Mitigating climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing society as a whole today. Even though we have a small direct environmental footprint due to our asset-light business model with outsourced production and distribution processes, the issue of environmental protection is very important to us.

Our environmental milestones

We want to continue to grow dynamically as a company, but always keep energy-related issues in mind. This is also reflected in our current new building project at our headquarters in Greifswald. A new office building is being built here that will provide space for over 300 additional workplaces when it is completed at the end of 2023. As a so-called "lowest energy building", the new building will meet the most modern German energy standard EG40EE in that the building will consume less than 40% of the maximum primary energy requirement permitted by law. In addition, the new office building will cover more than 55% of its own energy requirements by using environmental heat and generating electricity via its own photovoltaic system. The in-house solar systems already installed will also supply the new charging points for electric cars at the site. To motivate our employees to switch to emission-neutral e-mobility, all charging stations can already be used free of charge since spring 2022.

Another milestone is our company-wide energy management system, which was introduced in 2022 and is certified in accordance with ISO 50001. In addition to identifying and controlling our energy consumption, this also enables us to measurably improve our energy efficiency.
 

It is important to us to switch to renewable energies. The share of renewable energies in CHEPLAPHARM's total electricity consumption is 65% so far. In 2023, this is to increase to over 90 % by switching suppliers.

Energy consumption at CHEPLAPHARM and in the supply chain

Our new energy management system enabled us to calculate our CO² emissions from purchased energy (Scope 2 emissions) for the first time. While these were still 323 t CO² in 2021, we were able to reduce emissions by around 17% to 267 t CO² in 2022. The CO² intensity of the companies included in our supply chain was 44.8 t CO² per mEUR of CHEPLAPHARM's purchasing volume.

The professional handling of waste and the careful use of our water resources are particularly relevant for the pharmaceutical industry. In 2022, we were able to record our waste volumes at the company site in greater detail than in previous years, with an intensity of only 0.028 t per mEUR of sales, excluding residual waste. In contrast, the intensity of the waste generated by the recorded suppliers was 30.6 t per mEUR of CHEPLAPHARM purchasing volume last year. Around half of the companies in our supply chain have set themselves specific waste reduction targets, and just under 30% have already implemented concrete waste reduction strategies. As a pharmaceutical group, we are particularly concerned about the generation of toxic emissions and pharmaceutical waste products. Since CHEPLAPHARM does not operate any production sites itself, we do not generate any toxic emissions. Also, due to the lack of production, our water consumption only corresponds to the amount of fresh water purchased.
 

Waste volume at CHEPLAPHARM

Water consumption at CHEPLAPHARM 

For the companies covered along our supply chain, the intensity of toxic emissions or waste was around 1.4 t per mEUR of CHEPLAPHARM purchasing volume in 2022. In order to further reduce this figure, around one third of our suppliers have already set themselves concrete targets to reduce toxic emissions. Around half of the companies included in the survey rely on following strict guidelines, e.g. according to HAZWOPER standards, or have taken appropriate measures as part of their own environmental management systems according to ISO 14001. Slightly more than half of the companies surveyed in our supply chain have also already implemented systems to prevent pharmaceutical residues in wastewater.
 

We are proud to work in our supply chain with companies that set ambitious goals for protecting our environment and using our natural resources responsibly:

1. Two-thirds of our suppliers have firm targets to reduce their electricity consumption
2. 33% want to reduce their thermal energy consumption
3. 67% plan to emit less CO²
4. Around one third have set targets to reduce toxic emissions
5. Over 50% have already implemented systems to prevent pharmaceutical residues in wastewater