A proactive approach - Governance

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Corporate governance

Find out more about Corporate Governance at sanofi-aventis on the Investors pages.

CSR Governance

In late 2009, the sanofi-aventis Sustainability Department became part of the newly established Corporate Social Responsibility function.

This new function came about in response to the Group’s decision to bring together all the major initiatives in the field of economic, social and environmental responsibility. The CSR function encompasses access to medicines, humanitarian partnership, sustainability, diversity/disability, and Group initiatives designed to help employees and their families.

The Senior Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility reports directly to the Chief Executive Officer of sanofi-aventis, in a clear illustration of the strategic importance of this new role in ensuring the overall consistency in all the Group’s CSR initiatives.

Piloting a cross-functional CSR approach

The Sustainability Department, which since October 2009 has been part of the CSR function, oversees the operational implementation of the approach in collaboration with a steering committee, called the Group Sustainability Committee (GSC). The GSC is made up of representatives from corporate and regional functions. Because they interface with members of the Group Management Committee, these members are the driving force in policy implementation for both employees and external stakeholders. Their role is to determine challenges, identify priority commitments and increase awareness of the approach as well as share information about CSR initiatives in the field. In 2009, the CSR approach entered a new phase with the further expansion of its international network to all affiliates as well as growing stakeholder involvement.

As a result, today, sanofi-aventis has a correspondent network across all Group regions and functions, on all continents. The correspondents play an essential role in implementing the Group’s CSR approach to give rise to initiatives and responses that are in line with stated expectations.

2010 perspectives

To further implement CSR across all regions using the network, the Group has established two objectives for 2010:

• Develop the necessary tools to roll out the CSR approach locally,
• Maintain the momentum generated by the network and establish a means for best practice sharing.