Water stewardship

Water is vital to life on earth. Consistent access to clean water is essential for the development and manufacture of life-changing medicines. It is used across our value chain, in our R&D, to make our raw materials, at our manufacturing sites, for cooling and cleaning, and to ensure the delivery of medicines to patients happens safely.

Recognising this dependency, we're dedicated to collaborating on water conservation and stewardship.

Our 2030 goal is focused on water stewardship strategies at key sites to build on our progress and enhance resilience in the locations where we operate.

Our approach to water stewardship

We strive to use water responsibly, working to minimise adverse impacts on water resources. We know we must protect this natural resource for our business, our employees, local communities and the ecosystems which all depend on water. We’re focused on:

• Reducing water demand across our sites, with key performance indicators for water efficiency and locally-appropriate, site-specific water targets.
• Using Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) to calculate the water footprint across the product life cycle, including for raw materials in the drug substance. Learn more about Product sustainability.
• Focusing on water quality through our safe active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) discharge programme – for both sites and those of our suppliers – and monitoring impacts from manufacture and patient use through environmental risk assessments (ERA) and reporting via our EcoPharmacoVigilance Dashboard. Find out more about Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (PIE).
• Assessing current and future water risks to deepen shared understanding across our sector and beyond.
• Understanding raw material water-related risks within our supply chain. Learn more about our approach to Sustainable use and sourcing of raw materials.
• Driving collective action in river basins across our value chain, supported by our Climate Adaptation and Nature Fund. These projects can also strengthen climate resilience while empowering communities to steward natural resources.

Since 2015, we reduced water withdrawal by 23%.

Taking collaborative action

To enhance our understanding of local water contexts and build water resilience across our global operations and supply chain, we’re working with global experts:  

• World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF): Through our ongoing partnership with WWF, we’re strengthening our water stewardship strategy and catalysing water-related opportunities to scale collective action within our sector, including leveraging the (WWF) Water Risk Filter tool, which identifies global water risks. We also contributed to the publication of Unpacking Collective Action in Water Stewardship which includes frameworks for large-scale impact.
• Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS): As members of the AWS, we support a global movement to advance good water stewardship practices. Together with other members, our sites in India participated in Phase 1 of the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) Collective Action Accelerator.
• IHI-PREMIER (Prioritisation and Risk Evaluation of Medicines in the EnviRonment): We are the industry lead for this multidisciplinary public-private partnership that aims to develop tools to address the environmental risks of pharmaceuticals, including in aquatic habitats.
• Business Leaders’ Open Call for Accelerating Action on Water: We support the Open Call for Water Action which advocates for collective positive water impact benefiting at least 100 water-stressed basins by 2030.