Eli Lilly and Company

No leading practices were identified for the company in the governance and strategy area

Resource exploitation and circularity
The company discloses which organisms it directly exploits for commercial uses, including wild animal and plant species. Additionally, it discloses a management plan related to the direct exploitation of species, to avoid overexploitation and the use of threatened species.

Solid and air pollution
Eli Lilly discloses it is reducing the production of hazardous substances along with qualitative evidence of its activities to reduce plastic use and waste in its own operations. The company has targets regarding reduction of overall plastic use and waste and reports progress against the targets. It also reports on the amount of plastic waste generated and proportions directed from or to disposal.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the social inclusion and community impact area

Sustainability strategy and accountability
Eli Lilly discloses its process for identifying and prioritising its most relevant sustainability impacts as well as the outcome of this process. While the company discloses some sustainability targets, no evidence that the company has group wide targets on key sustainability topics for the most material parts of its value chain. It reports consistently against all its targets. Although the company discloses that executive compensation is linked to performance on ESG topics, additional information should be provided about the specific environmental and social issues that are taken into account. The company does not disclose whether its highest governance body has expertise regarding nature-related topics.

Stakeholder engagement
While the company discloses that it conducts stakeholder engagement activities, no evidence regarding an ongoing stakeholder engagement process was found in the public domain. Moreover, it does not disclose its process for engaging with stakeholder groups beyond its materiality assessment.

Lobbying
The company does not report on its lobbying and advocacy practices on nature-related issues, nor whether these activities align with its sustainability strategy.

Impact and dependencies assessment
The company has not holistically assessed its impacts or how it depends on nature, including biodiversity. It has an opportunity to start such an assessment across its value chains, focused on quantification of its impacts or dependencies.

Key areas and species
The company does not disclose key species or areas important for biodiversity affected by its operations or suppliers. It has an opportunity to increase its transparency.

Ecosystem conversion and restoration
No evidence was found regarding the company’s efforts to avoid ecosystem conversion, including deforestation, or promote restoration. The company has an opportunity to develop a strategy and publicly report on specific, time-bound targets.

Resource exploitation and circularity
Eli Lilly does not disclose its inputs, including its material footprint. Additionally, it does not report quantitatively on its group-wide circularity performance, nor on its efforts to improve soil health.

Water
Eli Lilly demonstrates it is reducing water withdrawal in its own operations, but it does not disclose a time-bound target to reduce water withdrawal across its own operations. Additionally, it reports how much water is withdrawn for its own operations in water-stressed areas. While it discloses conducting risk assessments that involve its upstream business relations, as well as its products’ impacts related to water and water stress, no further evidence on how the company supports them in reducing water withdrawals was found in the public domain. Eli Lilly also reports a decrease in water pollution. It discloses its processes for managing and monitoring discharge water quality. The company regularly reports on water pollution and while it has set targets regarding the quality of water it discharges, no evidence of a specific target focused on the reduction of water quality pressures was found in the public domain. Finally, it does not disclose a commitment to respect the right to water. The company does not disclose its processes for implementing preventive and corrective action plans for identified specific risks to the right to water and sanitation in its own operations.

Solid and air pollution
While the company commits to eliminating or reducing the hazardous materials used, as well as removing the SVHC, no evidence of specific time bound targets was found in the public domain. The company is reducing the production of hazardous waste. The company is reducing plastic use and waste in its own operations. The company does not report on air quality parameters of emissions of harmful air pollutants. The company does not report time-bound targets to reduce air pollutants across the most material parts of its value chain.

GHG emissions
The company is reducing its scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions and has a time-bound target to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions, against which it reports on progress. While the company discloses having a neutral-by-2030 target, no evidence regarding alignment with a 1.5-trajectory or having science-based targets was found in the public domain. While the company is reducing its scope 3 emissions, it does not disclose a time-bound target to reduce its scope 3 emissions. It has an opportunity to disclose a target which is aligned a 1.5-degree trajectory and report on progress.

Invasive species
The company has not identified any activities that could lead to the introduction of invasive alien species in its own operations.

Safe, healthy, clean environment
The company does not disclose a commitment to respecting local communities’ right to a safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment or to zero tolerance for acts of violence, threats, intimidation or judicial harassment committed against land and environmental rights defenders.

Indigenous Peoples’ and land rights
The company does not disclose a commitment to respecting Indigenous Peoples’ rights or land rights of local communities.

While the company identifies relevant ESG topics for its strategy, there is no evidence it has a process to identify which human rights are at risk of being impacted by it own operations, in specific locations or through specific activities, as part of a human rights due diligence process. The company has an opportunity to describe a process for assessing the human rights risks it has identified and to disclose what it considers to be its salient human rights issues. A description of this process would include how relevant factors are considered, such as geographical, economic and social factors. No evidence was found that the company has a global system to act on its salient human rights issues. While the company discloses the categories of stakeholders it engages with generally on sustainability issues, it is not clear if these stakeholders are those whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities. No evidence that the company provides examples of its engagement with stakeholders whose human rights have been or may be affected by its activities was found.

No evidence that Eli Lilly has a publicly available policy statement committing it to respect the health and safety of workers was found. It has a publicly available policy statement which shows it expects its suppliers to commit to respecting the health and safety of their workers. No evidence that the company discloses a time-bound target for paying all workers a living wage or that it has achieved paying all workers a living wage was found. No evidence that the company describes how it determines a living wage for the regions where it operates was found. While the company states that it expects its suppliers to pay wages that are sufficient for workers and their families to fulfil their basic needs, it has an opportunity to disclose how it works to support the payment of a living wage by its suppliers. The company has an opportunity to disclose the coverage of collective bargaining agreements. The company has an opportunity to describe how it works to support the practices of its suppliers in relation to freedom of association and collective bargaining.

While the company provides a publicly available tax strategy on its webpage, there is no evidence this strategy is found in a formal document, approved by the highest governance body. No evidence that the company describes the process for identifying its bribery and corruption risks and impacts in specific locations or activities covering its own operations was found. No evidence that the company includes anti-bribery and anti-corruption clauses in its contracts with business relationships was found. In a public policy statement, the company discloses its approach to lobbying and political engagement. No evidence that the company has a publicly available policy statement that specifies that it does not make political contributions was found.