Syncona’s purpose is to invest to extend and enhance human life and this has driven the development of our sustainability approach.
Delivering a positive and sustainable impact is at the heart of what we do at Syncona and we are motivated every day by our purpose of investing to extend and enhance human life. It is, therefore, with great pleasure that I report on the latest progress and developments across our sustainability practices.
Over the last three years, we have established a robust and impactful approach to managing sustainability, both at Syncona and across our portfolio, and over the course of this year we have continued to make progress against our four key sustainability pillars:
- Our social impact
- Being a responsible investor and partner for our portfolio companies
- Inspiring and empowering our people
- Operating as a responsible and ethical business
Our social impact
Supporting our companies as they seek to deliver transformational treatments for patients is fundamental to our social impact and we were delighted to see Autolus, a CAR-T cell therapy company, deliver its Biologics License Application, the regulatory filing needed for approval, for its therapy for the treatment of patients with relapsed/refractory adult B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. This is an important milestone for Autolus which is the first Syncona co-founded company to progress from an academic setting to this stage. We have also made broader progress in our engagement with the life science ecosystem, specifically around UK Government initiatives and establishing a broader industry presence.
“Delivering a positive and sustainable impact is at the heart of what we do at Syncona and we are motivated every day by our purpose of investing to extend and enhance human life.”
Responsible investor and partner
In our work with portfolio companies, we have continued to see strong engagement from their leadership teams and reporting of a high standard on key sustainability matters. The natural maturation of the portfolio and increased focus on clinical and late-stage companies has meant that we have added companies to the portfolio that are at a more advanced stage and we have partnered closely with them to engage them on the sustainability matters that are important to us, reflecting our responsibility to influence companies at all stages of the development cycle.
Inspiring and empowering our people
Evolving our team and embedding a new operating model has been a key strategic undertaking for the Syncona Board and team this year. I am immensely proud of the platform we have established through the changes we have made and look forward to seeing the continued impact this team will have.
A responsible and ethical business
Developing our environmental agenda is an ongoing process and so a key highlight for us this year has been SIML becoming a signatory of the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative.
As part of the process, we have published our first interim net zero target, which sets out where in our portfolio we will initially be focusing on reducing emissions for 2030.
Finally, I would like to take the opportunity to thank all of our stakeholders for their support. We are privileged to have a team who work with such dedication every day to build a sustainable business, portfolio leaders who work collaboratively to develop treatments that have the potential to reach patients, and shareholders who continue to support us and ensure we deliver our vision and strategy in a sustainable way. We are also very proud to be part of a life science ecosystem with a focus on leveraging the world-class scientific research base here in the UK. We look forward continuing to work with you all to deliver on our purpose and strategy in the years to come.
“Our governance framework is built on accountability and our values, and is fundamental to our long-term success.”
Key sustainability pillars
We have engaged with our key stakeholders to understand the sustainability issues which are most material to us as a business, with this materiality review leading us to four key pillars which will drive our sustainability strategy.