Sustainability partnerships and alliances

Transforming healthcare to be more sustainable, equitable and resilient requires collaboration at scale.

As a global leader in science and healthcare, we have a responsibility to tackle the major challenges of our time. We are committed to taking action on climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, health systems resilience and health equity and know that we can achieve more when we come together.

Through our partnerships across the public and private sectors, we are dedicated to delivering sustainable innovation that contributes to the health of people, society and the planet.

We work closely with governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), academic institutions and businesses to build and shape public-private alliances to deliver concrete, scalable action on shared goals.

Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience

Sustainable Markets Initiative

Since we founded the Task Force at COP26, it has:

• Launched and expanded an industry-first renewable power purchase agreement (PPA) in China to enable companies and suppliers to access renewable power in China and decarbonise the value chain
• Established joint climate and sustainability targets for suppliers to support decarbonisation at scale 
• Launched the European Network on Climate & Health Education (ENCHE) with Columbia University NYC and Glasgow University to train over 10,000 medical students on climate health impacts across over 25 European universities
• Developed emissions measurement frameworks, including a new sector-wide standard for medicines Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
• Published an Open Letter calling for the measurement and reduction of emissions from clinical research and published a tool to support the measurement of carbon emissions from clinical trials

World Economic Forum strategic partner

We are a strategic partner of the World Economic Forum (WEF) which enables meaningful collaboration with governments, companies and NGOs on shared priorities, including supporting the delivery of sustainable, resilient and equitable healthcare:

• As part of the WEF's EDISON Alliance and in partnership with Qure.ai, we've successfully assessed over 5 million AI-enabled chest x-rays for lung cancer risk across more than 20 emerging markets. This is a significant step towards achieving sustainable impact at scale. It enhances lung cancer screening and early detection, while also strengthening healthcare systems in low- and middle-income countries. Initiatives like these demonstrate our strong commitment to advancing health equity through digital inclusion, to help improve patient outcomes.
• Our advanced manufacturing sites in Wuxi, China and Södertälje, Sweden are members of the WEF Global Lighthouse Network, in recognition of their leadership in AI and digital technologies. This multi-sector community of industry leaders pioneers the use of technologies to drive operational excellence, environmental sustainability and workforce development.

Other alliances and collaborations

Alliance for Water Stewardship

Following our involvement in the AWS Collective Action Accelerators in India, we are engaging with others in Guadalajara and Mexico City, as the programme is scaled to new regions globally.

Circular Bioeconomy Alliance (CBA)

We are founding members of the CBA, a collaborative platform aiming to accelerate the transition to a climate-neutral, inclusive and circular bioeconomy. Through AZ Forest, we contribute to the CBA’s global network of Living Labs for Nature, People and Planet.

Innovative Health Initiative (IHI)

To advance the delivery of medicines that are safe, effective and with a low environmental impact – in line with our approach to pharmaceuticals in the environment (PIE) – we are the industry lead of the IHI PREMIER consortium, a public-private partnership with the European Commission and European trade association EFPIA. PREMIER develops tools to identify potential environmental risks of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and aims to make these tools and data accessible to all stakeholders.

Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi)

We were one of the first seven companies worldwide to have our Scope 1-3 targets verified by Science Based Targets initiative's (SBTi) Net-Zero Corporate Standard.

The Climate Group – RE100, EV100, EP100

We were the first pharmaceutical company to join all three Climate Group initiatives: EP100, RE100 and EV100 to support collective action on energy productivity, renewables and electric vehicles. We are also founding members of the 24/7 Carbon-Free Coalition, in support of 24/7 carbon-free electricity.

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)

Our ongoing partnership with WWF contributes to our water stewardship strategy, with a focus on scaling collective action within our sector.