With the world watching at the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, AstraZeneca announced a bold plan to have zero carbon emissions from its global operations within the next five years. That would accelerate the company’s “decarbonization” plan by more than a decade.
AstraZeneca’s “Ambition Zero Carbon” strategy will accelerate the company’s already-existing sustainability plans. Included in the company’s plan is a doubling of energy productivity and using renewable energy for both power and heat, as well as switching to a 100% electric vehicle fleet. The goal is to have this completed by 2025 and the price tag is expected to cost about $1 billion.
Not only does AstraZeneca intend for its operations to have zero carbon emissions, the company is also looking to develop next-generation respiratory inhalers for asthma and COPD that do not add to global warming with the propellants used. AstraZeneca expects the propellant used in the next generation pressurized metered-dose inhalers to have a global warming potential that is 90% to 99% lower than propellants used in older inhalers. In addition to offering next-generation inhalers, AstraZeneca will continue offering dry powder inhaled medicines, the company said.
Also, the company intends to embark on a 50-million tree reforestation initiative that will be rolled out over the next five years. The first trees are expected to be planted in Australia later this year, with France, Indonesia and other countries to follow, AstraZeneca said. “Ambition Zero Carbon” sets out to make AstraZeneca’s global operations responsible for zero carbon emissions without relying on offset schemes to reach zero emissions on aggregate, the company said.
AstraZeneca Chief Executive Officer Pascal Soriot said climate change is an urgent threat to public health, as well as the environment and the sustainability of the global economy.
“Since 2015, we have reduced our carbon emissions from operations by almost a third and our water consumption by almost one fifth. But now is the time to act even faster and redouble our efforts. The commitments AstraZeneca has made today as part of our ‘Ambition Zero Carbon’ strategy will enable us to speed up the reduction of our Company’s impact on climate and inspire collaboration at a global level to affect policy change,” Soriot said in a statement.
Not only will AstraZeneca look to significantly reduce its own carbon footprint, the company said it will also ask its suppliers to curb their own carbon footprint so the company can achieve a goal of being carbon negative along its entire value chain by 2030.
Earlier this year, AstraZeneca was recognized by Corporate Knights as one of the world’s 100 most sustainable companies.
AstraZeneca isn’t the only pharma company focused on being a better environmental steward. Last year, Novo Nordisk said it was close to hitting its goal of relying on renewable energy by this year. The company first set its sights on achieving zero carbon dioxide emissions in its global manufacturing in 2015. As part of its plan, Novo Nordisk invested in a 672-acre solar panel installation, roughly the size of 500 football fields, in North Carolina. That solar panel facility is expected to provide power to Novo Nordisk’s entire U.S. operations by early 2020.
Earlier this month at the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference, Takeda said it exceeded its previously established 2020 environmental goals ahead of schedule, including reducing its CO2 emissions by 33.7% compared to 2005 levels. Takeda also set a carbon neutrality goal across its value chain for 2040.