Sustainability for vaccines: Decarbonisation of one of our key sites

The Croda Denmark journey

Sustainability is often defined as meeting the needs of those alive today without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs. It is a long-term goal that covers three pillars: the environment, economy and needs of society and it can be addressed at the individual, national and global level. Often sustainable initiatives focus on the environment, tackling major problems such as climate change, air and water pollution, loss of biodiversity and the processes that impact these e.g. carbon emissions. 

What are carbon emissions? Why do they matter? 

Lowering atmospheric carbon emissions is essential to keeping the Paris Agreement’s 1.5^oC goal within reach. Croda was the third major chemical company in the world with a verified 1.5°C Science Based Target and we have committed to becoming net zero by 2050. 

GHG accounting is a method of tracking a company’s GHG emissions which can be split into 3 categories: 

• Scope 1 – the emissions directly produced by a company. This can be from the burning of fuel in vehicles used to carry out operations, fugitive emissions from refrigeration or AC and process emissions from on-site manufacturing. 
• Scope 2 – the emissions produced indirectly by a company such as the emissions released from the energy purchased by a company. Scope 2 emissions can be lowered by purchasing renewable energy. 
• Scope 3 – this includes all other indirect emissions that occur in a company’s value chain, e.g., purchased goods and services, waste disposal and employee commuting. Scope 3 can be difficult for companies to both define and track due to its broad scope.  

The GHG protocol requires that all companies track and report their Scope 1 and 2 emissions however, it is important to track and account for Scope 3 emissions to produce an effective climate strategy. Tracking all three scopes enables companies to assess where sustainable changes can be implemented to reduce GHG emissions and slow global warming. Here at Croda we have a commitment to sustainability and decarbonisation of our sites. 

Site in focus – Croda Denmark, Frederikssund  

Our Croda Denmark site is a dedicated Croda Pharma site, as well as a hub for our Adjuvant Systems platform. Our Adjuvant Systems platform delivers vaccine adjuvants ensuring the pharmaceutical industry can improve their vaccine efficiency today and innovates novel vaccine adjuvant systems to enable formulating for the future. Croda Denmark has been a pioneer amongst our smaller operational sites in striving for carbon neutrality. Leading the way in sustainability this site is on track to achieve carbon neutrality in 2024 (zero scope 1 and 2 emissions). Even before our decarbonisation roadmaps had been rolled out across all of our manufacturing sites, the site had already begun to implement changes. These changes resulted in a 99.9% reduction in carbon emissions compared to the 2018 baseline. The drastic reduction in carbon emissions has been achieved via two key changes: 

1. Conversion to a hydroelectric supply for electrical energy – producing 26 tonnes of carbon savings 
2. Conversion of the boiler to burn biogas derived from foot waste to generate steam – producing 282 tonnes of carbon savings.

Beyond these changes Croda Denmark is assessing methods to eliminate all gas usage. Looking to the future the plan is to utilise a district heating network to provide the site’s hot water.   

The pharmaceutical industry is hugely energy intensive due specific conditions such as temperature, sterilisation etc. that must be maintained and contributes to 4.4% of all global emissions₁.

As a supplier to the pharmaceutical industry, we strive towards our commitment of reducing carbon emissions by 50% by 2030. Together we will become Climate, Land and People positive by 2030.