AstraZeneca has signed on with renewable natural gas (RNG) producer Vanguard Renewables as part of its pledge to reduce its environmental footprint by using organic-produced fuel in all of its U.S. manufacturing facilities by the end of 2026.
Starting this month, AstraZeneca will begin using RNG from Vanguard at its Newark campus located in Delaware, the company said in a June 13 press release. The facility currently produces 26 medicines for U.S. and global consumption.
The RNG is produced using anaerobic digestion, which uses bacteria to break down organic matter—such as animal manure, wastewater biosolids and food wastes—in the absence of oxygen. Vanguard works with dairy farmers and others to produce RNG from cow manure.
The collaboration is forecast to allow AstraZeneca to use as much as 650,000 million British thermal units, or 190,500 megawatt hours, of RNG per year at its U.S. sites. Those numbers are the equivalent of energy resources needed to heat more than 17,800 U.S. homes for a year, the company said.
According to a 2019 report (PDF) from Health Care Without Harm—a nongovernmental organization focused on reducing the healthcare industry's environmental footprint—healthcare contributes between 4% and 5% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
“We recognize the interconnection between the health of people and the planet, and are committed to driving deep decarbonization across our operations and value chain,” Pam Cheng, AstraZeneca’s head of global operations and IT and chief sustainability officer, said in the release. “Our innovative partnership with Vanguard Renewables in the U.S. is an illustration of how we are collaborating at scale to deliver sustainable science and medicines, as part of the transition to net zero health systems and a circular economy.”
The agreement is part of the drugmaker’s Ambition Zero Carbon program that is focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions from its global operations by 98% by 2026 from a 2015 baseline.
Under the Vanguard deal, AstraZeneca will have access to RNG from three U.S. on-farm anaerobic digester facilities for at least the next 15 years.
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