Sustainability is a key element of our strategy for the future growth of our business.
Neil Carson Chief Executive
Chief Executive’s Introduction
Sustainability is a key element of our strategy for the future growth of our business. Today, a significant proportion of our profits are generated from products that benefit the environment and we are world leaders in this field.
It is now about 18 months since we launched Sustainability 2017, a long term vision for the whole group which sets out our direction and aspirations to become a more sustainable business in the future. We have set challenging targets to at least double our earnings per share, achieve carbon neutrality, eliminate waste to landfill and halve the key resources we use per unit of output by 2017. We have now established our benchmark position and have started to measure our progress towards these targets.
We have been working hard to embed sustainability into the company’s culture. All of our businesses have set their own annual sustainability plans aligned to the group goals and are implementing them at the local level. This ‘local action’ approach takes advantage of Johnson Matthey’s culture and methods of working, with each business taking the lead on how they make their own contribution in ways that are appropriate to their operations and markets.
I am very pleased to report that, so far, this approach seems to be working. There is tremendous enthusiasm and commitment for sustainability among our employees and the Case Studies in this report highlight some of the initiatives we have undertaken and the good progress that is being made. All across the group, individuals and teams are focusing on improving the resource efficiency of our own operations and on designing new and improved products that help our customers to be more sustainable and competitive. This not only ensures we become more careful with the way we use the world’s resources and enhances our manufacturing processes, but at the same time it is saving us money today and is also driving the development of new environmental technologies to support the future growth of our business.
Our people are a key part of our sustainability goals and for Johnson Matthey’s sustainability vision to be effective we must continue to have their best interests at the centre of what we do. In 2008/09 we saw our lost time accident statistics rise after several years of improved performance. Employee health and wellbeing underpin our aspiration to become a more sustainable business and this lapse in performance has highlighted the need to revitalise our accident prevention processes. We have therefore launched a new initiative to help drive a reduction in the rate of lost time injuries and we continue to work towards our target of zero greater than three day accidents.
In terms of world economics, 2008/09 has certainly been a year of two halves. The effects of the credit crunch and global recession gave rise to very difficult market conditions in the second half of our financial year. Despite this, sustainability issues and climate change have remained high on the global agenda. Given the current economic downturn, some may question whether businesses should put sustainability ‘on hold’ and focus on short term issues. I believe that the answer is absolutely no and that our sustainability efforts are even more important in the challenging market conditions that we currently face. Our Sustainability 2017 Vision provides a vital framework to minimise our use of resources and reduce our costs whilst delivering sustainability benefits and improving our competitiveness.
Innovation has always been at the very heart of what we do and will continue to underpin our ability to drive our sustainability programme through internal improvements and new product development. Despite current market conditions, we are continuing to increase our investment in research and development to support future innovation to ensure that we have the new products and technologies to maintain and grow our world leading market positions.
Through delivering better products and reducing the impact of our operations, we are committed to making Johnson Matthey a more sustainable business. Sustainability is the right thing to do for the planet, our employees, our communities, our shareholders and our customers. As our journey towards 2017 continues, this report aims to highlight our progress so far.
Neil Carson
Chief Executive
