Looking at supply chain emissions through the magnifying glass

If you enter Boehringer Ingelheim headquarters in Ingelheim at Gate 3 and turn right at the second corner, you will pass a building with large, gallery-like windows facing the sidewalk. Inside, you see what many consider the “heart” of Boehringer Ingelheim: biochemical laboratories, often used for training purposes, allow for a good view of an ever-changing set-up of apparatuses, bottles, measurement devices and analysis tools. But what about the environmental footprint of such labs? Where does Boehringer Ingelheim get these materials from? And how does the company minimize the emissions linked to their purchase and use?

“In a lab environment, we are dealing with all types of supplies with very specific applications and properties that are essential to our business. State-of-the-art lab supplies are a considerable investment and their manufacturing and maintenance require considerable energy and resources”, explains Christian Sauer, Senior Manager Sustainable Purchasing at Boehringer Ingelheim: "Developing a holistic plan on how to reduce the carbon footprint of our laboratory operations, we quickly realized that tackling scope 3 emissions is the strongest lever we have to reduce CO2 emissions.” 

Boehringer Ingelheim’s environmental responsibility does not end at the company gates. Reducing “upstream” value chain emissions from lab equipment is only possible through collaboration with suppliers on an individual basis. “Cooperating with Thermo Fisher Scientific (short: Thermo Fisher) is a big opportunity we didn't want to miss: Both companies share a deep commitment to decarbonization. Working on this together with a trusted, long-standing supplier that is also familiar with our processes enabled a quick understanding on how to move forward”, says Christian Sauer. 

Accelerating the adoption of renewable energy

At this point, the two companies were already experienced in jointly implementing a project in favor of the environment: Boehringer Ingelheim and Thermo Fisher established a supply center program in Ridgefield, USA, reducing the need for logistics. That allowed the partners to avoid hundreds of metric tons of expanded polystyrene from cold chain shipments of temperature sensitive goods in 2022.

However, it quickly became clear to Thermo Fisher that transitioning to renewable energy sources was the biggest lever to reduce its carbon footprint. Matthew Yamatin, Sustainability Program Director at Thermo Fisher, reflects on how the collaboration developed: “We were approached by Boehringer Ingelheim with the clear expectation of disclosing our greenhouse gas emissions, setting a science-based target, and having an emission reduction plan – and critically why it was important to Boehringer Ingelheim. With this understanding, we were able to describe how our net-zero approach aligns and can support Boehringer Ingelheim achieve its climate targets. Since then, Thermo Fisher has accelerated its plan to increase adoption of renewable energy including entering into two virtual power purchasing agreements that will supply over 900,000 megawatt-hours of clean power per year. With this acceleration, Thermo Fisher is on track to achieve its previous 2030 Scope 1 and Scope 2 target ahead of schedule and increased the target to more than 50 percent.”

Defining a roadmap to decarbonization with key suppliers

Incorporating the expertise of partners to accelerate progress on decarbonization is the goal of Boehringer Ingelheim’s broader Responsible Value Chain Initiative within its environmental sustainability pillar MORE GREEN. It aims to decrease environmental impact up and down the value chain, as well as ensuring consistent standards and compliance on all levels. Sören Brodowy, Head of GC Logistics within GBS Global Sourcing at Boehringer Ingelheim and founding member of the initiative, explains: “We entered a strategic dialogue with our partners to establish a baseline for our scope 3 upstream emissions and developed mechanisms that allow greater transparency and specific measures to reduce those emissions. It is a unique example of supplier evaluation which we are now further developing together with our partners.”

In return, what started as a dialogue between partners has delivered key building blocks for Boehringer Ingelheim’s decarbonization journey – with the collected data being leveraged to set, monitor and reach Boehringer Ingelheim’s target to reduce greenhouse gases throughout the value chain. While scope 3 emissions represent the majority of all carbon emissions, they are also the most complex and challenging to tackle. Relying heavily on global supply chains for goods and services, measuring and addressing emissions from different parts of the chain can be a long and cost-intensive process, as it can mean engaging with hundreds of different suppliers on individual matters. Meanwhile, the varying regulations across different geographic regions and industries, and a lack of unified global standards for scope 3 emissions, makes it challenging to establish comparable baselines and progress reporting. 

Sören Brodowy concludes: “One of the first objectives we aimed to accomplish with the Responsible Value Chain Initiative since the start of 2021, was to have our largest emitting suppliers join forces with us. We are now moving to the next phase, reaching out to more suppliers… and the work does not stop there. There is still a lot to do.”