Working together on a net-zero future in healthcare

We hold ourselves to the highest environmental standards, setting ambitious yet attainable long-term goals to reduce our environmental footprint while partnering with the global community to advance meaningful progress.We are committed to reducing emissions within our value chain to reach net zero across all our emission scopes no later than 2050.

Recognising that this requires a broader effort, Roche has joined the(SMI) Health Systems Taskforce to align with peers in addressing emissions across supply chains, patient care pathways, and clinical trials.

“Protecting our planet has always been a priority of our founding families and Roche. Since 2004, we have made great progress in reducing our own emissions by 77% in tons of carbon dioxide per employee and are working towards zero by no later than 2050. To decarbonise healthcare overall, however, we need initiatives like this to drive action at scale. We are truly working together, openly sharing and learning from each other to accelerate more sustainable healthcare systems”, says Severin Schwan, Chairman of Roche and representative in the SMI Health Systems Task Force.

Together, we are focusing on  decarbonising  healthcare supply chains and patient care pathways and delivering digital solutions for sustainable clinical research. These three focus areas cover over 90% of Roche’s carbon footprint.

Roche and six other pharmaceutical companies signedinforming them about the joint, minimum climate and sustainability targets to reduce carbon emissions along the value chain. Collectively, the task force members have engaged with 100+ suppliers to promote these targets and send a clear signal to the market that we are aligned in accelerating our efforts towards a shared goal: delivering sustainable health care for a better tomorrow. At Roche, we are intensifying our conversations with our key suppliers to understand how we can work together to drive change.

Roche and seven other pharmaceutical companies have come together with the British Standards Institute to develop an industry-first common framework and harmonised rules for product life cycle assessments (LCAs). The LCAs enable evaluation and comparison of the environmental impact of our products in a transparent, consistent way.  Building on this, the working group aims to measure and reduce emissions along the entire patient pathway and also educate the next generation of healthcare professionals on sustainability.

To reduce emissions of clinical trials, Roche is investing in digital innovation primarily in two key areas.  First, collaborating with the(SHC) on the iLCCT (Industry Low Carbon Clinical Trials) initiative.  This collaborative cross-pharma group is developing a methodology, tool, and database that will enable sponsors to measure the carbon footprint of their clinical trials (e.g. Investigational Medical Product, samples & testing, patient travel, lab kit design and wastage)  and better understand the impact of different decisions on a trial’s carbon footprint. Second, Roche is creating the first roadmap for the decarbonisation of Clinical Trials. This initial iteration will be a high-level guide for how we can begin the process of decarbonising our trials.