Partnerships, alliances and recognition
Creating sustainable healthcare and a sustainable planet for all requires collaboration at scale and pace. No organisation, government, or institution can do it alone. As we have seen throughout the pandemic, public-private partnerships can deliver innovation worldwide, at speed and at scale.
As a global business we have a responsibility to lead and we are committed to using our capabilities and commitments to help tackle some of society’s greatest challenges – be that climate change, access to healthcare or health equity. We work closely with a range of organisations, institutions and through alliances to build private and public sector collaboration and initiate new programmes to achieve shared goals.
Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience
The Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience is an ambitious global-level partnership that we lead in collaboration with the World Economic Forum (WEF), the London School of Economics (LSE), and others, with the aim of delivering practical solutions to make health systems more resilient and sustainable. The initiative was motivated by a shared commitment to improving population health, through and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. The pilot phase, launched in 2020, has now been completed and information about its outcomes are available in the interim report below. Through phase two of the partnership launched in 2021, PHSSR has expanded into 13 new countries, plus a regional hub in the Central, Eastern Europe and Baltics Area (CEEBA).
Sustainable Markets Initiative and Terra Carta
We are a founding member of the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) and early supporter of the Terra Carta, both led by His Royal Highness (HRH) The Prince of Wales.
At COP26 in Glasgow, our Chief Executive Officer, Pascal Soriot, launched the SMI Health Systems Taskforce in the presence of HRH The Prince of Wales and together with health systems leaders from the private and public sectors. The shared ambition of the Taskforce is to accelerate the delivery of net zero, patient-centric healthcare, through a focus on three priority areas: digital healthcare, supply chains, and patient care pathways. The Taskforce will also focus on the development of initiatives and shared commitments in the areas of: The measurement of and metrics for the assessment of the environmental impact of Health Systems; and education and wider policy change. More information, including a film on the launch at COP26, is available here.
We are also an early supporter of the Terra Carta, which offers the basis of a recovery plan that puts Nature, People and Planet at the heart of global value creation. At COP26 in Glasgow, we were awarded the inaugural Terra Carta Seal by HRH The Prince of Wales for our commitment to and innovation in sustainability.
World Economic Forum strategic partner
We are a strategic partner of the World Economic Forum (WEF). Pascal Soriot, our Chief Executive Officer, is a member of WEF’s Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders, which advocates for ambitious action on climate change.
Our AZ Forest initiative supports the World Economic Forum’s 1T.org, ‘The Champions for a Trillion Trees’ platform. We are members of the 1T.org Corporate Alliance committed to helping conserve, restore and grow one trillion trees by 2030.
In 2021, we joined WEF’s Partnering for Racial Justice in Business coalition as a founding partner. This is an initiative focused on setting new global standards for racial equity in business. In line with our commitments in this space, we report annually to our Board on company culture and we have developed a comprehensive plan to address racial equity across the full breadth of our talent pipeline (from attraction through to development and retention of ethnic minority talent), together with advancing societal change, including in the design of and enrolment into our clinical trials.
World Wide Fund for Nature
In April 2020, we announced a new collaboration with the World Wide Fund for Nature Sweden. The partnership focuses on identifying opportunities to improve our approach and strategy towards water stewardship and identify initial opportunities to engage in on-the-ground water projects in the river basins where we operate. Read our case study with WWF on diagnosing water risks for the pharmaceutical sector here.
Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership
As part of our support for His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales’ Global Sustainability Fellowship Programme, we partnered with the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) to launch a new research project which aims to explore strategies to reduce outdoor air pollution in Uganda and promote healthy communities, through evidence-based policies and citizen science. We also partnered with CISL on the Dunga Beach project in Kenya, which enabled a community to switch from cooking with traditional fuels to using biogas, with two thirds of pilot project participants noting that their health had improved.
Circular Bioeconomy Alliance
In 2020, we became a founding member of the Circular Bioeconomy Alliance and co-authored the 10-point action plan for the circular bioeconomy. In parallel, we developed a roadmap to integrate circularity across our business. To support this process, we ran a virtual ideation event to source ideas on how we can apply a circular mindset across our value chain. The output was a prioritised list of actions for implementation across medicine development, product manufacture, devices, packaging, logistics, facilities and built assets and procurement.
Innovative Medicines Initiative
At AstraZeneca, we are co-leading a new project with the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), a public-private partnership in the life sciences, on the Prioritisation and Risk Evaluation of Medicines in the Environment (PREMIER). Launched in September 2020,PREMIER aims to deliver an innovative framework for characterising environmental risks of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), and builds on the success of the IMI Intelligent Assessment of Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (IPIE) project.
Alliances and recognition
Access to Medicines Index
In 2021, we were recognised among the top-10 global pharmaceutical companies (7th overall) in the Access to Medicine Index, a biennial report by the Access to Medicine Foundation evaluating the contributions of 20 pharmaceutical organisations to develop and make certain medicines, vaccines, and diagnostics more accessible for people in low- and middle-income countries.
CDP: A Lists for Climate Change and Water Security
We are one of only three companies to have achieved a double-A listing for five consecutive years (to 2020) from the global environmental impact non-profit CDP. We are recognised for the actions we are taking to cut emissions, mitigate climate risks, engage our supply chain, and deliver on water stewardship.
RE100, EV100 & EP100
We are one of only 17 global companies and the only pharmaceutical company (both as of October 2021), to be members of all three of the Climate Group’s RE100, EV100 and EP100 initiatives. Each one brings together the world’s most forward-looking businesses to accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, do more with less energy and commit to 100% renewable electricity respectively.
Race To Zero
We were an early supporter of the United Nations-backed Race To Zero, a global campaign bringing together businesses, cities, investors and wider stakeholders to deliver a healthy, resilient, zero carbon recovery that prevents future threats, creates decent jobs, and unlocks inclusive, sustainable growth.
Universal Health Coverage 2030 (UHC2030)
We are a member of the UHC2030, dedicated to accelerating progress towards Universal Health Coverage through strengthening health systems.
Science Based Targets initiative
We set science-based emissions targets and were one of the first FTSE350 companies to sign up to the Science Based Targets initiative. Our Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions targets are consistent with reductions required to keep warming to 1.5 C.
Financial Times Climate Leader
In May 2021, we were listed by the Financial Times as one of 300 ‘Climate Leaders’ to have achieved the greatest reduction in greenhouse gas emissions intensity between 2014 and 2019. The listing was compiled by research company Statista, and detailed corporate progress in fighting climate change.
Our sustainability pillars
Veeva ID: Z4-39263
Date of preparation: December 2021