Caring for our environment.
Sustainability is no longer a ‘nice to have’.
Climate concern is at an all-time high, not only to our colleagues but our customers too.
As a leading pharmaceutical manufacturer, we have a global presence in over 90 countries. We aspire to have a positive effect on our surroundings and give back more than we take to society and the environment.
No business operates in isolation, and we are aware that our day to day activities can have tremendous impacts on our surroundings and people, in both positive and negative ways. It is our aim to have a full review of our business operations, and ensure processes are in place to enable us to make meaningful and valued contributions, alongside our obligations to our home community.
Reducing our environmental impact is a key priority for us as we move through 2022 and we are working hard to embed sustainability throughout all levels of our business.
How and where we invest our capital, the products we make and sell and our supply chain all add in to our overall environmental footprint. We’re also planning how we best communicate our efforts to colleagues, customers and our community.
Transparency is very important to us to be able to give our colleagues and customers confidence in our actions. It also enables us to showcase our achievements, alongside areas for improvement.
We have identified areas across our group in which we are able to make positive changes. We are aligning our core business values with our sustainability strategy and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
Climate, nature, health and social equality are all interlinked.
In 2015 the United Nations identified 17 Global Goals for People and Planet, covering social, environmental and economic targets. These Sustainable Development Goals provide a powerful aspiration for improving our world, showing where we collectively need to go and how we can get there.
Organisations have a key role to play in the delivery of sustainable development. We have chosen six priority goals that we can incorporate into our strategy and make a measurable contribution towards.
Our responsibility extends to everyone in our supply chain and we expect them to operate with the same values and care that we treat our own team. As a global business with many suppliers, this is a large task that we are embarking on, but we realise our operations do not stop within our own walls. We will be expanding our procurement and due diligence policies to screen and support both new and existing partners.
Measuring how our supply chain supports diversity, inclusion and equality, whilst working in an ethical and sustainable manner will be a key focus for 2023.
Sustainability by Design.
We take great pride in our focus and having a sustainable approach to manufacturing and production of world class medicines.
Board level oversight ensures high standards of behaviour at all levels of our business, and the promotion of long term goals and targets. We recognise that taking care of our people and our environment leads to a healthier team and surroundings, alongside increased wellbeing and performance too.
With our strong history of innovation and our own research and development team, we are in a good position to review the whole lifecycle of our large volume products and pin point how we can make them as low impact as possible.
Integrating mitigation, adaptation and resilience measures to climate change, both in house and throughout our supply chain, is essential for us to continue with our mission – providing affordable medicines that extend and improve the lives of people and animals.
Treading Lightly.
Due to the nature of the products we produce, safety and sterility is paramount, and the pharmaceutical industry has traditionally relied heavily on the use of plastic.
We are in the process of assessing our use of materials, plastic being one of them. We’re exploring ways we could utilise technology to reduce our consumption, whilst still providing safe and effective products to our customers.
We will adhere to the principles of circular economy and aim to keep our resources in use as long as possible. We will extract the greatest value from them, before repurposing or recycling for further use.
Controlling our Carbon.
We are calculating our carbon emissions and understanding our environmental impact. We have a formed a Sustainability Committee with Board level representation and are in the midst of a carbon emissions management project.
Measurement of our Scope 1 and 2 emissions is underway, with Scope 3 included on areas of business travel, material use and waste.
Our energy use is being monitored and we are reviewing options for solar panels to be installed across our manufacturing sites. Our colleagues in the UK have the option to choose an electric or hybrid vehicle for their company car and we aim to expand this initiative to colleagues across our group over the coming year. We”ll be supporting this with electric charging points installed at our head office for colleagues and visitors..
Supporting our customers with how to safely use and dispose of our products and associated packaging responsibly is very important to us.
Digital solutions, QR codes and web based information pages can help us to communicate the importance of recycling and safe medicines use to our customers, without having to increase pack sizes or produce more leaflets.
