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Supporting communities

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“Doing the right thing is one of our values. It’s at the heart of our vision to pioneer trusted medical solutions that improve the lives we touch – but it also extends beyond our products. We recognise our responsibility to the communities in which we operate and strive to increase our positive contribution to society in everything we do.”

Natalia Kozmina, Chief Human Resources Officer & ESG Stewardship

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Our approach

We recognise that healthcare products are only one part of improving lives. And we know that when it comes to protecting the environment and improving community wellbeing, we are all in this together. Building trust within and between communities is important to Convatec, and so we measure our community engagement through:

Our socio-economic contribution
Our community investment programme
Grants for education and research

Our targets & commitments

Over the past year, global events challenged companies to do more to help their communities in the face of human and natural disasters. In 2022, we commit to developing new strategic partnerships to expand our community investment program, and to contribute responsibly to a range of healthcare provider and patient education programmes, while also setting targets on reach and impact.

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Community investment

With inspiration from the field of impact investing, our approach to communities focuses on three areas where we believe we are best positioned to move the needle:

Access to healthcare and tackling health inequities
Education
Disaster relief

In addition to our commitments to partnerships that may involve product and monetary donations in the above areas, we also encourage our employees to take up to two days annually to volunteer in their local communities.

Tackling health inequities

We believe that in line with our forever caring promise, we must work to close the care gap. We also recognise that the shifting nature of the healthcare industry means that often times care happens in the home.

In March 2023, we announced a partnership with Partners In Health, an international NGO that works to build equitable health systems in communities most in need. This health innovation partnership will initially focus on enhancing care for underserved communities in Mexico, Peru and the United States, improving 250,000 lives as a result.

The partnership will enable PIH to explore innovative methods for training and deploying over 1,000 Community Health Workers (CHWs) to enhance management of chronic conditions. Living in the communities where they work, Community Health Workers are trusted neighbours who are able to provide high-quality health services, including home visits. Convatec will support the partnership with a $2 million commitment to PIH, as well as additional support through product donation and in-kind support such as trainings and consultations. This will help PIH evaluate the impact of its interventions, identifying insights to strengthen CHW models and support wider implementation of them. Read more about the partnership here.

Disaster relief

Due to our operational presence in Eastern Europe, we mobilised a $1.5 million response to help those affected by the war in Ukraine. This included a monetary donation to the Disaster Emergency Committee UK, and product donations from across our portfolio to the Polish Red Cross and Ukraine-Slovakia SOS. We believe communities must come together in times of disaster, which is why we also responded supported relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian in 2022 and the earthquake in Turkey and Syria in 2023.

Education

In celebration of 25 years of our Hydrofiber® dressing AQUACEL™, we pledged $250,000 to fund medical education in partnership with the Welsh Wound Innovation Centre (WWIC). Throughout 2022, WWIC hosted four courses, in a four-day online format, covering topics including wound assessment, pressure ulcers/injuries and hard-to-heal wounds. WWIC have educated over 631 delegates from 12 countries, exceeding our original goals for the programme.

Having operated in Wales since 1982, Convatec’s operations now bring more than 800 jobs to Wales across three locations. More information can be found here.

Socio-economic contribution

Through running our business, we aim to make a socio-economic contribution to society. This contribution is important to a range of stakeholders.

	2022 $m	2021 $m	2020 $m	2019 $m	2018 $m	2017 $m
Direct Economic Value Generated	2,072.5	2,038.3	1,910.8	1,827.2	1,832.1	1,764.6
Economic value distributed
Operating costs ¹	990.4	962.3	891.7	890.0	895.4	857.1
Employee wages and benefits	648.5	650.1	579.7	515.0	473.2	472.7
Payments to providers of capital ²	312.8	262.7	254.0	351.2	335.2	131.6
Payments to governments ³	45.7	47.6	56.3	38.2	45.9	49.1
Community investment⁴	0.7	1.5	0.7	0.5	0.4	0.2
Economic value retained	74.4	114.1	128.4	32.3	82.0	253.9

1. Operating costs exclude depreciation, amortisation, impairment charges, asset write-offs and operating taxes. Employee wages and benefits, payments to governments and community investments are normally part of operating costs, but have been excluded as they appear on separate lines in the table.
2. Payments to providers of capital have been included on an accruals basis and include interest paid on long-term debt, capital and interest payments on right of use assets, net debt repayment, dividends and own share reserve purchase paid to Convatec shareholders.
3. Payments to governments include corporate income taxes, sales taxes, real estate taxes and other taxes, but exclude employer portion of payroll taxes, as they are included in employee wages and benefits.
4. Calculated as costs associated with charitable community donations. Excludes product donations.

We are fully committed to meeting our legal tax obligations in each of the countries in which we operate. We fully support and embrace greater transparency with tax authorities and the initiatives being introduced by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and governments to ensure clarity and adherence to the tax laws of each jurisdiction in which we operate. Our Tax Policy is available here.

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Contributions for educational grants, independent medical research and new ideas, concepts or inventions

We are committed to supporting programmes and initiatives that seek to improve patient lives and related healthcare professional communities around the world. 

Support types include:

Educational grants
Research grants (e.g., investigator initiated studies)
New ideas, concepts or inventions

As a global company, we take care to review and consider all relevant support requests in accordance with funding guidelines, as well as applicable laws, regulations and industry codes. Convatec is proud of its strong commitment to ethical interactions with patients, healthcare professionals and related organizations. If you would like to submit a request on Convatec’s external support website, please click here.

Supporting communities​