From using bio-based centrifuge tubes to addressing carbon emitted from their labs’ cold storage, Sanofi is committed to addressing climate change. So much so that the company’s sustainability goals are to 1) be carbon neutral by 2030 and net zero by 2045, 2) ensure 100% of Sanofi’s sites are landfill free by 2025, with more than 90% of waste reused, recycled or recovered, 3) adopt Eco-designs for all new products by 2025 and top selling products by 2030, and 4) monitor, manage and reduce emissions on 100% of manufacturing sites by 2025. Read on for more information about how Sanofi is reducing their environmental impact.
Contributing to a Sustainable Planet
Sanofi’s Planet Care environmental sustainability program seeks to minimize the environmental impacts of its products and activities while strengthening Sanofi’s resilience in the face of environmental changes. To date, Sanofi worldwide has:
- Reduced greenhouse gas emissions from all Sanofi activities by 25%
- Reduced greenhouse gas emissions from Sanofi sales car fleet by 47%
- Reused, recycled or recovered about 74% of its waste.
- Around 67% of Sanofi sites are landfill free.
Making Labs More Sustainable
As part of Sanofi’s sustainability goals to limit its environmental footprint and improve its products’ environmental profile, the company has engaged in the International Freezer Challenge for the last three years. The goal of the challenge is to be more energy efficient with labs’ cold storage, save costs for their institutions, and reduce the overall total of carbon emitted. Second only to fume hoods, a lab’s cold storage facilities–refrigerators, freezers, cold rooms–are likely the second largest energy consumers in a lab space. Sanofi achieved a 26% energy reduction in its Cambridge lab space by increasing the temperature from – 80 F to – 70 F.
Another example of Sanofi’s commitment to making its labs more sustainable, is its use of lab plastics made from vegetable oil. Sanofi partnered with Eppendorf to employ centrifuge tubes made of 90% biobased plastic thereby reducing use of fossil resources.
Engaging in the Circular Economy
Sanofi Cambridge partners with Seeding Labs to donate reasonably conditioned laboratory tools and equipment to students, scientists and researchers in developing countries. The company also works with Kits4Life to repurpose unused clinical trial lab kits for humanitarian aid.
Learning about Sustainability
Sanofi is a member of the steering committee of Cambridge Sustainable Labs, a membership organization composed of life science companies in the Greater Boston area that works together to solve sustainability issues in research labs throughout Cambridge and neighboring areas.
T recently launched Green Days, a Sanofi-created web-based application that raises employee awareness and helps them reduce their carbon footprint through challenges, quizzes, and information on various sustainability topics. Each month, the app has a theme that includes four sustainability-related challenges for employees to do. Teams of up to five employees compete in the challenges and earn points. The points go toward growing a virtual tree. For every virtual tree that teams grow, Sanofi will plant a real one.