Carbon Disclosure Project 2011
Water-related risks and opportunities in direct operations and the supply chain
Exposure to risks and opportunities
100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0%
4% 55% 7% 37% 36% 38% 5% 50% 8% 29%
Responding to risk
• 95% of Health Care respondents report an ability to identify operations in water-stressed regions (89% in the Global 500).
• According to respondents, the sector is less exposed to water-related risks than the Global 500; 41% of respondents report exposure to risks in direct operations and 23% report exposure to risks in the supply chain.
41% 55% 45% 41% 27% 23% 35% 63%
• Despite lower reported risk exposure than the Global 500, the sector is highly engaged; Health Care has the highest response rate of any sector (79%). Reliance on high-quality water as an input to the production process has perhaps motivated this engagement.
Experiencing business impacts
• Approximately 23% of respondents in the sector have experienced water-related business impacts in the last five years, compared to 38% of Global 500 respondents.
• Most water shortages reported by Health Care respondents were temporary rather than persistent.
Health Care
Global 500
Risk in direct operations
Yes
Health Care
Global 500
Risk in supply chain No Don’t know
Health Care
Global 500
Opportunities Seizing opportunity
• Only 45% of respondents have identified water-related opportunities, compared to 63% in the Global 500.
“Pfizer … established a global Water Strategy in late 2009 identifying sustainable water management as core to the overarching sustainability program. The water sustainability program provides a clear purpose through a strategic roadmap that outlines specific objectives, goals and deliverables. Results from the roadmap have helped inform our policy positions and shape the development of a longer term strategy.” Pfizer
“The efficient management of water resources is an integral component of the Novartis Corporate Citizenship Policy: Novartis strives to make efficient use of natural resources and to minimize the environmental impacts of its activities and products over their entire life cycle.” Novartis
Sanofi-Aventis: managing regulatory uncertainty and reputational risk
Sanofi-Aventis acknowledges that pharmaceutical byproducts in the environment are an emerging issue for both regulators and the public.
To inform regulators and the general public, Sanofi-Aventis is working with stakeholders including the pharmaceutical industry and academia to expand and promote scientific knowledge on the topic of persistent pharmaceuticals. With these efforts, the company intends to both detect and quantify pharmaceutical byproducts in effluent materials and assess the potential impact of these ingredients once they find their way into the aqueous environment.
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• Opportunities identified include the ability to leverage products with water-related benefits and products that indirectly address results of water scarcity (e.g. vaccines for water-borne disease).
Managing the linkages and trade-offs between water and carbon
• 77% of respondents are able to identify linkages and trade-offs between water and carbon.
• Merck explains that water accounts for 40% of the company’s total cost of energy and that reducing use thus reduces energy use; Merck uses energy to produce steam, transport and treat water.
Percentage of respondents
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