AI & Technology

Our efforts to reduce carbon emissions were acknowledged in 2016 with our inclusion in the ‘Climate A List’. CDP assessed companies globally from across 10 industry sectors; we were one of only 193 companies (9% of applicants) and seven healthcare companies to be A-listed.

As we learn more about how sustainable building techniques can be used for industrial purposes, we are putting this knowledge into practice with similar projects in the UK, where GSK funding led to the construction of the country’s first ever carbon neutral laboratory in Nottingham.

Our pharmacovigilance centre of excellence collects publically available data from social media and filters out unrelated information and anything that would infringe patient privacy. The Centre’s analysis is helping us to understand the benefits of our products, alert us to unexpected adverse effects, and evaluate the misuse of drugs.

In 2016, we topped the Access to Medicine Index for the fifth consecutive time since it began in 2008. The index is an independent measure of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies’ efforts to improve access to healthcare in developing countries.

In 2016, we expanded our existing approach to filing and enforcing patents to ensure we balance the need to protect our intellectual property with a country’s economic maturity.

Black & Veatch’s 2017 Strategic Directions: Smart City/Smart Utility Report reinforces lessons learned in the past year—although governments and municipalities believe strongly in the smart city model, they continue to struggle to fund these efforts. According to survey data, only 16 percent of municipalities can self-fund a smart city initiative, a little over a third cannot.

The last few years have been transformational for climate diplomacy. In 2015, we witnessed the first legally binding global climate deal with the Paris Agreement, and last year’s COP22 conference saw governments and businesses reaffirm their commitments to sustainable growth. These events, coupled with a groundswell of public pressure, leave no doubt that working toward a low-carbon economy is, and will remain, a priority.

The feeling of providing meaningful jobs is hard to put into words, but our mission is simple: When we start making more things in America, it’s a win for our workers, our families, and our communities.

National leaders share their expertise, form new partnerships and discuss future directions in the field of biophilic urbanism and design.