Boehringer Ingelheim began operations nearly 140 years ago as a small chemical manufacturing company in rural Germany and has grown into a global leader in pharmaceutical innovation. The private, independently owned business thrives in 130 communities with a workforce population of a small city — 53,500 — providing medical needs and solutions for humans and animals to live healthier and longer.
The World Economic Forum cites the average lifespan of a Fortune 500 company, a status Boehringer shares, is 40 to 50 years. Companies more than a century old exhibit well-established traits — cross-generational engagement, commitment to employees, transparency — but a lesser-known quality is caring and paying attention to what they don’t own. Legacies are not solely built from the inside.
It makes sense, then, that a company committed to sustaining others created a formula to remain sustainable itself.
The Sustainable Development Excellence (SDX) program is a training effort Boehringer created to help its employees become meaningful resources in sustainability. Including sections on the environment, human and animal health, inclusive workplace culture, and corporate critical thinking, the specialized course pairs engaged employees with seasoned academics for a certificate program to promote better business practices.
It’s a formula for continued success, and as a rule, companies don’t share formulas with other companies. But to build a more sustainable world, Boehringer is poised to make an exception.
“When you have businesses operating responsibly and taking responsible business steps, that is good for humankind,” said Kelly Rotkewicz, Boehringer Ingelheim’s Executive Director of Sustainability. “This model we created is a beautiful blueprint. Other organizations can now take the framework and, with tweaking here and here, apply it in their organizations. We’re not creating something just for ourselves; we want this to be sustainable and live beyond us for future generations.”
Boehringer Ingelheim and UGA
Under three strategic pillars — More Green, More Health, and More Potential — the SDX program needed an array of instructors to lead its nearly 30 sessions. With Animal Health headquartered in Duluth and company sites in Athens and Gainesville, Boehringer has firm ties in Georgia. The company has deep connections with the University of Georgia, working with its Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacy colleges and hiring eligible graduates. Combine those elements with faculty from several UGA colleges with sustainability expertise and an Executive Education arm specializing in custom programs, and Boehringer had the ingredients it was looking for.
Onyedika (Kachi) Ekwerike, a lecturer at the UGA Institute for Leadership Advancement, leads a discussion with Boehringer Ingelheim participants during his session of the Sustainable Development Excellence Certificate Program at the Terry Executive Education Center in Atlanta on June 26, 2024.
“We have world-class faculty from UGA who specialize in climate change, health equity, government affairs, and all of the different topics across the three pillars,” Rotkewicz said. “It was also a chance to build on a strong relationship between Boehringer and the university, where we are involved in research at the pharmacy and veterinary medicine schools.”
Boehringer connected UGA faculty with company “leader teachers” to craft lectures matching company goals. Faculty from five schools and colleges are represented — the Odum School of Ecology, School of Public International Affairs, Franklin College of Arts and Science, College of Veterinary Medicine, and Terry College of Business — presenting sessions to 32 Boehringer employees coming from locations throughout the United States.
“Boehringer and UGA have a 40-year history of partnering on multiple initiatives, so the foundational partnership was already there,” said Boehringer Director of Sustainability Michael Murphy. “Compared to other organizations, with UGA, the excitement about co-creating something like this and seeing its value is exciting — no one had ever asked for this before. So, the desire and the passion around partnerships stood out.”
In three-day sessions over three springtime weeks, the inaugural SDX program was held April 2-4 in Duluth and Athens before moving to Boehringer’s main U.S. headquarters in Ridgefield, Conn., in May and ending at Atlanta’s Terry Executive Education Center in June. Boehringer’s goal was to see if the program would engage its employees before sharing it with others.
“We’re thrilled at the chance to coordinate and deliver the Sustainable Development Excellence program with all these extraordinary Boehringer Ingelheim thought-leaders,” said Linda Read, the Terry College Director of Executive Programs. “It’s an effort with outstanding collaboration, and our goal was to include and acknowledge the many contributors across the University of Georgia with the sustainability goals of Boehringer.”
“The University of Georgia is an excellent institution to support this type of training because of the diversity of expertise across units and long-term investment by many faculty in sustainability-focused research,” said Krista Capps, an Associate Professor in the Odum School of Ecology who led a session on water stewardship. “Participating in SDX was a new way to leverage the decades of research in water science and policy from UGA’s River Basin Center and expand the knowledge and impact of that work to support corporate sustainability at the global level.”
More Green
As sustainability becomes a growing focus for corporations, its definition has evolved. Sustainability in the workplace includes issues such as employee retention, company financial well-being, and promoting diverse workforces.
But there’s a good reason “More Green” is the program’s first pillar.
Dr. Sherry Sanderson, Associate Professor in UGA’s Department of Biomedical Sciences at the College of Veterinary Medicine, with Rod Christmas, Director and Chief Veterinary Officer in Clinical Animal Health at Boehringer Ingelheim.
“The pragmatic point is if businesses don’t have the quality and quantity of water they need, they will not be able to work in certain regions — that’s the bottom line,” Capps said. “Environmental conditions constrain economic development and industrial applications, and if you don’t acknowledge that, you can’t achieve your goals or support sustainable and profitable growth.”
Capps’ session on water stewardship, which she presented with the Science Director of the River Basin Center and fellow Odum faculty member Seth Wenger, highlighted the universal need for water and industry challenges accessing it in certain parts of the world. Among the classes in the first week was one from Marshall Shepherd, the Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor and Director of UGA’s Atmospheric Sciences Program, explaining climate change and public perception of extreme weather. Tyra Byers of UGA’s Office of Sustainability discussed the depth of sustainability challenges and opportunities for innovation. The sessions talked about the climate and what it means for society.
“Industry has a direct impact on surrounding communities, and the excellent part about collaborating with Boehringer is that they recognize this opportunity and responsibility, and they’ve already made great efforts to invest in water sustainability,” Capps said. “It was a wonderful way to begin this type of corporate training because Boehringer had a template and the expertise to make it an effective and fun collaboration.
Marketing Associate Professor Neil Bendle offered a detour from the green focus to promote the importance of mission to business success. The Terry professor presented a sustainable business case about Greyston Bakery, a New York business with an open hiring policy that employs anyone who adds their name to a job list.
“It’s a company with a strong mission, and I wanted them to focus on how a mission could be good business,” Bendle said. “You can talk about hiring costs, employee loyalty, and marketing that sells a mission to people. If you have a purpose, it’s much easier to work with other companies who have a purpose.”
Bendle was pleased by the audience participation and the company’s push to make it a rigorous event.
“I was impressed by how Boehringer wanted to make this a meaningful examination of sustainability — they were certainly committed to that,” he said. “They didn’t want superficial sessions; they wanted to get deeper into certain topics. The people were enthusiastic.”
More Health
The environmental pillar can easily apply to all companies, but “More Health” speaks directly to Boehringer’s goals and mission. Seeking to improve human and animal health through physical well-being and mental and emotional wellness is fundamental to the company, and the sessions heightened these points.
Perhaps no session converged this mission more than Sherry Sanderson’s lecture, “Human-Animal Bond/Impact on Human Health.” An Associate Professor in UGA Vet Med’s Department of Biomedical Sciences, Sanderson’s research focuses on the symbiotic relationship between people and their pets.
“If you look at the sustainability goals, one is a big health aspect,” Sanderson said. “I approached it from the standpoint of how animals can help humans remain healthy as they age and how cats also benefit along the same way. We found it did reduce loneliness in older adults or seniors, so it was beneficial.”
The program’s second week was kicked off by Meghan Skira, an Associate Professor of Economics at Terry College, with a lecture on health equity and disparities. Joined by Celeste Woolfork, Boehringer’s Director of More Health, the session provided a baseline for the following days as it defined terms like health equity, health disparities, and structural inequities while offering examples of disparities across a range of health outcomes like life expectancy, diabetes prevalence, and maternal mortality. Woolfork added historical context, citing the impact of medical bias with examples from the 1840s through the modern day; Skira reviewed the theories that attempt to explain health disparities across socioeconomic groups.
“They were very engaged; I wish we had even more time, given the high quality of the discussions and questions,” Skira said of the group. “They were very curious throughout, but especially when I showed them examples of health disparities in the United States — many found the statistics and figures eye-opening.”
Rafael Fantauzzi, Chief Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Officer at Boehringer Ingelheim, addresses fellow employees during the Sustainable Development Excellence Certificate Program at the Terry Executive Education Center in Atlanta on June 26, 2024.
“The reality that access to healthcare and quality of care only plays a small role in health outcomes was a revelation to many,” said Woolfork. “Helping them understand Boehringer’s commitment to sustainability with a health equity lens was the most rewarding part of my leader-teacher experience. Being involved in their learning and accessible beyond the program offers SDX participants a unique level of continued engagement and support.”
The group also learned from SPIA Dean Matthew Auer on “Strengthening Engagement to Drive a Policy Agenda,” proving More Health a staple when discussing sustainability that can benefit many other companies.
“We are a country that’s aging, and we need to do more to help people age healthy and live longer,” Sanderson said. “Loneliness is an epidemic in this country, and as people age, we need to find more ways to address that than what is currently available, and this is research everyone feels good about because you’re helping older people and also helping animals at the same time. In doing research in the human-animal bond area, they’re always looking for corporate sponsorships, so that would be a good thing for any company to have under their belt that they’re helping to sponsor research in this area.”
“They have a comprehensive view of and interest in sustainability,” Skira said of the program. “Sometimes, when people hear the term ‘sustainability,’ they think narrowly about environmental sustainability. But Boehringer’s commitment to sustainability goes beyond that — they are dedicated to improving health and ensuring a high quality of life, not just for the current generation, but subsequent generations.”
More Potential
“We’re talking about what it’s like to be ‘human’ when we make decisions,” said Mike Pfarrer, Terry’s Associate Dean for Research and Executive Programs, opening up the “More Potential” segment of the program. “The thing is, we all have biases — they’re part of what we do. You don’t solve them; you’re just aware of them, and that helps you make decisions. So, we want to have conversations about what it means at work to have these biases when we make decisions.”
The third act of Boehringer’s program is more adjustable than the other two, for good reason. Every company has sustainability issues germane to them, so More Potential offers the latitude to customize sessions that speak to their employees. In Boehringer’s case, potential includes topics such as diversity, gender equity, social justice and corporate longevity, but is open for any discussion that benefits the company.
“More Potential is more abstract, and it’s more abstract because the word could mean many different things,” Jamie Eden, Boehringer Ingelheim’s Senior Vice President of Human Resources, told the group. “For me, it means possibility. And certainly, when we talk about potential in people, we’re talking about the possibilities for this person in the future…I believe it’s the pillar within the three that requires the most reflection and the most thought.”
Pfarrer’s session, “Critical Thinking & Decision Making Without Bias,” covered workplace matters, discussing cognitive biases, leadership decision-making, AI innovation, crisis management, hybrid work models, communication strategies and workplace culture.
The third pillar included a pair of sessions on diversity, as Terry lecturer Kachi Ekwerike discussed the importance of an inclusive workplace, followed by Cecilia Herles, Assistant Director of the Institute for Women’s Studies in Franklin College, with a session on gender equity. The pillar’s goal is to affect 50 million people in underserved communities by building solutions to help them be more economically sustainable.
Combining the 3 Pillars
And that’s where this program comes in. Creating change outside the company is an achievable aim with an inspired workforce, and the SDX program is part of that purpose.
“We wanted to add in-depth and an adult learning program that helps our people become conversationally fluent in relevant topics for Boehringer in sustainable development,” Rotkewicz said. “We want to create what I like to call a ‘peaceful army’ of people who understand what we’re trying to do as an organization and understand the fundamentals of sustainability.”
The participants’ final action was grouping teams to build out sustainability ideas culled from the sessions, find strategies to implement, and continue he march to becoming more sustainable every day. These capstone projects from the inaugural SDX class serve as further evidence of Boehringer’s commitment to the program and its drive to promote More Green, More Health and More Potential throughout the company in the future.
An important moment happened when Eden, speaking to the group on a Zoom call, asked the participants by a show of hands if the certificate program should become an annual event. Hands went up throughout the room, with people in the back row raising both to ensure he could see.
“Opportunities to learn are endless,” Eden said. “Please try to view this certificate program as a reminder that there is so much more we can do together. View it not as a certificate of completion, but maybe a certificate of beginning.”
