Landscape around Garrarus beach, Waterford, IrelandFor several years, Sanofi has been implementing its Planet care strategy, aiming for net zero greenhouse gas emissions across all scopes by 2045, with an intermediate carbon neutrality milestone in 2030. The company has already achieved a 43% decrease in scopes 1 and 2 emissions, targeting 55% by 2030, and a 10% reduction in scope 3 emissions, aiming for 30% by 2030.
For scopes 1 and 2, Sanofi is focusing on the following key decarbonization levers to reach its 2030 targets:
- Energy decarbonization: increasing renewable electricity share from 11% in 2019 to 85% in Q2 2024 through solar panels, power purchase agreements (PPA), and guarantees of origin. In France, three PPAs have been signed with the Compagnie Nationale du Rhône, for a volume of 83 GWh/year over a twenty-year period, covering 19% of Sanofi’s annual electricity needs in France. Sanofi also has a renewable electricity PPA in Mexico to supply energy to its three Mexican sites and is exploring PPA opportunities in other European countries and the US. Sanofi is also incorporating biomethane and biomass to reduce reliance on fossil fuels.
- Energy reduction and efficiency: aiming to reduce energy consumption by 15% in existing facilities by 2025 compared to 2021.
- Eco-fleet: converting Sanofi’s car fleet to an 80% eco-fleet (biofuel, hybrid and electric vehicles) by 2030.
- Refrigerant gas: replacing existing refrigerant gases with lower global warming potential alternatives and improving leak prevention.
For scope 3, the majority of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from raw materials and subcontracting, thus representing the primary target for the decarbonization efforts. Sanofi's eco-design program aims to integrate environmental criteria from product design. The company is seeking less carbon-intensive suppliers and considering the country of manufacture in supplier selection. For example, sourcing of a highly carbon-intensive raw material from China has been reduced from over 50% of the volume in 2019 to just 5% in 2024, with a shift to European suppliers. Additionally, Sanofi is implementing comprehensive measures to reduce emissions across multiple areas: addressing business travel and employee commuting through remote work and low-carbon travel options, shifting from air to sea freight for product transport, setting ambitious
Community-Centric Carbon Offsetting
By 2045, the residual emissions will remain under 10% of the 2019 total emissions, in line with the Science Based Targets Initiative net zero commitment. Understanding that not all emissions can be immediately abated, Sanofi also created a community-focused carbon offsetting program. These initiatives not only compensate for residual emissions but also generate substantial environmental, social, and economic benefits in local communities.
Sanofi's carbon offsetting program has invested around €60 million in four strategic projects since 2019. These include the Sundari Mangrove Restoration project in India, which has restored 380 hectares of mangroves since 2022 with plans to rehabilitate an additional 3,750 hectares. In Kenya, 18,250 energy- saving biomass cookstoves have been distributed. A new project in Mozambique aims to rehabilitate 1,040 water handpumps, reducing the need to burn biomass for boiling water and providing clean water access to 312,000 people.
Business Resilience to Environmental Changes
Sanofi is also actively working to strengthen its business resilience to environmental challenges which could impact its ability to support patients across the world. For instance, Sanofi has undertaken an end- to-end internal study, in order to better identify the associations between environmental change impacts with its portfolio and pipeline of products.
Among its conclusions, the study reported that 70% of Sanofi’s portfolio indications and 78% of the R&D pipeline indications are already targeting diseases impacted by at least one environmental hazard (air pollution, shift in seasonal patterns, chemical pollution, extreme temperatures, water pollution).
