Responsible supply chain

Transforming our supply chain to achieve Ambition Zero Carbon

In 2020, we announced Ambition Zero Carbon. This includes a 2030 target to have a carbon negative value chain. With 97% of our footprint in our value chain (including logistics and purchased goods and services), reaching our 2030 target will require unprecedented coordination throughout our supply chain planning processes. Through our new Operations strategy, we have embedded sustainability in both our product and supply chain design approach, including additional life cycle assessments across our portfolio. See more in Product environmental stewardship.

Sourcing raw materials from nature

Our medicines are created from many raw materials that come from nature and from some areas in the world with environmental and human rights issues. We recognise the importance of understanding the sustainability impacts of these sourcing activities. In 2020, we began to build a framework to drive change for materials of natural origin — including agriculture, aquaculture, forestry, fishery, and mining — used in our supply chain.

Through the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI), we worked to understand our collective human rights and environmental impacts as a pharmaceutical industry. This research informed PSCI members of existing certification schemes from reputable non-governmental organisations to help ensure that our purchases come from well-managed and responsible sources based on supply chain transparency and credible verification. As a result of this engagement, we set a target to have sustainability action plans in place for 12 key raw materials by 2025. 

Advancing sustainability maturity across internal manufacturing

Our supply chain is more than just our external partners — it is made up of 29 internal manufacturing locations. In an effort to further promote sustainability across our manufacturing sites, we developed a common sustainability maturity framework. This framework outlines sustainability excellence over four maturity levels, from foundational to ideal state. It provides a roadmap of practices aimed at enabling sustainable practices and performance. We piloted this maturity model across seven sites in 2020 and plan to extend this approach as we embed responsible supply chain principles into our lean maturity review process.

Recognition

• 2020 HubZone Prime Contractor National Award for supporting US small businesses in economically underutilised areas
• 2020 Corporate Done Deal Award by Women Business Enterprise Center for achieving the highest certified women-owned business spend in the US PA-DE-NJ region
• 2020 Corporate Champion Award by Women Presidents Educational Organization for having highest spend with women-owned businesses in the US Washington, DC region

CDP Supplier Engagement Leader Board

AstraZeneca was among the top 7% of companies assessed by CDP to be awarded a position on the leader board. We are recognised for our actions to lower climate-related risks in the supply chain and working with our suppliers to reduce their emissions.