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A Clean Start to 2023

CSL is partnering with employees to make its biotech business more sustainable with a seven-year plan to reduce environmental impacts around the globe.

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Tall buildings and green-leafed trees

At CSL, we are committed to fulfilling our promise to create a healthier world in an efficient, inclusive and environmentally respectful way. We know that the health of the planet is closely linked to human health, and that sustainability drives value for our business and all our stakeholders. This year, we’re accelerating our efforts in pursuit of a sustainable future by embedding our sustainability strategy into the fabric of our daily operations and engaging our 32,000 employees.

When we defined carbon targets in 2022, we did so for a large biotech company with facilities on multiple continents dedicated to developing and manufacturing medicines for patients with rare and serious diseases and vaccines. Addressing environmental sustainability is a multi-step journey and we have made strong progress against the following priority focus areas:

  • Climate Scope 1 - direct emissions from owned or controlled sources (for example, our in-house manufacturing operations)
  • Climate Scope 2 - indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy (such as electricity use)
  • Climate Scope 3 - indirect emissions that occur in the upstream and downstream value chain, and are not covered by Scope 2 (including the impacts created by suppliers of other goods and services)

To date, we have set targets and developed a roadmap to achieve our 2030 ambitions by defining our emissions, waste and water baseline, using the average for fiscal years 2019 to 2021 and forecasting our baseline out to 2030, based on anticipated production growth.

By 2030, CSL aims to:

  • Target a reduction of 40% of absolute Scope 1 and 2 emissions against a baseline of the average annual emissions across fiscal years 2019-2021.
  • Ensure suppliers who contribute 67% of Scope 3 emissions have set Scope 1 and 2 reduction targets, aligned with the Science-Based Targets initiative (SBTi).

The emissions reductions targets serve as a tangible and transparent roadmap we will use to decarbonize our operations by reducing our direct and indirect emissions footprint.

Our progress to date:

  • We have achieved 100% renewable electricity across all our major European manufacturing sites and next are evaluating promising RE options for our Australian- and U.S.-based manufacturing sites.
  • We established and, in Fall 2022, launched a supplier engagement program to help achieve our Scope 3 targets.
  • We embedded a sustainability process and prioritization system into our overall portfolio system to ensure we allocate resources efficiently and track progress.

Going forward, we will continue to engage with employees across our sites and functional areas to provide regular progress and program updates to ensure we are on track to achieve our ambitions. We will highlight ways they can get involved such as sending their insights and ideas through the digital suggestion box we launched last year. We encourage and welcome their engagement as it will take all of us to achieve our sustainability goals!

When we announced our 2030 targets last year, we reflected on the trust CSL has earned over more than a century as it helped improve the lives of patients and protect public health – a trust built by thousands of employees. With this clearly defined sustainability plan, we intend to keep earning that trust as a company committed to action in the quest for a healthier planet.