Resilient and sustainable operations
Environmentally aware
We are committed to advancing environmental sustainability initiatives across our operations and supply chain in support of a healthier planet. We seek to deliver value while always doing our best to protect the environment where we live and work.
As a leading healthcare company with a foundation in pharmaceutical distribution and an expanding portfolio of solutions for manufacturers, pharmacies, and providers, we have a unique ability to drive environmental sustainability throughout the supply chain. By pursuing opportunities within our own operations and partnering with our customers on environmental sustainability initiatives, we are able to amplify our impact on a global scale. We work collaboratively across the enterprise to share best practices in energy efficiency, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions management, waste management, and responsible packaging to maximize our efforts. Our approach to ESG governance reflects our commitment to track our global environmental sustainability progress, and our environmental sustainability mindset influences our business decisions.
Reducing our emissions
To reach our emissions reduction targets, we plan to reduce consumption through optimization programs and energy efficiency measures and will decarbonize our operations with investments in renewable energy and alternative fuel vehicles. As we plan for FY23, we look to engage our top suppliers by emissions to support our Scope 3 reduction strategy.
Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
We collect and analyze data from across the enterprise to calculate our total GHG emissions for AmerisourceBergen. The chart to the left shows our FY19 baseline and our latest FY22 GHG emissions.
1 Scope 2 location-based emissions2 Scope 3 emissions cover all 15 Scope 3 categories
We continue to make progress in emissions reductions with the completion of 11 lighting retrofit projects in FY22 at AmerisourceBergen facilities. At Alliance Healthcare Romania, solar panels were installed at offices and warehouses located in Chitila, Brașov, Cluj, Timișoara, Iași, and Bucharest. They are expected to generate nearly 50% of the electricity needs of operations within the country. In FY22, we began a global renewable energy assessment to evaluate offsite and onsite renewable energy options to expand our renewable energy portfolio.
As connectors between those who create and those who prescribe and dispense medication, distributors play a critical role in the pharmaceutical supply chain. To ensure the resiliency of our operations, we are continuously assessing our climate-related risks so that we can serve our customers and their patients without disruption. In FY20, we took a crucial first step to understanding the potential climate risks we are exposed to by engaging a third party to perform a physical risk assessment on our top 100 locations. This assessment provided critical insight into where we may experience substantial risks associated with climate change, such as hurricanes, wildfires, or heat waves. In FY22, as we expanded our global footprint through business acquisitions, we updated the scope of our physical risk assessment to include our new locations, covering nearly 400 sites across 24 countries. The updated analysis will inform our business strategy and continuity planning process and help to identify opportunities to mitigate our climate risk and reduce our environmental impact.
As a healthcare company, we recognize the impact of climate change on human and animal health. Our focus extends beyond the disruption climate change has on operations as we seek to mitigate how it affects vulnerable populations’ ability to access care and medicines. The AmerisourceBergen Foundation has made numerous grants to support the vital work at the intersection of climate change, nature, and health equity. Grant recipients in FY22 included the CDC Foundation, Global Green, World Wildlife Fund, and The Nature Conservancy. Further strengthening our commitment to advance climate solutions and health equity, AmerisourceBergen joined the Health Sector Climate Pledge through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. We participated in a kick-off event at the White House to discuss actions to address climate change and protect public health with the Biden-Harris Administration. The pledge, introduced on Earth Day 2022, has been adopted by some of the largest hospital and health sector companies in the U. S.
Building sustainably
Waste management, recycling, and sustainable packaging
We are committed to reducing waste through source reduction, recycling, and other innovative programs. In FY22, AmerisourceBergen launched a short-dated medication specials solution, which offers customers access to products nearing their expiration date at a discounted price to reduce supply chain waste. These are products purchased directly from manufacturers and offered purposefully for the program. Alliance Healthcare in the UK is also making progress to reduce single-use plastic secondary packaging within the business by 60% over three years as part of its Getting Drastic with Plastic campaign. After implementing solutions such as reusable totes and paper-based packaging materials, the program has removed over 230 metric tons of single-use plastic as of November 2022. Within our U.S. Human Health distribution centers, we continue to use an environmentally sustainable, cold-chain packaging solution that includes reusable totes and plant-based, phase-change material ice packs.
We are also collaborating with our customers. Alliance Healthcare UK partnered with Novo Nordisk, a healthcare company specializing in treatments for diabetes, obesity, and rare blood and endocrine disorders, to launch PenCycle, a circular recycling initiative that is the first of its kind in the UK. Alliance Healthcare delivers all the materials provided free of charge by Novo Nordisk to community pharmacies, enabling customers to easily return their used insulin pens for recycling. The PenCycle initiative will be launched in France in 2023.
One challenge we are addressing is reducing waste from product packaging that arrives at our facilities from suppliers. We continue to seek alternative disposal options for hard to recycle plastics and utilize our third-party waste management partners to help identify opportunities. For example, American Health Packaging (AHP) provides barcoded unit dose oral solids to the marketplace. During the repackaging process, AHP generates plastic bottle waste. In FY22, AHP’s innovative recycling initiative diverted over 52,000 pounds of stock bottles from landfills.
In FY 2022, we produced a total of 39,448 metric tons of non-hazardous waste.
29,836
metric tons of waste were recycled*
9,050
metric tons of waste were landfilled
561
metric tons of waste were incinerated**
*Includes waste incinerated with energy recovery
**Waste incinerated without energy recovery
Transportation efficiency
In support of our emissions reduction efforts, we are committed to seeking efficiencies across our global transportation network and are continuously looking for route optimization opportunities among other strategies. We also continue to evaluate opportunities to incorporate alternative fuel vehicles in our fleets. For example, in FY22, Alloga UK piloted a biomethane tractor unit, which runs on 100% renewable biomethane sourced from renewable and sustainable waste feedstocks and has a range of approximately 350 miles.
Our customer partnerships are also helping us make an impact. MWI Animal Health works with customers to consolidate orders to reduce transportation-related emissions. For example, MWI UK partnered with a customer to transition from daily deliveries to two deliveries per week, reducing vehicle miles travelled and emissions.
