Our purpose of generating a positive impact on society is real, which is why in 2021 we allocated 61.4% of our net profits to social and environmental causes. As stated in our Sustainability Report, last year we reinvested most of our profits in different projects aimed at promoting equal opportunities for people in vulnerable situations, as well as initiatives aimed at protecting the planet, materialising our purpose of being a company with a positive impact. The figure represents an increase of 53.2% compared to 2020.
Among the main causes to which we allocated a large part of our profits in 2021, we would like to highlight the supply of nearly one million healthy menus to groups in situations of extreme vulnerability in the metropolitan area of Barcelona. These meals, made with food grown in urban social gardens and under a permaculture regime, aim to promote a greener, fairer, more sustainable and agro-regenerative city model. We also support children at risk of social exclusion through music education programmes to prevent school failure and enhance their educational, cultural and emotional development.
As Mario Rovirosa, CEO of Ferrer, has detailed , we have placed our own profit margin "at less than half that of other companies in the sector" with the aim of "reinvesting in initiatives with a social and environmental impact to create a fairer and more egalitarian society". Rovirosa also explained that the company has been working for years on the transformation towards being an "organization with a positive impact". "Being aware that we still have a long way to go, we want to be promoters of a new way of doing business and being in the world, because we believe that our activity as a pharmaceutical company must create more social and environmental value than what it consumes," he said.
In this way, our entire strategy currently revolves around people and talent development, the protection of the planet and the fight for a fairer and more equitable society.
As a result of the work completed in 2021, at the beginning of 2022 we have also managed to become the first Spanish pharmaceutical laboratory to enter the B Corp community, the group of companies aimed at building a more inclusive and sustainable economy. In the certification process carried out by B Lab Spain, Ferrer's strategy to develop innovative therapeutic solutions capable of transforming the lives of patients suffering from serious and debilitating diseases was highly valued, and the company's ability to operate with the highest standards of quality and safety was recognized. transparency, ethics and honesty.
Commitment to talent, and to a fairer and more livable world
The data from Ferrer's 2021 Annual Report also reflect Great People's commitment to a people-centred culture, based on trust and responsibility. In this sense, last year Ferrer was recognized in Spain, Mexico and Portugal as a Great Place to Work®, accrediting its ability to attract and retain the best professionals, with almost 96% of the workforce on permanent contracts at the end of 2021 and a cumulative 103,139 hours of training for teams.
"The people of Ferrer are the main activists of our purpose. Each of us, in our day-to-day decisions, contributes to the creation of our culture. A culture that has to do with how we lead, how we communicate, how we organize ourselves, but also with a more sustainable world in which as an organization we must continue to contribute to the environmental preservation of the planet and equal opportunities. We want to make Ferrer not only a great company to work for, but also a company with a positive impact and, therefore, focused on the benefit of all the groups around us," said Bea Vila, Chief People & Sustainability Officer.
The people of Ferrer have also been the driving force behind the Social Justice axis , through which we work to create a fairer and more equitable society. To this end, we mobilized 420 volunteers during the Days for Good, dedicating more than 1,300 hours to social and environmental projects. Within the same axis oriented to social justice, we promote the defense of human rights to prevent and guarantee non-discrimination, health, freedom of association and decent working conditions among people and contribute to correcting social imbalances present in society.
Through the actions within the Liveable Planet axis , for the environmental preservation of the planet, at Ferrer we have achieved a reduction in the global carbon footprint of 18.9% in 2021, bringing us closer to the goal of reducing it by 25% by 2030. In this line, we work with 100% of electricity from renewables, avoiding the emission of 7,500 tonnes of CO2 each year. On the other hand, we have also achieved a recovery of 76.5% of waste globally, thanks to actions such as treatment, recycling, recovery and composting, among others.
In the field of packaging, we reaffirm our commitment to the circular economy with the launch of the Packaging for good programme , which includes the promotion of eco-design and the recovery of materials, in line with the challenge of reducing the carbon footprint of our packaging by 25% by 2030 through the eco-design of 50% of products. In addition, in June 2021 we started the Ecoins project in Costa Rica, a reverse logistics program that allowed the recovery of more than 4,500 tons of materials at more than 450 collection points. With this project, we position ourselves as the first pharmaceutical company to assume the recovery of waste medicines and comply with the indications of Costa Rican law regarding Extended Producer Responsibility.
In addition, in our goal of being a carbon-positive company, Ferrer is a member of the Business Ambition 1.5 °C, promoted by the United Nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and we participate in the Climate Change Conference (COP26) to align our commitment with the recommendations and experiences of the scientific community.
