials and chemicals of concern remain robust and any REACH substances of very high concern are eliminated from our products on a timely basis.
We do not disclose specific metrics or detail around our processes for the management and elimination of emerging materials and chemicals of concern on the grounds of commercial sensitivity, however we believe that our processes continued to operate effectively in 2022, with any identified risks being managed as part of our company-wide risk management process.
REACH – Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals
.jpg)
Product
Many of the assurance functions within our business, whilst not always visible, are nonetheless critical to ensure that we continue to hold ourselves to the highest standards. This includes the quality, safety and efficacy of our products, how they’re manufactured and how they’re sold.
Beyond continued compliance, our focus in 2022 has been to increase the level of oversight we have over our supply chain and to ensure that our partners are aware of the expectations we have of them.
Our focus here is on ensuring that we continue to have robust quality assurance systems in place to maintain the quality and safety of our products and to mitigate the supply of counterfeit product.
Progress in 2022
- 19 Supplier site audits carried out (2021: 9)
- Representing 69% coverage of our supplier base on a rolling 3-year average basis1
- Number of external regulatory inspections Alliance operating companies have been subject to: 8 (2021: 7)
- No enforcement actions were taken by Competent Authorities in response to non-compliance with appropriate manufacturing and regulated standards in 2022 (2021: 0)
We continue to actively manage the risks arising from counterfeit product reaching the market, which may not have been subject to the same rigorous quality and safety testing as genuine product, through a dedicated internal team, supported by external expertise, as required.
1. Calculated as the total number of supplier sites audited over the 3 years from 2020 – 2022, divided by the number of active supplier sites as at 31 December 2022. Audit activity in 2020 & 2021 was adversely impacted by COVID restrictions.
.svg)
Ensuring that the claims made by our products can be properly substantiated and that we maintain ethical business practices in the marketing, advertising, and selling of our products.We carry out internal audit assessments on a periodic basis to ensure the robustness of our promotional review procedures, aiming to cover 10% of total promotional pieces approved per annum.
Progress in 2022
- 41 Routine internal audit assessments carried out (2021: 22) representing 10% coverage of promotional pieces approved in the year (2021: 4.5%)
- No upheld complaints were made to the ABPI, PAGB, FTC, NAD, or other Codes of Practice bodies regarding promotion of Alliance products, where Alliance is directly responsible for promotion in 2022 (2021: 0)
We recognise that we have a duty to ensure that our partners, be they CMOs, logistics service providers or distributors, adhere to the same ethical standards which we have set ourselves, and that they support our commitment to operate our business in a sustainable way.
Progress in 2022
- 53 finished goods supply partners monitored by our Know Your Supplier (KYS) programme, which identifies potential ‘red flags’ in our supply chain, representing 95% of our total finished goods suppliers (2021: 53 supply partners; >95% coverage)
No significant issues were detected in 2022 (2021: 0) - In December 2022, we published our Partner Code of Conduct on our website, setting out the ethical expectations we have of our partners
- We continued to increase our commitment to ensure there are no instances of modern slavery within our supply chain, through becoming a member of the Slave-Free Alliance (SFA)(Business ethics), who provided workshop-based training to colleagues who carry out supplier site visits and audits to enable them to recognise “red flags”
Focus for 2023
- Commence the roll out our Partner Code of Conduct to our CMOs, logistics service providers and distributors
- Utilise the findings from the modern slavery gap analysis being undertaken by SFA (Business ethics) to help us further improve our management processes regarding recognising and reporting modern slavery in our supply chain
Product quality & safety
Our focus here is on ensuring that we continue to have robust quality assurance systems in place to maintain the quality and safety of our products and to mitigate the supply of counterfeit product.
Progress in 2022
- 19 Supplier site audits carried out (2021: 9)
- Representing 69% coverage of our supplier base on a rolling 3-year average basis1
- Number of external regulatory inspections Alliance operating companies have been subject to: 8 (2021: 7)
- No enforcement actions were taken by Competent Authorities in response to non-compliance with appropriate manufacturing and regulated standards in 2022 (2021: 0)
We continue to actively manage the risks arising from counterfeit product reaching the market, which may not have been subject to the same rigorous quality and safety testing as genuine product, through a dedicated internal team, supported by external expertise, as required.
1. Calculated as the total number of supplier sites audited over the 3 years from 2020 – 2022, divided by the number of active supplier sites as at 31 December 2022. Audit activity in 2020 & 2021 was adversely impacted by COVID restrictions.
Ethical sales practices
Ensuring that the claims made by our products can be properly substantiated and that we maintain ethical business practices in the marketing, advertising, and selling of our products.We carry out internal audit assessments on a periodic basis to ensure the robustness of our promotional review procedures, aiming to cover 10% of total promotional pieces approved per annum.
Progress in 2022
- 41 Routine internal audit assessments carried out (2021: 22) representing 10% coverage of promotional pieces approved in the year (2021: 4.5%)
- No upheld complaints were made to the ABPI, PAGB, FTC, NAD, or other Codes of Practice bodies regarding promotion of Alliance products, where Alliance is directly responsible for promotion in 2022 (2021: 0)
Supply chain management
We recognise that we have a duty to ensure that our partners, be they CMOs, logistics service providers or distributors, adhere to the same ethical standards which we have set ourselves, and that they support our commitment to operate our business in a sustainable way.
Progress in 2022
- 53 finished goods supply partners monitored by our Know Your Supplier (KYS) programme, which identifies potential ‘red flags’ in our supply chain, representing 95% of our total finished goods suppliers (2021: 53 supply partners; >95% coverage)
No significant issues were detected in 2022 (2021: 0) - In December 2022, we published our Partner Code of Conduct on our website, setting out the ethical expectations we have of our partners
- We continued to increase our commitment to ensure there are no instances of modern slavery within our supply chain, through becoming a member of the Slave-Free Alliance (SFA)(Business ethics), who provided workshop-based training to colleagues who carry out supplier site visits and audits to enable them to recognise “red flags”
Focus for 2023
- Commence the roll out our Partner Code of Conduct to our CMOs, logistics service providers and distributors
- Utilise the findings from the modern slavery gap analysis being undertaken by SFA (Business ethics) to help us further improve our management processes regarding recognising and reporting modern slavery in our supply chain
Other developments
Some of the other things we’ve done to deliver our sustainability agenda in 2022 include:
- Revamped the sustainability section of our corporate website, grouping our areas of focus under the three broad themes of People, Planet & Product
- Increased transparency – through the publication of additional metrics, policies and content regarding our materiality process on our website
- Increased engagement in sustainability within the business – building on work initiated by the Sustainability Forum around the adoption of sustainable practices within our own operations (e.g. resource usage, waste, travel); extending this beyond our UK HQ to include colleagues in our international offices, and making sustainability a key theme of our first all-employee conference
Our sustainability strategy isn’t static – like our business, it’s dynamic and continually evolving. If you think there’s more we could or should be doing to become a more sustainable business, please get in touch with us via the contact form on our website.
