Sustainability
Being a force for positive change
As a portfolio medical technology company, Smith+Nephew’s purpose is to restore and promote health and wellbeing.
We believe that this applies not just to the benefits our products deliver to patients, but also to the wider health of the planet and society.
Our sustainability strategy
Sustainability
Objectives:
- Inclusion and belong – Empower and promote the inclusion of all.
- Volunteering – We are committed to living our culture in our communities by providing eight hours of paid volunteer time to all employees and enabling at least 50 impactful community/charity engagements across our sites each year from 2023 to 2030.
- Giving – Improve patients’ lives through product donations to underserved communities.
- Health, safety and wellbeing – Support our health, safety and wellbeing ambition by maintaining an annual Total Incident Rate (TIR) of less than 0.5 and Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR) of less than 0.1.
Our progress in 2024:
- 4500+ supporters across our seven global Employee Inclusion Groups and sub-groups.
- 150+ impactful employee engagements supporting inclusion and belonging.
- 68 volunteering events across our sites.
- 380,000+ patients supported through product donations.1
- TIR = 0.12
- LTIFR = 0.05
Notes
- Following approval and release by Smith+Nephew’s Auditors and Board of our 2024 Annual Report and Accounts and our Sustainability Report, we were informed by our donation partner, Integrated Health Partners (IHP), of inaccuracies in certain 2024 data values provided to Smith+Nephew by IHP in connection with product donations received by IHP.
The below table sets out the revisions to the relevant data values by way of update to our published Annual Report and Sustainability Report:
| Revised 2024 data | Originally reported 2024 data | Report pages affected |
| Total patients treated with donated products is approximately 195,000+ | Total patients treated with donated products is approximately 380,000+ | Annual Report: pages. 16, 19, 66, 99 Sustainability Report: pages. 4, 11, 14, 20 |
| More than 325,000 patients helped over course of Smith+Nephew’s longstanding relationship with IHP | More than 500,000 patients helped over course of Smith+Nephew’s longstanding relationship with IHP | Annual Report: page. 66 Sustainability Report: page. 14 |
| Approximately $5.5 million in product donations in 2024 | Approximately $6.9 million in product donations in 2024 | Annual Report: Sustainability Report: page 20 |
| Giving activities totalled approximately $5.6 million, comprised of $5.5 million in product donations and matched giving at $105,000 | Giving activities totalled approximately $7 million, comprised of $6.9 million in product donations and matched giving at $105,000 | Annual Report: page. 99 Sustainability Report: page. 20 |
External recognition
We are proud to have maintained our listing on a number of high profile and prestigious socially responsible investor and sustainability indices.