The economic burden in the short and medium term would be severe, though this might change in the long term if optimistic assumptions panned out. However, the costs associated with developing and marketing the product would be significant. This pill had the potential to dramatically reduce death and disability from cardiovascular disease, the number one killer in India. The plan was to offer the pill for a total treatment cost of less than $25 a year that even a labourer earning $2 a day could afford.

The firm’s leadership had the opportunity to create a low-cost pill for treating heart disease by combining four proven ingredients. The measures for each, and how they should be weighted, varies from firm to firm.Ĭonsider the case of Dr Reddy’s, a leading Indian pharmaceutical firm that followed George Merck’s dictum, “Medicine is for people, profits follow”. Achieving success for the TBL requires a healthy balance between social, environmental and economic performance. Misaligned with internal needsīut the biggest problem with sustainability reports is that they are often misaligned with company priorities. However, auditors can only certify the number, not the effectiveness, of these programs. Companies have tried to address this by employing external auditors. For example, a firm can report high local community engagement by having token programs in all of its operations, even if these are not effective. Lack of transparencyĪnother challenge for sustainability reporting is transparency. Furthermore, since sustainability reports are a primary source for sustainability indices, such exceptions also limit the value of these indices. These exceptions make it hard to compare sustainability performance between firms, or over time for any company. A firm can claim that a required disclosure does not apply to it, or that the information requested is confidential, legally prohibited or simply unavailable.

These guidelines are followed by over 70% of the world’s largest firms, but they also allow for exceptions. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has strived to improve sustainability reporting by specifying the information that all firms must provide on their economic, environmental and social performance. Sustainability lacks benchmarks and transparency

Focus booster reporting