A Message from Marc N. Casper

President and Chief Executive Officer

Our company mission – to enable our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer – not only defines our corporate responsibility efforts, but positions us to help meet some of society's most pressing challenges. As the global population surges, demand for widespread treatment and eradication of diseases, clean water and air, and access to safe and adequate food supplies will become paramount. To be sure, no company can meet these challenges alone; they will require collective effort on the part of industry, government and society. As the world leader in serving science, Thermo Fisher Scientific can make significant contributions. Our comprehensive portfolio of products and services, our continued investments in new technologies and capabilities, and our commitment to stewardship support our customers' goals – and our own – for sustainable growth.

Our corporate responsibility strategy rests on four pillars: Innovation, Operations, Service and Philanthropy. Our values – Integrity, Intensity, Innovation, Involvement – are the fabric of our corporate culture, decision-making and actions.

Innovation

Globally, we develop and provide state-of-the-art products and services that help our customers meet their own corporate responsibility goals, whether they're developing new drug treatments for cancer, protecting power-plant workers from radiation, or ensuring that our global food supplies are safe. Many of our products are setting new industry standards for energy efficiency and responsible materials. For example, we developed the first "green" electrode that contains no mercury, lead or other hazardous substances, enabling easy disposal. We pioneered state-of-the-art spectrophotometers and other tools that help our customers complete their work with less water, fewer chemicals and minimal waste. Some of our biosafety cabinets, ultra-low-temperature freezers and other essential laboratory products reduce energy use by as much as 80%, and without gases that can contribute to global warming. In addition, we use packaging materials that have been developed to significantly reduce waste.

Operations

Our corporate responsibility commitment extends to the way we run our own operations and development programs as well. Our Practical Process Improvement program, or PPI, is our foundation for operational excellence. It's a company-wide methodology that helps us to remove waste and inefficiencies in our businesses to better serve our customers and generate profitable, sustainable growth. PPI helps us to implement energy-saving programs such as LEED – the standard for measuring building sustainability – to further reduce our energy consumption and reduce waste generation at a number of our facilities.

Service

We support and encourage our employees' interest in giving back to their communities through hands-on service in causes that align with our mission or hold personal significance. Since 2010, we have formed Community Action Councils to facilitate and organize involvement in local volunteer activities at some of our major locations around the world. Thermo Fisher teams are raising funds for cancer research, hosting teacher workshops, organizing food drives, and cleaning up beaches, among many other volunteering projects. I am humbled by their selfless commitment to supporting communities and citizens in need and, as a result, making the world a better place.

Philanthropy

Since our inception, Thermo Fisher has supported organizations dedicated to science education through financial and in-kind donations. Our support of the Mass Math + Science Initiative expands access for underserved students to Advanced Placement courses in high schools by training teachers to motivate and inspire them to succeed. We also recently broadened our philanthropic efforts to include a Matching Gift Program that supports employee contributions in the U.S., expanding the impact of their generosity through a company match and facilitating donations to charities of their choice.

At Thermo Fisher Scientific, meeting the needs of our customers, employees, investors and communities fuels our commitment to sustainable growth. I am incredibly proud of our achievements in industry-leading innovation and community involvement, but recognize we have the opportunity to do much more. As we face the global challenges of the 21st century, I am confident that our company will continue to play a leading role by enabling our customers to make the world healthier, cleaner and safer.