Topic:

Sustainability Strategy

Submission:

For the last number of years, Pfizer has been on a green journey. We consider Environmental Sustainability to be integral to Pfizer’s larger purpose, that being to “Innovate to bring therapies to patients that significantly improve their lives”

Our vision is to integrate sustainability into our business by driving strategic, environmental actions that deliver measurable social and business value. As part of our commitment to Environmental Sustainability, Pfizer Grange Castle has targets with regard to Water, Waste and Energy (Green House Gas; ‘GHG’) reduction. Specifically for Green House Gas reduction, we have a dedicated Energy Team tasked with identifying and implementing initiatives to drive a year-on-year reduction in Green House Gas emissions.

As part of Pfizer Grange Castle’s commitment to protecting our environment, the efficient use of energy, and the natural resources used to provide this energy, is always in our mind.  In order to continuously improve our energy efficiency and help mitigate our impact on the environment, Grange Castle has developed a recognised Energy Management System (EnMS) and achieved certification to ISO 50001:2011 Energy Management Systems.

However, achieving this initial EnMS goal is not the end; it is merely the beginning of a journey for Grange Castle in a continuous energy improvement cycle, both for the existing facilities on site and the future growth of the site as we become a truly multi-product facility with further expansion opportunities into the future. We already have, and will continue to aggressively pursue, innovative and scientifically sound and environmentally sustainable methods to reduce Pfizer’s energy and GHG footprint and prepare the company for the risks and opportunities of climate change in an increasingly carbon-constrained world.

Our publicly-stated goal is to reduce our Green House Gas Emissions by 20% from the levels in 2012 by 2020. This will follow on from the 20% reduction between 2000 and 2007 and 35% between 2007 and 2012.

As we progress along this journey, the challenge becomes even greater as the number of opportunities for large energy savings become less. To address this challenge, we have developed a multi-faceted approach, most notably:

• Identifying and delivering a large number of smaller improvements, rather than small numbers of large improvements
• Embedding a culture of energy reduction and sustainability amongst our colleagues to deliver this pipeline of ideas through our site-wide sustainability team
• Ring-fencing a portion of our capital investment budget targeted on energy reduction projects which may not adhere to our normal return on investment criteria
• Engaging with partners in the industry to deliver innovative and creative solutions in the area of energy reduction

Impact to Date

The impact of this program has seen results in many areas, most notably:

• Projects resulting in Green House Gas Emissions Reduction of >800 tCO2 in 2018. This is in line with previous years and will form the basis of our plans for 2019 and beyond.
• Financial savings associated with this energy reduction. Since 2012 we have achieved cumulative cost avoidance associated with a reduction in our energy usage of >25,000 MW/h.
• Organisation Changes. We now have a dedicated Energy Team whose role is to identify and implement energy saving projects and initiatives in line with our commitments. In addition to this, in 2018 we commenced a Site-Wide Sustainability Team on site. This team has representation from across the site to help provide a pipeline of ideas as well as assisting in the implementation of potential projects. This has helped to bring the sustainability message to the wider population in the site and embed it within the culture and mind-set of the site.

About John Stokes:

John Stokes is the Site Lead for Utilities and Facilities at the Pfizer Grange Castle site with overall responsibility for the Energy Program on site. John has been on site for 13 years in a number of Operations and Engineering Leadership positions. Prior to this he has worked in a number of Engineering, Operations and Quality Roles with Oracle, Marconi Communications, Amdahl Ireland and Broadcom Eireann Research. John is graduate of Electronic Engineering from University College Dublin.