Operational Sustainability
With a focus on transitioning our value chain to a low-carbon economy, we are reducing our greenhouse gas emissions, minimizing waste generation, monitoring our water use, raising associate awareness and complying with all regulatory requirements.
Climate Change and Avantor’s Energy Conservation Strategy
Climate change is a global concern that poses a significant risk to the environment and global health. Acting on the urgency of these concerns, in 2020 Avantor set a target to reduce its operational (Scope 1 and Scope 2) emissions by 15% by 2025.
To achieve this goal, we developed an energy and emissions reduction strategy that invests in efficiency and conservation projects, as well as alternative energy sources, and established a cross-functional Environmental Task Force to oversee our emissions reduction strategy, including setting internal annual targets, tracking projects, and training and educating associates.
As of the end of 2022, Avantor had achieved 80% progress toward the initial 2025 reduction goal. In December 2023, we announced our commitment to new 2030 science-based climate targets:
- Scope 1 & Scope 2: 50% absolute reductions from 2020 baseline
- Scope 3: 25% absolute reduction from 2020 baseline
Download our latest Sustainability Report
Water Management
Avantor measures and tracks water use through our sustainability performance module and implements water reuse, reclamation and reduction initiatives. To ensure we can future-proof water sources and quality for our operations and surrounding communities, Avantor is embarking on a multi-year water management strategy focused on our operations in high- and very-high stressed water areas.
Landfill Diversion and Waste Management
Avantor continues to drive waste diversion-from-landfill through process optimization within our operations and expanding our reuse and recycling capabilities. Many of these initiatives are tracked and measured within our environmental sustainability performance module, and in 2022, our efforts culminated in a 54.5% waste diversion-from-landfill rate within our operations. One example of our innovative solutions that is reducing waste production as well as creating new efficiencies for our customers is the recent installation of a new packaging system at two of our global distribution facilities. The machine matches product shipment size to a box of equal size, eliminating the extra space that would otherwise require packing materials to protect products during shipping. Reducing the amount of materials created at the onset and requiring disposal.