NJBIZ Conversations: Sarah Hill

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Ask high-level corporate executives to name some of the most important questions facing their companies and most will at some point mention sustainability and environmental, social and governance issues. Investors, customers and employers all want to know how business leaders are dealing with the evolving social and economic landscape.

BD is no different. The Franklin Lakes medical device maker formerly known as Becton Dickinson treats these issues with seriousness throughout the organization, as one might expect from a health care business. NJBIZ recently spoke with Sarah Hill, BD’s head of sustainability, about the company’s approach.

“At BD we’ve had sustainability programs for a number of years — we actually just came off of our 2020 sustainability program that was launched back in 2015 before I joined,” she said. “So as that was wrapping up we were starting to think about where, as a company, do we want to go next. And the pressure and expectations on us has changed and grown over the years. There are a lot of issues now that are considered to be table stakes — that if you’re not doing them, then you essentially don’t have a license to operate. So we went through this process of thinking about what are all the ESG issues that are important to us and to our customers and our investors and our suppliers and our associates both current and future — all of our stakeholders and thinking about what’s important to us, but also what’s important to them.”

To watch the full interview, click on the image below.