Our sustainability impact

Clinical trials are the cornerstone of delivering the next wave of life-changing medicines.

To meet the evolving demands for clinical innovation, we are pioneering new approaches to how we engage with patients, trial teams and healthcare providers, and we are working to match clinical trial populations with disease state populations.

Learn more about how we drive sustainability through clinical trial innovation

More than 10,000 rare diseases are estimated to exist today, but fewer than 10% have approved treatment options. Rare disease community members face many unique challenges in pursuing access to healthcare, including in relation to scheduling and travelling to appointments, significant delays in diagnosis, greater chances of hospitalisations and accessing available treatments.

Learn more about how we are taking action to help people with rare diseases

The expanded interest in and use of AI creates opportunities for improved patient engagement and data analysis, but also results in concerns around data privacy and usage.

It’s essential that we meet regulatory and stakeholder expectations around the responsible use of AI, as well as data protection and security in this evolving environment.

Learn more about our principles for ethical data and AI

We believe that gender equality and female representation, particularly in leadership, is crucial for healthy societies. To achieve this, we’re committed to fostering a culture of inclusion and belonging. This is also embedded within our approach to sustainability, where our commitment to build a healthy future for people, society and the planet includes acting on achieving equity for all.

We know that increasing access to learning, education and employment can improve girls’ and women's health and prospects in the long term. We are proud to be a Global Supporter of the Girls Belong Here initiative developed by our Young Health Programme (YHP) partner, Plan International, to promote gender equity and girls’ rights around the world

See how we’re celebrating the power and potential of girls and young women

Partnering with governments, healthcare providers and local communities, our flagship health equity programme, Healthy Heart Africa, helps countries across the continent address the growing social and economic burden of heart and kidney diseases by targeting those in greatest need and improving equitable access to care.

Healthy Heart Africa was first established in 2014 to address the increasing burden of cardiovascular diseases in Africa. Now, the programme has expanded to target a broader range of NCDs, including chronic kidney disease, to reach even more patients.

Learn more about how we're improving health system sustainability and addressing health inequities through Healthy Heart Africa

Launched at COP27 in Egypt, Cancer Care Africa helps countries in their fight against cancer by advocating for policy changes to improve outcomes for all individuals affected by the disease, irrespective of their demographic, geographic or socio-economic status.

It also adopts innovative health technologies to make cancer screening more accessible, especially in remote and underserved communities.

Find out more about Cancer Care Africa

In Kentucky, the rate of new lung cancer cases is the highest in the country. To address this, we partnered with the Association of Community Cancer Centre to set up the Rural Appalachian Lung Cancer Screening Initiative and bring early detection, cancer screening and treatment programmes to underserved communities across the state.

By working with local advocates, the initiative has been successful in implementing new patient-centric approaches which has contributed to Kentucky becoming a state with the second-highest lung cancer screening rate in the US.

Learn how we're making an impact on cancer screenings in Kentucky, US

In 2021, we created Accelerate Change Together (ACT) on Health Equity, a US-based initiative designed to transform how we improve access, affordability and outcomes for patients in the disease areas and communities we serve.

Learn more about the initiative to improve health equity in the US

To improve global health and build more sustainable and resilient health systems, we joined forces with the London School of Economics and the World Economic Forum to launch PHSSR in 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The partnership is active in 30+ countries, has grown to include additional members and has built, and continues to expand upon, one of the largest bodies of work on the sustainability and resilience of health systems globally.

These efforts have resulted in 30+ global policy changes in line with these recommendations, strengthening health systems to positively impact care and treatment for millions of patients.

Find out more about our partnership on the PHSSR website

Ambition Zero Carbon is our bold, science-based decarbonisation strategy.

Through this $1 billion strategy and $400 million expansion to our AZ Forest programme, we are making progress towards our goals by maximising our energy efficiency, shifting renewable energy sources and investing in nature solutions to compensate for any residual emissions footprint.

Learn more about our net-zero transition

We recognise the deep connection between health, nature and the climate. AZ Forest is our global initiative to restore forests to help mitigate climate change, protect biodiversity, support human health and build sustainable livelihoods.

Through our $400 million commitment to AZ Forest, we aim to plant and maintain 200 million trees across six continents by 2030 and restore over 100,000 hectares of land.

Find out more about our global reforestation and biodiversity initiative

Chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) are complex, difficult to treat, and often patients continue to experience poor outcomes like worsening symptoms or disease resulting from suboptimal care.

We are accelerating the development of our respiratory inhalers using an innovative, next-generation respiratory inhalers using a propellant with near-zero global warming potential (GWP), which is 99.9% lower than in today’s medicines.

Learn about how we are reducing the environmental impact of respiratory care

The research, development and production of medicines is energy intensive, yet access to certified low and zero-carbon fuels and imported heating and cooling sources is limited.

We are working to expand access to renewable energy and contribute to the circular economy through numerous partnerships to decarbonise our operations. 

Learn more about our innovative partnerships in the UK, US and China to utilise clean heat across our sites

Globally, road transport is a major source of greenhouse gas (GHG)  emissions.

As part of our Ambition Zero Carbon programme, we have set ourselves the bold target to transition our company leased and owned fleet to battery electric vehicles where technically feasible by the end of 2025.

Explore how we’re accelerating our transition to electric vehicles

Chaired by our CEO, Pascal Soriot, we convene the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) Health Systems Taskforce, a group of 15 industry leaders taking joint, scalable action to decarbonise health systems, focused on: supply chains and patient care pathways, the use of digital innovation and clinical research and consumer health and wellbeing.

Find out more about the SMI Health Systems Task Force

In November 2023, the SMI China Council launched a Health Working Group comprised of 16 multinational and China-based companies across the healthcare, energy and supply chain sectors to collaborate on accelerating the transition to net-zero healthcare in China.

In January 2024, alongside other pharmaceutical companies, we signed an agreement in China with the green technology company Envision Energy to unlock access to renewable power.

This is the healthcare sector’s first multi-party agreement to access renewable power in China. It is set to achieve potential annual CO2e savings of around 120,000 tonnes, comparable to taking 25,000 cars off the road.

Learn more about switching to clean heat in China

High quality freshwater is essential to produce medicines across our global supply chain. Water risks faced by the basins we depend on are multifaceted and unique to their location. That’s why we’re committed to progressing our water stewardship journey, which includes targets to reduce water use, working in partnership with others and water stewardship initiatives and goals across our operations and with our largest suppliers.

Learn more about our approach to water stewardship

From innovations in our lab operations which improve energy efficiency and waste management, to reducing the environmental impact of our clinical trials, we are pushing the boundaries of science and embedding a culture of sustainability across the organisation.

Learn more about how we are embedding sustainability across our entire value chain

Through our Green Labs programme, we integrate sustainability standards into research processes to reduce laboratory emissions and waste.

More than 4,000 of our colleagues are already optimising ways of working and championing a sustainability culture in their labs.

Learn more about our work to reduce emissions and waste in the lab

Around the world, people are increasingly consuming information digitally.

We’re working closely with global regulators and policymakers to transition to paperless product information leaflets, taking an important step towards sustainable healthcare delivery that benefits patients and health systems. We're focused on a responsible transition to ePI that ensures equitable access to information by working with our partners and healthcare system stakeholders. We will take a digital-first approach while allowing for flexibility for patients to access information through alternative ways if needed.