Health of the planet - CO2e

We take a long-term view, considering the overall footprint of our business activities alongside our growth. Our efforts are aimed not only at overcoming the challenge on our own, but also working with partners across our end-to-end value chain.

To do so, we simultaneously work on different axes:

reduce the impact of our existing footprint;
advocate for change management;
limit the emissions coming from new projects through a green-by-design approach;
for the emissions we cannot reduce, support compensation projects.

Our CO2e target is approved by the Science Based Target Initiative

1. We reduce the existing impacts from all parts of our footprint (scope 1, 2 and 3)

To this end, we:

Make our operations more energy efficient. For example, the biggest share of our energy consumption is attributable to the HVAC (air management), this system is the subject of a vast optimisation program aimed at ensuring that ventilation rates are reduced to the minimum required and that temperature and humidity ranges are as wide as possible, considering the requirements both during and outside the periods of occupancy (night set back).
Increase the use of energy generated from renewable sources, produced on UCB sites or purchased. For example, we continue substituting natural gas for biogas produced from wastes.
Transition our entire company fleet to electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030, as part of our global climate targets and efforts to reduce our GHG emissions. We acknowledge the different challenges to achieve this goal, including the electrification maturity in the countries where we operate, limited charging infrastructure, and EVs manufacturing constrains. Despite these challenges, we remain committed to reducing our environmental impact and continue to evaluate solutions to these issues to offer sustainable mobility options in locations where such options positively impact the health of the planet.
Whenever possible, shift to transport for both our raw materials and finished goods from airplane to boats.

2. We advocate for change

We work both on the internal and external fronts, in particular we:

Mobilize behavior change among leaders and employees, from recruitment and onboarding of new hires to internal awareness campaigns about environmental footprint and carbon emissions, focusing on commuting, business travel.
Leverage awareness around our digital footprint by launching a yearly ‘green clean-up week’ to engage our colleagues to use green IT tips & tricks.

Integrate into our supplier management activities two distinct but complementary mechanisms: climate change mitigation and resilience.
The indirect impact created by the activities of our goods and services suppliers on behalf of UCB represents a significant part of our CO2e emissions. In this regard, we are now requesting contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs) and other partners to join us on our quest to define ambitious climate targets with an aim to have 60% of the emissions created by our suppliers covered by SBTi-inspired goals.
Moreover, to maintain a robust supply chain whatever unavoidable effects of climate change we face, we implemented a climate related risk assessment analysing our suppliers’ resilience to environmental physical hazards, with the ultimate goal to continue delivering greener medicine to our patients.

Believe that transparency and public disclosure is key to a sustainable change.
UCB signed on key environmental initiatives as the UN Global Compact’s and the Sciences Based target initiative and Carbon Disclosure Project.

More info about CDP

The scoring methodology is based on the assessment of 12 topics related to environment impact. The rating scale is made up of 9 levels ranging from F (no information available) to A (excellent performance).

We are on a continuous journey to improve our sustainability reporting practices and keep up to date with the different trends in this field. We are currently reporting against the Global Reporting initiative (GRI), the Sustainable Development Goals’ frameworks and the Sustainability Accounting Standard Board (SASB) reporting Standards to ensure we report on the ESG issues most relevant to our industry.

UCB also committed to align with the Task Force on Climate related Financial Disclosure (TCFD), an initiative created by the Financial Stability Board.

Want to know where we are regarding our CO2e targets? Please check our last data here.

3. We build green-by-design in our facilities and assets

We are committed to achieving green building certification for all new or significantly refurbished buildings and facilities. (BREEAM in Europe or equivalent in LEED certification framework for U.S. and Asia).
To reduce the environmental impacts of our products through their lifecycle, we have launched a green product scorecard initiative. It aims at scoring our medicines’ environmental performance based on a systematic “Cradle-to-grave” lifecycle analysis – a recognized framework to assess environmental impacts. To improve our solutions’ score and decrease their impact on the planet, the ambition is to map and deploy opportunities for environmental footprint reduction when designing, developing, and producing.

4. We compensate for any greenhouse gas emissions that cannot be eliminated in the short term

Our commitment to aim for carbon neutrality by 2030 for the operations we directly control will be achieved through two mechanisms:

80% of our time, effort and money will be invested in reducing our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by changing the way we operate.
20% will be dedicated to offsetting the short-term impact we cannot avoid via compensation programs, with multiple positive impacts on the planet and on the communities driving these projects.

We collaborate with CO₂logic and the EcoMakala program and with WeForest in the Desa’a program