Changing tomorrow, through our actions today
At Novartis, we aspire to be a leader and a catalyst for positive change in environment sustainability. With the environment and human health being closely linked, Novartis has long committed to efforts of promoting a healthy planet.
As a company, we have set ambitious environmental sustainability goals, aiming to be carbon neutral by 2025, and plastic and water neutral in all our operations and supply chain by 2030. In Singapore, we are making good progress.
At our Tuas manufacturing plants, we are achieving 30% of water savings through filtering and recycling waste water into industrial cooling water and reducing manufacturing solid waste volumes by nearly 80% through the use of waste sludge treatment technology. We are also looking into the installations of solar farms to help provide power for up to 50% of our manufacturing operations by 2023.
At our offices, green initiatives are put in place to help us become a plastic-free workplace. A bag-sharing initiative to encourage the use of reusable bags instead of non-biodegradable plastics, office utensils to discourage the use of disposable cutlery and the elimination of plastic bottles.
On 19 - 20 September 2019, we held a sustainability awareness fair, welcoming policymakers, academics, volunteer groups and social enterprises to share how we can all contribute to an environmentally sustainable future. Themed ‘Changing tomorrow, through our actions today’, the event hosted documentary showings, guest lectures, information booths and two lively panel discussions on how the choices we make today will affect the future of our children and generations to come.
Featured guest speakers Hazri Hassan, Director of International Policy, Ministry of the Environment & Water Resources, Angel Hsu, Professor at Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale-NUS, Daniel Tay, Co-founder of SG Food Rescue and Jeremy Kong, Programme Chair for Work Learn Programmes, School of Applied Science at Republic Polytechnic, discussed several topics on sustainability including collaborative approaches to implementing the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, the data behind climate change, food waste in Singapore and the relationship between Singaporeans and plastic.
Our panel discussions had speakers from Republic Polytechnic, CBRE, Ricoh, and sustainable organizations such as Our Singapore Reefs, Project Aware, Seven Clean Seas and Zero Waste SG, to share about innovative solutions and initiatives for a livable and sustainable Singapore.
The event came to a close with our associates pledging their commitment for sustainable action. No matter how big or small, an action by an individual to be more sustainable can have a tremendous impact on our collective efforts in affecting positive change in environmental sustainability.