Protecting the planet

“Climate change is impacting our planet and our health. We recognise the environmental impacts of our own operations, our upstream supply chain, as well as the downstream distribution, use and final disposal of our products. We also understand the ripple effects climate change has on our stakeholders in the long term, through physical and social risks such as water shortages, desertification, pandemics or forced migration. We recognise the multiple benefits of taking proactive action to address our impacts, increasing resilience in our manufacturing operations and the ability to meet customer expectations with more sustainable products.”
John Haller, EVP, Chief Global Quality & Operations Officer

Our approach
In 2021, we completed a study to identify key elements of our refreshed climate change and environmental strategy:
- Carbon and energy: updating our targets to ensure carbon emissions reductions in our own operations are in line with the Paris Accord
- Sustainable product design and supply chain: ensuring innovation in product design to reduce the cradle-to-grave carbon footprint, including assessing our value chain Scope 3 emissions
- Waste: increasing attention to the environmental impacts of waste at the end of the production and use lifecycle
- Water: addressing the impact of production and manufacturing on freshwater ecotoxicity and the consumption of water in water-stressed environments
- Governance: facilitating and ensuring coherent action across the company to reduce the Group’s impact on the environment
Our targets & commitments
In 2021, a reduction in market-based GHG emissions of 9.5% was achieved at our manufacturing locations, achieved through improved energy efficiency and sourcing of renewable electricity at six of our nine global locations. However, we know we can do more and have set targets to:
- Achieve net zero carbon by 2045
- Set aligned SBTs in 2022 (Scope 1 and 2 emissions) and 2023 (Scope 3 emissions), using a 2021 performance baseline, and validate our SBTs by Q4 2023
- Reduce our combined Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 5% against a 2021 baseline by Q4 2022
For more detail on our environmental targets, see page 38 of our 2021 Annual Report.
Energy
Energy efficiency case studies
Reynosa, Mexico
We have implemented an improved control strategy of the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) systems at our manufacturing plant in Reynosa, Mexico. The new strategy optimises the start-up and run time of the air-cooled chillers which provide chilled water to air handling units, maintaining the clean room cooling supply in a more efficient manner. The Clean Room air change rates have also been optimised, reducing the power used for the air handling units, while maintaining the validated state. This project is delivering 1,371 MWh per annum (9% of total site energy), which equates to a 546 tCO2e carbon reduction.
Haina, Dominican Republic
The fixed speed air compressors have been replaced at our Haina manufacturing plant in the Dominican Republic. The new units are water cooled with variable speed-controlled motors realising both energy reduction and maintenance cost savings, supplying the production equipment with efficiently generated compressed air. In addition, the system is equipped with a central monitoring tool to analyse and optimise performance. This project will save approximately 529 MWh per annum (3% of total site energy), which equates to a 312 tCO2e carbon reduction.
Smart metering
A global energy management initiative has been undertaken during 2021 at our manufacturing sites to install smart metering on high energy using equipment. The meters are connected to a cloud-based platform for data recording, trending and analysis. The enhanced visibility of consumption patterns enables identification of energy efficiency opportunities, continuous improvement and the quantification of energy savings following project implementation. This project will save approximately 318 MWh (1% of total global energy) per annum.