Something remarkable and little noticed happened on February 6, 2018.  In its first quarter earnings call of the year the medical devices company BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) began its journey of including sustainability and long-term content in its earnings call, something few companies are doing today.

The call itself followed the standard format of these highly scripted events. Vincent A. Forlenza, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, started the call by presenting an executive overview, which included an affirmation of the company’s long-term strategy, before delving into highlights from the quarter. He was followed by Christopher Reidy, Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer, and Chief Administrative Officer who discussed the company’s financial performance and provided a financial guidance update.

But during the concluding remarks of the presentation, Forlenza stated “I would like to point out that we have included a new slide in the appendix of today’s presentation that provides an update on our sustainability initiatives. While we have always been focused on ESG and creating shared value, we have received feedback from the investor community about its increasing relevance to investment decisions. We hope you find the information useful in understanding BD’s commitment to this important topic.”

The slide provided a Q1 update on BD’s four pillars of sustainability:

• Innovation: Combating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) by launching a new CPO detect assay on BD MAX™ and Resistance Fighter communications campaign
• Access: Collaborating with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to advance training on use of diagnostics to combat AMR
• Efficiency: Increasing use of renewable energy by installing a 1.5-Megawatt solar array at our largest China facility
• Empowerment: Assisting our colleagues in Puerto Rico, including the launch of an associate relief fund

So why am I so excited by this? The reason is simple. BD has taken an important first step in changing the content and tone of the quarterly earnings call, something that is a very hard thing to do. This practice has been around for decades, expectations about the purpose of the call with largely sell-side analysts are entrenched, and, well, it is called the “quarterly earnings call.” I’m not advocating that it should be completely changed, only that there is room for providing a more long-term perspective as building blocks to long-term sustainable value creation. Doing so immediately gets you to sustainability issues. Long-termism and sustainability are two sides of the same coin.

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