Johnson & Johnson VP reveals bold new climate goals

3 Nov 2020

Paulette Frank. Image: Johnson & Johnson

Human health and environmental health are inextricably linked. Put simply: healthy people need a healthy planet, Johnson & Johnson’s Paulette Frank told Future Human attendees.

“As difficult and painful as it has been, the pandemic has taught us several invaluable lessons about our collective vulnerability and responsibility to each other and to the one planet that we all call home,” said Paulette Frank, Johnson & Johnson’s worldwide vice-president of environmental health, safety and sustainability, who joined us at Future Human last week from her base in the US.

“This past year we have all been understandably consumed with the Covid-19 pandemic, and I know that some may be worried  that the pandemic may diminish or delay the need for urgent climate action now,” she said.

“The United Nations’ Decade of Action is admittedly off to, well, an interesting start. While some may see the circumstances of the past 10 months as a setback, we at J&J see it as inspiration to propel our climate action further faster.”

Johnson & Johnson began setting public climate goals 20 years ago, according to Frank, who said the company’s new climate commitments are its “boldest and most ambitious yet” and aim to achieve carbon neutrality in its operations by 2030.

“In order to achieve this goal we will need to exceed what the science tells us is necessary to help keep our planet below 1.5 degrees Celsius of temperature rise,” said Frank.

“To help meet this goal, we are aggressively accelerating our target for 100pc renewable electricity from 2050 to 2025. In addition, we are committing to work with our suppliers to reduce our upstream carbon footprint by 20pc by 2030.”

Frank said this work would deliver nearly two-and-a-half times the carbon footprint reduction compared to Johnson & Johnson’s own operations. Watch her full talk from Future Human 2020 below.

Ann O’Dea is the CEO and co-founder of Silicon Republic and the founder of Future Human

editorial@siliconrepublic.com