Sustainability partnerships and alliances

Transforming healthcare to be more sustainable, equitable and resilient requires collaboration at scale.

As a global leader in science and healthcare, we have a responsibility to tackle the major challenges of our time. We are committed to taking action on climate change, nature and biodiversity loss, health systems resilience and health equity and know that we can achieve more when we come together.

Through our partnerships across the public and private sectors, we are demonstrating how to deliver sustainable innovation that contributes to the health of people, society and the planet.

We work closely with governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), academic institutions and businesses to build and shape public-private alliances to deliver concrete, scalable action on shared goals.

Partnership for Health System Sustainability and Resilience

Sustainable Markets Initiative

Since we founded the Task Force at COP26, it has:

• Launched and expanded an industry-first renewable power purchase agreement (PPA) in China to enable companies and suppliers to access renewable power in China and decarbonise the value chain
• Established joint climate and sustainability targets for suppliers to support decarbonisation at scale 
• Launched the European Network on Climate & Health Education (ENCHE) with Columbia University NYC and Glasgow University to train over 10,000 medical students on climate health impacts across over 25 European universities
• Developed emissions measurement frameworks, including a new sector-wide standard for medicines Life Cycle Assessment (LCA)
• Published an Open Letter calling for the measurement and reduction of emissions from clinical research and published a tool to support the measurement of carbon emissions from clinical trials

World Economic Forum strategic partner

We are a strategic partner of the World Economic Forum (WEF) which enables meaningful collaboration with governments, companies and NGOs in on shared priorities. Our WEF partnership has supported our goals to support the delivery of sustainable, resilient and equitable healthcare, for example: 

• As part of the WEF's EDISON Alliance and in partnership with Qure.ai, we've successfully assessed over 5 million AI-enabled chest x-rays for lung cancer risk across more than 20 emerging markets. This is a significant step towards achieving sustainable impact at scale. It enhances lung cancer screening and early detection, while also strengthening healthcare systems in low- and middle-income countries. These initiatives demonstrate our strong commitment to advancing health equity through digital inclusion, to help improve patient outcomes.
• Our advanced manufacturing sites in Wuxi, China and Södertälje, Sweden are members of the WEF Global Lighthouse Network, in recognition of their leadership in AI and digital technologies. This multi-sector community of industry leaders pioneers the use of technologies to drive operational excellence, environmental sustainability and workforce development.

Other alliances and collaborations

Alliance for Water Stewardship

We are members of the Alliance for Water Stewardship (AWS) and support the advancement of best practices in water stewardship. Our sites in in Bangalore and Chennai, India, are supporting Phase 1 of the AWS Collective Action Accelerator.

Circular Bioeconomy Alliance (CBA)

We are founding members of the CBA, a collaborative platform which aims to accelerate the transition to a climate-neutral, inclusive and circular bioeconomy in harmony with nature. Through AZ Forest, we support the CBA in creating a global network of Living Labs for Nature, People and Planet.

Innovative Health Initiative (IHI)

In line with our commitment to manage pharmaceuticals in the environment (PIE), we lead the IHI PREMIER consortium, a public-private partnership with the European Commission and European trade association EFPIA. PREMIER develops tools to identify potential environmental risks of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) and aims to make these tools and data accessible to all stakeholders. Through such sector-wide collaboration, we aim to advance the delivery of medicines that are safe and effective for patients, with a low environmental impact.

Science Based Targets initiative

We were one of the first seven companies worldwide to have our Scope 1-3 targets verified by Science Based Targets initiative's (SBTi) Net-Zero Corporate Standard.

The Climate Group – RE100, EV100, EP100

We were the first pharmaceutical company to join all three Climate Group initiatives: EP100, RE100 and EV100 to support collective action on energy productivity, renewables and electric vehicles. We are also founding members of the 24/7 Carbon-Free Coalition, in support of 24/7 carbon-free electricity.

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)

Our ongoing partnership with WWF contributes to our water stewardship strategy and aim to scale collective action within our sector.