Fossil Fuel Free Electricity (completed in 2014)

In 2014, Biogen became the first life sciences company to achieve carbon neutrality, signing the renewable electricity (RE) RE100 pledge and shifting 100% of our electricity consumption to renewable sources.

We also have shifted our renewable electricity purchasing strategy to help expand the market and overall capacity for renewable energy generation. For example, we are negotiating a renewable virtual power purchasing agreement (VPPA) for our U.S. and Canadian facilities and fleet, and have signed a two-year direct contract for hydropower for our Cambridge, MA campus.

Learn more in our 2020 Year In Review

Biogen-Owned Facility Electrification (planned for 2025-2040)

Biogen maintains four large manufacturing and R&D facilities: one in Massachusetts, USA; two in North Carolina, USA; and one in Solothurn, Switzerland. Each of these facilities burns natural gas to heat, cook, generate steam and power our operations. Our engineering team is formulating strategies to operate these facilities without fossil fuel combustion by 2040. This may mean transitioning to electric heat pumps and steam generators or using technologies such as geothermal heating.

Our Massachusetts location currently houses a large natural gas cogeneration unit. Installed in 2006, this unit has significantly decreased our climate impact due to the efficiency gains of cogeneration of electricity and steam; however, emerging science points to health concerns associated with natural gas extraction, storage and combustion. With the rise of renewable electricity and technological improvements, we will sunset this approach and identify effective alternatives.

One of the more challenging components of building electrification will be backup power. As is common around the world, Biogen uses fuel oil powered backup generators. We will evaluate the feasibility of alternatives, such as lithium-ion batteries and green hydrogen, to meet our needs and ensure business continuity. Biogen has launched technical assessments of three major Biogen sites as the next step in fully decarbonizing our facilities.

Leased Facility Electrification (planned 2025-2040)

Biogen leases numerous spaces around the world. As these are rented facilities, we plan to work with the building owners on plans to eliminate their fossil fuel impacts – and, in some cases, we may relocate to buildings that already have.

Biogen’s Massachusetts location houses a cogeneration unit, which has significantly decreased our climate impact. With the rise of technological improvements, we will identify effective solutions to shift to renewable electricity.

Support suppliers in advancing science-based targets (milestones: 2025, 2030 and 2040)

Like many companies, Biogen’s largest source of fossil fuel emissions and air pollution is embedded in the goods and services we purchase. We aim to support key suppliers in developing tailored action plans to accelerate their transition away from fossil fuels and toward a healthier clean energy future.

We have established the following collective targets:

• By 2025, 80% of our suppliers, by spend, covering purchased goods and services, will set climate-related science-based targets (SBTs). 
• By 2030, 50% of our suppliers, by spend, will source 100% of their electricity from renewable sources. 
• By 2040, 90% of our suppliers, by spend, will source 100% of their electricity from renewable sources.

We are pleased to recognize commitments from several Biogen suppliers, including Bertelsmann SE & CO. KGaA, Catalent Pharma Solutions, Charles River Laboratories, Fribourg site, IQVIA, PWC, Publicis Groupe, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Vetter and Vifor Ltd, to set science-based targets by 2025. In addition, suppliers, including Fribourg site, Sharp, Vetter, and Vifor Ltd. source or plan to source 100% renewable electricity by 2030.

As a member of the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI), Biogen is collaborating with our pharmaceutical peers in the development of supplier-facing training modules for PSCI’s Principles e-Learning tool to cover specific environment, ethics, human rights and labor, and health and safety priorities. Suppliers are encouraged to participate in these trainings to improve their awareness and performance on these key environmental, social and governance issues.

Vehicle Fleet Electrification (planned for 2025)

Biogen’s fleet consists of more than 2,000 leased vehicles worldwide. In 2020, we joined the EV100 partnership to help us advance our goal of converting every new vehicle lease to all-electric vehicles by 2025. We anticipate the full conversion to be completed by 2027.

To advance our goal, we launched a battery electric vehicles (BEVs) program, with BEVs on the road or ordered in 11 countries. (Learn how we are implementing sustainable transportation in Portugal). We have begun the process of installing more than 500 EV charging points at our office locations and have added plug-in hybrid vehicles to our fleet as an interim solution where EV infrastructure remains challenging.

To provide our fleet-operating employees with uninterrupted mobility and an even greater level of convenience, over the next decade, Biogen will install home EV chargers for each fleet driver.

We are also working with our Biogen Bus partner to electrify the employee commuter Biogen Bus fleet.

Establish new green chemistry targets (milestones: 2021, 2023 and 2030)

We are accelerating the integration of green chemistry into our operations, from research through final formulation. As a member of the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Green Chemistry Institute (GCI) Pharma Roundtable, we have employed the 12 Principles of Green Chemistry to reduce our water and energy input, use of fossil fuel-derived solvents and waste output.

With Healthy Climate, Healthy Lives, we have set even more ambitious green chemistry targets:

• In 2021, we began rolling out Principles for Sustainable Drug Development companywide, addressing Biogen's multi-franchise portfolio​ with circular economy principles.
• By 2023, green chemistry principles and specific targets will be integrated into all stages of therapy development across the company.
• By 2030, all products will achieve greater than 90% of green chemistry targets.

We also are working to expand on our collaborations to find innovation solutions to increase achievement. Ideally, it would be easy to identify alternatives for all fossil fuel-derived ingredients and solvents by 2040; realistically, this will depend on technological and scientific advances. We are working to leverage our involvement in a number of industry and university collaborations, including the IQ Green Chemistry Working Group, ACS and the Center for Rational Catalyst Synthesis with the goal to catalyze innovation not only within the design and manufacturing of Biogen products, but in the broader scientific community.

Plastics and Packaging (milestones by 2025 and 2040)

The quality and safety of our products is of paramount concern, and wherever possible, Biogen has been working to advance quality and safety goals while also addressing fossil-fuel derived plastics.

Across all areas of our business, we aim to avoid waste and identify alternative materials with a preference to reusable materials made from renewable feedstocks or highly biodegradable materials. Our long-term goal is to eliminate, minimize and/or closed-loop recycle plastics across all business functions. We aim to pursue as comprehensive an approach as possible today, refine our approach as technology evolves, and collaborate to find acceptable new solutions.

While our use of fossil fuel-derived plastics is small when compared to other industries, plastics are pervasive in the pharmaceutical space and comprehensive, regulatory-approved alternatives do not yet exist at scale.

Where the replacement of plastics with alternative materials will have no negative impact on the product, Biogen will work with industry coalitions, such as PhRMA, to coordinate with regulators to update manufacturing requirements. Where alternatives are incompatible with regulatory requirements, we will establish processes to enable closed-loop recycling of these materials over the long term.  

Biogen is pursuing four initial areas of focus:

• Single-use plastics, ranging from laboratory wares (e.g., pipette tips) to food-related items in cafeterias and breakrooms.
• Fossil fuel-derived raw materials or feedstocks, which will be addressed via our Green Chemistry program. 
• Non-essential plastics, including gifts and promotional materials.
• Product packaging, with four sustainable packaging goals, including to become PVC-free and to phase out plastic packing trays by 2025. We aim to fully eliminate plastics in secondary and tertiary packaging by 2040.

In 2021, Biogen became a signatory of the Business Call for a UN Treaty on Plastic Pollution.

Plastics are pervasive in the pharmaceutical space. Biogen has been working to reduce material usage and waste while maintaining quality and safety of our products.

As Healthy Climate, Healthy Lives aims to eliminate fossil fuels, we must also consider where we are investing our money and the type of future it supports. It is our fiduciary duty to maximize the risk-adjusted returns of our investments and provide superior investment options within our employee retirement and pension plans. To that end, we will engage with our financial advisors around our fossil fuel free goal and evaluate ESG-focused companies and funds and other investment options with an eye towards enhancing long-term risk-adjusted returns. When those options meet our requirements, we will incorporate them into our retirement plans and corporate investment strategies.

Every employee owns and contributes to our shared goals, and we are inspired by our colleagues around the world who are innovating to address climate, health and equity.

We have a range of opportunities for our employees to become even more actively involved, in the office, at home and in our communities. Examples include:

• OurIMPACT is Biogen’s Employee Resource Network for sharing best practices and advancing projects related to climate, health and equity.
• The Healthy Climate, Healthy People Employee Innovation Challenge encouraged employees to share promising ideas for reducing our reliance on fossil fuels while promoting health equity and patient outcomes. We are working to implement many of the concepts and sustain ongoing engagement.
• Our employee benefit programs help enhance sustainability in all parts of their lives. Biogen covers the cost differential for 100% Renewable Energy at Home, and offers an incentive program that helps offset the costs of switching from fossil fuel to energy-efficient home goods, such as electric appliances, hot water heaters, etc.
• Expanding Biogen’s Care Deeply volunteer program and Community Lab program to include a climate and health-focused lesson from a newly-developed American Public Health Association (APHA) high school curriculum developed in collaboration with Biogen. Biogen employee volunteers are the first to pilot the curriculum with students.