Sustainable business growth as a way to contribute to UCB successful future and prepare a better world for generations to come

I don’t have to tell you how important sustainability is. Its significance is precisely why we added recently a time component to UCB purpose. “To create value for patients now and into the future” guides us in our business decisions today and pushes us to constantly reinvent the way we work, with future generations in mind.

As a biopharmaceutical company, we have the expertise to tackle social challenges in society by aligning our innovation with patient needs and public health priorities,  and improving access to our medicines for all patients who need them. At UCB,  we also do our part in minimizing our impact on the environment and decreasing our greenhouse gas emissions.

If we talk about protecting the environment, we chose a few years ago to commit to the Science-Based Target Initiative (SBTi): It has surely something to do with our commitment to sciences as shown in our tagline “inspired by patients, driven by science”. The targets set with the Science-Based target initiative are based on science: they are defined in line with the Paris Agreement to keep the rise in global temperature well below 2°C and pursuing efforts to limit the increase to 1.5 °C.

UCB Science Based Targets
 

• UCB commits to reduce absolute scope 1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions by 38% by 2030 from a 2015 base year. UCB also commits that 60% of its suppliers by emissions, will have science-based targets by 2025.
  
  The targets covering greenhouse gas emissions from company operations (scopes 1 and 2) are consistent with reductions required to keep warming to well-below 2°C.

Joining SBTi shows the depth of our commitment and gives us a clear roadmap of changes that will make a real impact. These include moving part of our supply from air to ocean, ensuring 95% of UCB electricity consumption comes from renewable energy sources, establishing more efficient manufacturing processes and  striving to achieving BREEAM “green building” ‘Excellent’ level for all its new or significantly refurbished buildings and facilities.

We have also started to assess the physical and financial risks for UCB presented by rising temperatures, climate-related policy, and emerging technologies in our changing world. Environmental risks are real and the recent dramatic floods in Belgium and Germany are a deeply sad example of the impacts they can have on people’s life.

And this is precisely what we discussed at KBC Securities’ digital ‘Sustainability Conference’ titled “The Importance of CO2 management for your company” that took place on September 29.

Committing to sustainable growth is the way forward for any responsible organization and requires a new approach of value creation, with our key stakeholders -patients, employees, communities and shareholders- in mind. For a recap, check out this short interview. It touches on UCB’s sustainability approach and history, our journey towards carbon neutrality and why sustainability should be at the forefront of everyone’s mind here at UCB.