Approach
In 2022 we refined and formalised our approach to sustainability, under the direction of the newly established environmental, social and governance (ESG) governance structure and teams.
Our structure draws on senior expertise across Group functions and allows us to prioritise our impact through organisational workstreams and to monitor progress against our plans across the Group. Our attention has been on creating our sustainability framework, developing actionable plans for each material area, and increasing our focus on environmental considerations, including climate change, metrics and reporting. This should accelerate our sustainability ambition within the Group
These efforts are overseen by Board representative, Dr. Susan Liautaud and led by General Counsel, Will Scrimshaw.
SUSTAINABILITY FRAMEWORK
Our path to delivering sustained social, financial and environmental value
At BenevolentAI, our mission is to unite AI and cutting-edge science to discover and develop new medicines for complex diseases. This mission is underpinned by a powerful purpose: to use our AI-enabled drug discovery platform to enhance understanding of biology, empower new discoveries and develop new medicines that generate a positive impact on society.
Four strategic pillars support us in achieving this purpose:
- Sustain our leadership position as a clinical-stage AI-enabled drug discovery company, focused on target identification
- Deepen our pipeline using the Benevolent Platform™ to rapidly identify and advance clinical assets to commercialise in house and through third parties
- Extend our impact across a greater number of non-core therapeutic indications by partnering with pharma and not-for-profit organisations
- Build for the long term by establishing organisational scalability and sustaining value creation
We are committed to weaving ESG stewardship into the fabric of our mission so we can deliver sustained social, financial and environmental value.
We concentrate our sustainability efforts around five core levers:
- Advance our pipeline
- Enhance our platform
- Support our partners
- Invest in our people
- Reduce our impact on the planet
We have identified the following sustainability issues as being the most material for our business and our stakeholders
Diversity and inclusion, attraction and development, safety and wellbeing, innovation, product quality, cybersecurity, ethical conduct, reducing waste and climate change.
- Deepen our pipeline
- Sustain our Leadership
- Extend our impact
- Build for the long term
We aim to complete a materiality assessment in 2023 to further our understanding of these issues.
Our goal is to use our data foundations, AI-drug discovery platform and wet labs to identify and validate novel drug targets and develop new medicines, with the goal of increasing the probability of clinical success.
Commitments
- To continually enhance our Platform in order to increase the probability of clinical success for assets where the target has been identified by BenevolentAI, and in doing so, positively impact society by lowering the R&D time and resources needed to deliver new medicines to patients.
- To build technology that enhances scientific expertise and empowers scientists to discover new and more effective medicines.
KPIs
- Number of data sources utilised within the platform
- Number of biomedical relationships captured within the platform
- Number of new targets identified for our in-house pipeline and via collaborations
- Number of pipeline assets in development
- Number of named drug programmes progressing through preclinical and clinical development
Our goal is to contribute positively to society by pushing the boundaries of technology and science to address significant unmet medical needs by developing new medicines for a broad range of undertreated diseases.
Commitments
- Increase the number of wholly-owned pipeline assets
- Independently pursue the clinical development of certain in-house pipeline assets
- Out-licence those assets that are not aligned to our focus areas of therapeutic indication
- Out-licence specific assets in our pipeline in order to deliver our medicines to patients in need
KPIs
- Number of pipeline assets in the clinic
- Number of assets in development
- Number of new targets identified
Our goal is to maintain and establish commercial and not-for-profit partnerships to put our platform to good use for wider societal benefit and deliver maximum impact to patients.
Commitments
- Increase our societal impact through long-term, mutually beneficial relationships
- Uphold our ethical standards across our value chain
KPIs
- Develop a Supply Chain Policy/Code of Conduct
- Number of targets validated and selected by partners for asset development
- Number of pipeline assets in development with our partners
- Number of partnership deals signed
Learn more
Partnerships and Collaborations DNDi
Our goal is to build an inclusive, supportive and engaging workplace that enables employees to collaborate, innovate and thrive. In doing so, we aim to attract, retain and develop exceptional and diverse talent to drive future growth and support our mission.
Commitments
- Attract, retain and develop our talent to support our future growth and support our mission
- Nurture a culture in which our employees can perform at their best
- Promote diversity and inclusion
- Inspire the next generation of future leaders from within
KPIs
- To create and report BenevolentAI’s Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS)
- Employee Glassdoor rating
- Days lost due to H&S
- Gender split of female representation in senior roles
- Report our gender pay gap in 2023
- Development plans for employees
Learn more
Culture Blog
We recognise the need to act swiftly and intentionally to mitigate our impact on climate change, and are committed to reducing the environmental impact of our business activities by monitoring and reducing our emissions.
As part of our commitment to engage in environmentally focused initiatives, BenevolentAI has proudly enrolled and successfully achieved a Platinum award in Green Impact, a sustainability accreditation scheme run nationally by SOS-UK and supported locally by the Babraham Research Campus.
Commitments
- We endeavour to reduce our proportional impact on the environment as our business continues to grow
KPIs
- Carbon emissions, tCO2e
- Waste to landfill, tonnes
Emissions, energy and other environment data
GOVERNANCE
Governance for sustainability
Sustainable governance is built into our Board structures and our robust governance framework, which is bolstered by committees, groups and colleagues who feel empowered to instigate and drive activity within the business. This means many of our most impactful programmes are driven from the bottom-up.
Commitment
Create an independent and diverse Board that can exercise autonomous judgement.
Commitment
Build a solid Board structure and Committees to ensure robust governance.
Commitment
Develop and maintain good corporate practices and policies.
Commitment
We recognise the importance of protecting the intellectual property that is generated in the course of our work, while respecting the IP of others as well.
Protect our intellectual property (IP), while respecting the IP of others.
Commitment
Ensure prompt management of all possible risks across our business.
Promptly manage all possible risks across all aspects of our business.
Commitment
Protect data, infrastructure and employee privacy, aligning with relevant regulations.