ESG: The path forward for Clario's customers and employees

For some, a company’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) responsibilities are a routine part of today’s business environment. For me, they are much more than that. They are a recognition that the relationship between the world of business and the world at large has changed over the years. Show me how much a company prioritizes its ESG responsibilities and integrates them into its day-to-day business, and I’ll show you a company focused on the future, its customers and its employees.

In today’s world, it is not good enough to simply talk about ESG. Companies need to embed it into their strategy and provide tangible, credible demonstrations of progress. The value of a robust ESG Strategy therefore, is that it asks companies to understand what is important to them in two important areas: What will impact their cost and risk; and what is important to their investors, customers, supply chain and other stakeholders? And, importantly, do something about the answers.

This is why, in another first for Clario, I’m proud to say that we have released our inaugural ESG Report.

It’s been over a year since ERT and Bioclinica became one organization and six months since we rebranded as Clario. With the creation of Clario, we put our ESG responsibilities at the heart of our culture and strategy. Our purpose and values are fundamentally intertwined with promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion and doing our part to create a more just and sustainable world. This puts us in a position to impact society positively, and we take that responsibility seriously. Our ESG Report highlights both the areas where we have made great strides in addressing societal issues and made commitments to our employees, customers, patients, partners, vendors, and investors to drive further progress.

We have put in place a formal structure to ensure that we deliver on our aggressive and quantifiable objectives, with our Chief Diversity, Inclusion, and Sustainability Officer, Dr. Otis Johnson, overseeing strategy and execution. And our priority throughout is on transparency and accountability.

We believe that identifying and acting on ESG risks and opportunities can help build long-term success for our company, customers, and patients. In this inaugural report, I would like to highlight five key areas where we have put particular focus:

1. Increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workforce. Clario increased the hiring and promotion of women by 9% in the past year, and we are committed to gender balance in leadership by 2024. Clario also has a rich Employee Resource Group (ERG) program, and the groups are driving inclusion and cultural change throughout our organization. I’m incredibly proud of their work and the success they are achieving.

2. Enabling diversity in clinical trials with decentralized clinical trial (DCT) technologies. The speed of COVID-19 vaccine development set new standards for clinical trials, which are now in the spotlight like never before. But a trial is only as good as the people participating in it. Without diversity in participation, trials, and the medicines they produce, can exclude whole groups of patients that could benefit. Clario assisted with 70% of all FDA approvals in 2019-20, and in 2021 and we generated evidence for 851 clinical trials. For 15 years, we have made deliberate and purposeful strides in helping to increase diversity in clinical trials through the development of remote access technologies (decentralized clinical trials).

3. Minimizing carbon footprint and waste production. Clario plans to achieve net-zero emissions by 2045. We are putting the infrastructure in place to improve the accuracy of our emissions measurement system to deliver on this commitment.

4. Ensuring ethical compliance and data security. As a leading provider of solutions that manage data from clinical trials, we know we have a big responsibility to keep that data private and safe. Our extensive cybersecurity plan, which includes industry-leading processes, technologies, and people, creates the framework for keeping the data in our care secure. We are proud that we received a mature CyberVadis score in 2021. This score is one of the highest scores possible and is underpinned by leading practices around Privacy and Security by Design.

5. Creating a sustainable supply chain. We know it is not enough for us only to drive sustainable practices internally. That is why we thoroughly vet our suppliers to ensure our supply chain meets our high standards at all times. We review key sustainability metrics, such as supplier diversity demographics, include environmental sustainability criteria in our RFPs and evaluate freight suppliers based on their commitment to reducing carbon emissions. Additionally, our investments in Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and multi-protocol devices will drive the reuse of devices and reduce packaging and shipping volumes.

Delivering on our ESG responsibilities is the work of the whole organization. But in particular, I’d like to thank Otis, his team, and all the Clario colleagues in our Employee Resource Groups. Every strategy needs a champion, and I’m proud to say that at Clario, ESG has a company full of them!