Responsibilities for corporate citizenship

Novartis is committed to high standards of corporate governance, including corporate citizenship.

These standards are incorporated into our Articles of Incorporation, the Regulations of the Board and the Charters of the Board Committees. The Board's Corporate Governance Committee reviews these standards and principles regularly and forwards suggestions for improvement to the full Board for approval.

The Corporate Citizenship Steering Committee, chaired by a member of the Executive Committee of Novartis, is responsible for providing strategic guidance on corporate citizenship. The committee coordinates corporate citizenship-related management and reporting activities at the group level.

The members of the Corporate Citizenship Steering Committee represent global functions (e.g., Human Resources, Health, Safety and Environment, and Integrity and Compliance) and the company's four divisions. A senior member of the Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research (NIBR) is also on the committee.

At biannual review meetings, corporate citizenship performance is measured, progress documented, issues assessed, policy changes discussed, targets set and then communicated.

The committee is ultimately responsible for our corporate responsibility tools, target-setting, benchmarking, and then communicating our goals both inside and outside the company, to employees, business partners and other stakeholders.

On the Board of Directors, the Audit and Compliance Committee is responsible for monitoring regular audits of corporate citizenship implementation and compliance.