Environmental protection

Managing our environmental impact across all our activities and products, working toward a restorative approach

Highlights

62%

of our total electricity use is sourced or generated from renewable sources

CDP A lists

for Water Security and Climate Change for the fourth consecutive year, for our actions and disclosures on climate change and water stewardship

$15.5 million

invested in environmental efficiency projects (NRRGG Fund)

97%

of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) discharges from suppliers demonstrated as safe [1]

18%

reduction in our water use since 2015

44%

of recycling as total waste

Our approach

Climate change is now a climate crisis. It is impacting human health and the biosphere in increasingly severe ways. We are taking action now because we recognise the strong connection between a healthy planet and healthy people. With health at the heart of our business, we work to foster environments in which all life can thrive - seeking opportunities for environmental stewardship and mitigating climate impacts by managing natural resources and ensuring environmental safety of our products across our operations and value chain. We envision a future where we help restore our planet to health by achieving zero carbon emissions.

Our Environmental Protection focus areas include:

Product environmental stewardship, Waste management, Greenhouse gas reduction, Pharmaceuticals in the environment, Water stewardship.

Our Environmental protection approach supports the following Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

Our stories

Greenhouse gas reduction | Ambition Zero Carbon

Recognising the link between climate change and public health, AstraZeneca announced Ambition Zero Carbon at the World Economic Forum 2020. The main targets linked to this ambition are: 1) achieve zero carbon emissions from our operations (sites and fleet) by 2025, without offsets; and 2) ensure our entire value chain is carbon negative by 2030.

Waste management | Creating a culture of sustainability in the labs

From washing glassware to disposing of gloves, everything we do in our labs contributes to our environmental footprint. Through our global Green Labs initiative, AstraZeneca scientists learn about and assess lab practices with respect to waste, energy, water and chemicals with the intent to continuously minimise our environmental impacts.

Pharmaceuticals in the Environment | Engaging with stakeholders in Kenya

We know we need to collaborate to find sustainable solutions for PIE. With this is mind, we invited a range of stakeholders to discuss PIE and emerging economies in Nairobi, Kenya. We focused on actions needed to manage the environmental risks posed from the increased use of pharmaceuticals due to increasing access to healthcare.

Product environmental stewardship | Green chemistry in the laboratory

Scientists at our Gothenburg site in Sweden applied principles of green chemistry to reduce the environmental footprint of a purification process. This was done by replacing toxic solvents with recycled CO2. The new process significantly decreased the amount of raw materials used to create a product, as well as overall waste from the laboratory.

Water stewardship | Restoring lakes to provide clean water

In recent years, Chennai, India has experienced an intensifying water crisis. This has dried up reservoirs and left many people without access to clean water. This prompted AstraZeneca employees based in Chennai to start lake restoration projects in partnership with the Environmentalist Foundation of India. In 2019, employees restored two lakes.

Product environmental stewardship | Sustainable Innovation in Development

Our employees have great ideas about how to embed sustainability into our products. We held a product innovation initiative to put resources behind the best ideas. Seed funding was offered to winning groups to develop ideas that can deliver innovations aligned to our sustainability strategy and push the boundaries of science.
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Read more about Environmental protection in our Sustainability Report.

To view our policies, standards and positions, visit our Resources page.

Environmental risk data relating to our medicines

Here you can find an overview of the environmental risk of AstraZeneca’s medicines. This information will be updated, if appropriate, as new data becomes available. See Environmental risk data relating to our medicines

References

1. Scope is 47 APIs for which data is available to calculate safe API discharge limits and based on 2018 manufacture.