Global

Mar 28, 2019

Philips re-aligns its ‘Lives Improved’ target with the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda following the completion of its portfolio transformation

  • As of 2019, Philips will no longer include the contribution of Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) in its Lives Improved reporting
  • Building on the 1.54 billion lives improved globally in 2018, Philips targets a long-term, average annual Lives Improved growth rate of around 6% resulting in 3 billion lives improved annually by 2030
  • Company targets to improve access to healthcare in underserved communities to 400 million people a year by 2030

Amsterdam, the NetherlandsRoyal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA), a global leader in health technology, today announced that following the completion of its portfolio transformation to health technology, the company has re-aligned its Lives Improved target with the time horizon of the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda. As of this year, Philips will no longer include the contribution of Signify (formerly Philips Lighting) in its Lives Improved methodology. Building on the 1.54 billion lives improved globally in 2018 (excluding Signify), Philips now targets an ambitious, average annual Lives Improved growth rate of around 6% for the 2019 – 2030 period, resulting in 3 billion lives improved annually by 2030. Within these 3 billion lives, Philips targets to improve access to healthcare in underserved communities for 400 million people a year by 2030.

By offering innovative solutions and business models that leverage advances in connected technologies in the consumer health and professional healthcare domain, we are shaping the future of healthcare to enable people to lead healthier lives and have better access to care.

Frans van Houten

CEO of Royal Philips

“By offering innovative solutions and business models that leverage advances in connected technologies in the consumer health and professional healthcare domain, we are shaping the future of healthcare to enable people to lead healthier lives and have better access to care,” said Frans van Houten, CEO of Royal Philips. “In addition, we believe that actively supporting the UN Sustainable Development Goals via our internal and external initiatives will create a multiplier effect that will positively impact the lives of 3 billion people a year by 2030.” 

 

In 2012, Philips set itself the goal to improve the lives of 3 billion people a year by 2025. Since that time, the company has undergone significant change, having transformed into a focused leader in health technology, which has had an impact on its reporting. Including the contribution of Signify, Philips improved the lives of 2.24 billion people in 2018.  Excluding this contribution, Philips improved 1.54 billion lives.  As a result, the company has decided to re-align the target date with the UN Sustainable Development Goals’ time horizon, and now aims to achieve its 3 billion Lives Improved goal by 2030. 

 

The calculation of lives improved by Philips is a factor of how many of the company’s active products and solutions are in the market and the application of statistical data from experts and market intelligence on the number of people touched in a given year by products and solutions that contribute to the social or ecological dimension. After elimination of double counts – multiple different product and solutions touches per individual are only counted once – the number of lives improved by Philips is calculated. 

 

As part of Philips’ commitment to make the world healthier and more sustainable through innovation, the company aims to address pressing societal issues with a focus on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, in particular SDG 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages, SDG 12: Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns, and SDG 13: Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts.

 

Philips’ commitment to SDG 3 is illustrated by initiatives such as its Community Life Centers (CLCs), which provide a holistic approach to improving primary and community care across Africa by extending new or existing health facilities into social and economic community hubs. 

 

Philips is on-track to meet its 2020 SDG 12 targets, including generating 15% of sales from ‘circular economy’ products and services, and recycle 90% of its operational waste with zero waste sent to landfill. Moreover, as a founding member of the Capital Equipment Coalition, Philips is on track to fulfill its pledge that by 2020 it will take back and repurpose all the large medical systems equipment that its customers are prepared to return to it. To promote sustainability solutions throughout industry, Philips CEO Frans van Houten is co-chair of the Platform for Accelerating the Circular Economy (PACE), a public-private collaboration co-founded by Philips and hosted by the World Resources Institute

 

To help address climate change, Philips is committed to becoming carbon neutral in its entire operations by 2020, sourcing all its electricity usage from 100% renewable sources. Delivering on that commitment, in 2018 the company increased its global renewable electricity share to 90%. In 2019, all of Philips operations in the US and the Netherlands will be powered by renewable electricity, which covers more than half of the company’s total electricity demand. Philips is also the world’s first health technology company to have its CO2 emission targets for the period 2020 to 2040 approved by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

 

Information on Philips’ sustainability strategy and its ‘Healthy people, sustainable planet’ program can be found here.

About Royal Philips

Royal Philips (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHIA) is a leading health technology company focused on improving people's health and enabling better outcomes across the health continuum from healthy living and prevention, to diagnosis, treatment and home care. Philips leverages advanced technology and deep clinical and consumer insights to deliver integrated solutions. Headquartered in the Netherlands, the company is a leader in diagnostic imaging, image-guided therapy, patient monitoring and health informatics, as well as in consumer health and home care. Philips generated 2018 sales of EUR 18.1 billion and employs approximately 77,000 employees with sales and services in more than 100 countries. News about Philips can be found at www.philips.com/newscenter.

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