Good Health Reaches Far: How Boehringer Ingelheim Supports Wellbeing-Related Initiatives

NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / October 5, 2026 / Through a long-standing partnership with social innovators on the front lines of nutrition and health, Boehringer Ingelheim works to support communities to build resilience. In the process, it is giving its employees a deeper sense of purpose and the tools to create lasting change.

“Nutrition affects not just physical wellbeing, but also mental and emotional health,” says Andrea Escobar, a social entrepreneur in Colombia. “People don’t always see how much it costs them to neglect their health or the health of their families. That’s what we try to help them understand their options and make changes they believe will benefit their health and wellbeing.” That mission is at the heart of Soydoy, the foundation she formed in 2008.

Andrea’s goals for her foundation align with Boehringer Ingelheim’s sustainability strategy. Her work embodies the “Impact through our People” program, part of the MORE POTENTIAL pillar-which focuses on initiatives aimed at supporting the health of our people and communities. Investing in employee wellbeing is intended to support positive impact beyond the organization, including through collaborations such as Soydoy.

A foundation built on food and family

Andrea founded Soydoy with the aim to address malnutrition and challenging food environments in vulnerable populations. In Colombia, more than 40% of the population suffers from some level of malnutrition, and obesity is a growing problem. Soydoy responds to these challenges by embedding itself in affected communities and providing education and support for families looking to change their habits. Working with mothers of young children showed the biggest impact. “Once we build up a critical mass of families that recognize the impact, then we can really begin to break down walls and convince more people to change their nutritional habits,” says Andrea.

While participating in Boehringer Ingelheim’s Social Innovation Hubs program in 2024, Andrea learned that her father had succumbed to a long illness. The timing made the loss even more profound: At the time of his death, she was immersed in conversations about health, prevention and the daily decisions that impact long-term wellbeing. “That experience was painful,” she reflects, “but the nature of the work I was doing helped me to walk through that pain with a lot of light and purpose.”

Drawing on her discussions in the Social Innovation Hubs program, Andrea realized that prevention often fails because organizations lack a way to measure wellbeing or quantify the economic cost of inaction. To fill that gap, she worked with a cross-functional group of eight Boehringer colleagues-including data scientists and medical doctors-to create Olana, a digital wellbeing platform.

Boehringer’s people have all been superb collaborators. Thanks to them, we have incorporated vital information into the platform, such as the connections between kidney and cardiovascular diseases and obesity.

Andrea Escobar, Founder of Soydoy

Unlike traditional assessment tools, Olana takes a holistic view of physical, mental, and financial wellbeing and seeks to highlight the potential economic impacts associated with poor health. These insights help communities and enterprises reflect on prevention priorities.

By drawing on data related to preventive actions, the platform offers indicative guidance to support understanding and informed decision-making around health and wellbeing. Olana is not intended to provide medical advice or replace professional healthcare guidance.

A partnership rooted in trust

Andrea is quick to highlight the key role Ashoka played in her relationship with Boehringer. Ashoka is an international non-profit that has built what it considers the world’s largest network of social entrepreneurs. For 16 years, it has partnered with Boehringer to identify and support social innovators working on healthcare challenges. Ashoka collaborates with many other businesses, but its relationship with Boehringer stands out.

Arnaud Mourot, Vice President at Ashoka, describes it as a partnership unlike any other, one built on equal footing and deep mutual trust from the very beginning.

We don’t have a collaboration at this level of depth with anyone else. That trust allowed us to evolve our work over time with the aim of creating more social impact.

Arnaud Mourot, Vice President at Ashoka

Together, the two organizations have worked to support social entrepreneurs with the training and skills they need to succeed. Arnaud emphasizes that close partnerships are at the very core of Ashoka’s mission: “We help big businesses go beyond just giving money to NGOs. We enable them to engage in a meaningful manner, with in-kind support that helps social entrepreneurs refine their business models and raise their impact. However, our goal is to create a positive benefit for both sides.”

Ashoka supports Boehringer’s sustainability strategy by creating new opportunities for its employees’ strong sense of purpose. “We have worked with Boehringer to create a critical mass of employees who think like changemakers,” says Arnaud. “Thousands of Boehringer employees have gone through these programs, and you can see the impact they have had. The Social Innovation Hub program has been particularly effective because it aims to create local ecosystems where employees work directly with social entrepreneurs on challenges in their own communities.”

The program has resulted in a win-win scenario for all involved. Social entrepreneurs gain skills, support and the ability to tap into networks they might never be able to access otherwise, while Boehringer employees learn new and alternative ways to apply their expertise and experience firsthand how they can make a difference. “This way of doing good is also a new skillset directly transferable to the business,” Arnaud notes. “It makes people faster, more agile and more innovative.”

Wellbeing that works both ways

For Beatrice Aelterman, Boehringer’s Global Head of Occupational Health & Safety, the sustainability program “Impact through our People” doesn’t refer exclusively to helping others or improving the business; it is central to the topic of employee wellbeing.

Purpose matters. When people work on real challenges and feel a sense of connection, it can positively shape their work and support their overall wellbeing-inspiring them to approach their work in new ways.

Beatrice Aelterman, Global Head of Occupational Health & Safety at Boehringer Ingelheim

When employees collaborate with social entrepreneurs in underserved communities, something usually shifts for them. “They experience firsthand what health means in those contexts,” Beatrice explains. This external engagement illustrates one example of how employee engagement can support social innovation initiatives, complementing Boehringer’s internal wellbeing infrastructure. “We define wellbeing across four dimensions: mental health, physical health, social health, and financial health,” Beatrice says. “Our Be Healthy and Be Safe programs address the mental, physical and safety dimensions. But for everything we develop internally, we try to make it resonate outside of the company as well. For example, the volunteering platform we have enables employees to leverage their skills for the community. At the same time, these opportunities reinforce empathy and learning.”

Felipe de Jesús Lopez Fraga, Human Pharma Senior Sales Manager at Boehringer based in Mexico City, echoes the sentiment. Felipe has been closely involved in Soydoy’s collaboration from the start: “I’ve broadened my vision by working hand-in-hand with social entrepreneurs who are inspirational and an example of systemic change.”

Beatrice feels strongly that every initiative can make a difference, irrespective of scale. She remembers a colleague once describing a volunteer project on water access in Kenya as a small one. “I corrected them immediately,” she says, “It’s not a small project, because water is life. Access to clean water is essential to have good health.” For her, that distinction is an important one-because working alongside social entrepreneurs has given so many employees the opportunity to see how their efforts connect to Boehringer’s larger mission.

As Beatrice says, “We fill the bottle one drop at a time.”

Global Wellbeing Week 2026 | June 22-26

The Global Wellbeing Week brings Boehringer Ingelheim’s wellbeing approach into focus, showcasing initiatives addressing mental, physical, social, and financial health across the organization. The event also highlights how internal wellbeing efforts connect with external engagement, offering colleagues opportunities to learn from and interact with social entrepreneurs like Andrea Escobar of Soydoy, a featured speaker whose work illustrates the link between health, nutrition, and sustainable impact.

The initiatives described reflect individual collaborations and experiences. Boehringer Ingelheim does not provide medical advice through these initiatives, nor do they constitute evidence of measurable health outcomes.

Read more on Imagine – Boehringer Ingelheim’s sustainability story hub.

*Image credits: Headerpicture: Boehringer Ingelheim. Quote pictures: Acumen Colombia, Acumen Colombia, Beatrice Aeltermann

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SOURCE: Boehringer Ingelheim

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