Sustainable operations, sustainable planet

To get there, we are rethinking every step of our supply chain. We are moving away from air freight in favor of sea shipping to cut down on fuel, using smarter, digital labels to reduce paper waste, and finding innovative ways to recycle plastics instead of burning them. We aren't just looking at our own factories; we are also partnering with our global suppliers to ensure they meet the same high environmental standards. By making sustainability a core part of how we deliver healthcare, we are ensuring a healthier future for both people and the environment.

Examples of this can be found throughout our global manufacturing and supply chain network, which includes more than 9,000 employees,14 specialized manufacturing sites and 3 distribution centers worldwide.

Sustainable manufacturing starts with sustainable infrastructure.

For example, the Suzhou site in China integrates several environmentally friendly features in line with LEED green building certification standards. The operation site’s sustainability solutions promote energy efficiency through:

• Minimising energy needs: Thicker insulation, solar-protective glazing and fixed window shadings.

• Integrating energy efficiency features: Decentralised air conditioning and LED lighting.

• Generating green energy: A solar panel system produces enough electricity from sunlight to cover almost 80% of the energy needs of the administration building – or enough to power almost 500 private homes for an entire year.

• Green power: Since 2024, the site has been 100% supplied with certified green electricity.

The site expansion project in Souzhou with the new facilities (scheduled to go live in 2028) will push the boundaries of sustainable industrial design by fully implement efficient and effective energy-saving measures:

• Utilizing geothermal technology to phase out the usage of natural gas.

• Implementing cutting-edge water-saving technologies and aggressive waste reduction protocols.

Site expansions also emphasise sustainability. Case in point is our Branchburg, New Jersey, U.S. operations site, where an additional manufacturing building and on-campus warehouse will be operating with zero increase in total carbon emissions. Powered by 100% sustainable energy, the site recently underwent renovations in the main administration building introducing motion-activated, energy-efficient LED lighting, solar window shades and electric vehicle charging stations.

Efficiency is further driven by the implementation of geothermal storage with heat pump chillers to heat and cool our new buildings. These heat pumps are four times more efficient at generating heat than burning fossil fuels; to leverage this, all newly renovated areas of the original campus have been converted to low-temperature heating for future connection to the heat pump network.

Additionally, the site now features 5,000-square feet of green roofs across multiple buildings, with plans to extend this green roofing to all links between new structures. These rooftops are home to grass, air-plants, and self-caring foliage that help remove pollutants from the air, while sustainable water-retaining trays collect rain to manage and repurpose storm-water run-off.

At the Mannheim, Germany site, Roche’s third-largest worldwide, CO2 emissions have been reduced by half in recent years by exclusively using green electricity and heating buildings with steam from thermal waste recycling. Roche in Mannheim is also home to a large cold water storage tank, which massively reduces the energy required for cooling in the production process. Site Mannheim is now also home of our new Distribution Centre Europe which is the first emission-free building on the Mannheim campus.

The Penzberg site, south of Munich, has another highlight to offer: Here, energy is generated from wastewater by means of a wastewater treatment plant. The resulting sewage gas is burned in the combined heat and power plant and used to generate electricity. The waste heat is fed into the local heating network. This transformed the site’s wastewater treatment plant from an energy consumer to an energy producer.

Around the world, Roche manufacturing is working toward paperless factories. By using electronic systems that plan for and track assembly processes in real-time, we are minimising our usage of paper.

In Suzhou, operations implemented paperless manufacturing from the get-go by adopting electronic manufacturing instructions and records and utilising mobile devices to digitally track the movement of goods.

We are using a computerised system in Mannheim and Penzberg to track and document production steps from raw materials to finished goods. The system provides real-time information on current shop floor conditions, which helps to optimise processes and improve production output. In addition to paperless workflows, it helps us reduce waste, re-works and scrap.

Laboratory teams in those locations also are using an information management system to manage the flow of assay samples and associated data most effectively without paper.

In Branchburg, cold-storage cooling systems are free of ozone-depleting substances. In our manufacturing processes, we have increased production in reusable vessels for much of our bulk reagents, resulting in less plastic waste generation. In addition, we have optimised our production processes to reduce water and chemical use during cleaning cycles. And, we’re working toward our established goals to reduce general waste and increase recycling to at least 80% of general waste.

Manufacturing personnel in Tucson, Arizona, U.S. are now wearing reusable shoe covers in laboratories, keeping approximately 296,000 disposable shoe covers out of landfills every year. Shoe covers are a required part of personal protective equipment for environmentally controlled laboratories to ensure the consistency and quality of Roche products.

In Penzberg, a chemical manufacturing process was improved with an eye toward sustainability, leading to a reduction of organic solvent consumption of 65 tons per year (approximately 40% reduction), while production volume of the product increased by more than 60%.

Operations teams in Rotkreuz, Switzerland, are using a new, more sustainable decontamination process for devices, instruments, equipment and reusable product components that become contaminated from use in labs or other places. This new, fully automated decontamination chamber utilises chemicals that are environmentally friendly and also relatively harmless to humans.

When it is time to package and ship our products, we do so in an environmentally conscious manner.

We consciously choose our means of transportation and, whenever possible, we prefer sea or land freight over air freight. We are also constantly trying to reduce packaging and cooling material and reuse wherever possible.

Roche in Tucson recently started using 2D barcodes as the data carrier solution for tissue diagnostics consumable products. Previously, the products used an iButton system, which required attaching small metal buttons to each box.

Using 2D barcodes instead of iButtons is reducing environmental waste, as nearly 5 million non-recyclable iButtons and sticky pads were used every year. 2D barcodes printed on stickers and applied to boxes are fully recyclable.

Operations personnel in Tucson also recently implemented more-sustainable packaging for large tissue diagnostic systems used widely by hospitals and laboratories.

In just one example, the redesigned packaging is using 40% fewer raw materials and weighs less to provide a smaller carbon footprint while being transported.

At Roche Diagnostics, sustainability is a priority. From start to finish, our operations emphasise quality, delivery and environmental stewardship.