Helsinn Achieves Carbon Neutrality
Lugano, Switzerland, December 6, 2021 - Helsinn Group (“Helsinn”), a fully integrated, global biopharma company with a diversified pipeline of innovative oncology assets and strong track-record of commercial execution, today announces that it has achieved carbon neutrality for the first time.
Since 2012, Helsinn has been committed to becoming more sustainable. Our environmental performance has improved steadily through several activities: a strong focus on energy conservation measures, the substitution of fossil fuels with renewables and, from 2019 in our chemical plant, the elimination of heating oil and replacement with energy from biomass km0 have considerably reduced its Scope 1 carbon footprint.
In 2020, Helsinn started to measure its total carbon footprint - Scope 1, 2 and 3* - across the value chain according to GHG protocol and to ISO 14064.
After many efforts targeted at reducing the footprint during the past years, Helsinn decided to become Carbon Neutral through the investment in high-quality, Gold Standard carbon offsets.
Achieving carbon neutrality status through the purchase of Gold Standard certificates, follows a rigorous and continued focus on the Group’s environmental performance, addresses 100% of Scope 1, 2 and 3 and represents a key milestone in Helsinn’s sustainability journey.
The Gold Standard certificates purchased by Helsinn support two high quality and high impact projects currently being conducted in Ethiopia and Madagascar with the aim of providing access to safe drinking water to rural communities. Both projects contribute directly to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), 6 (Clean Water and Sanitation), 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), 13 (Climate Action) as certified by Gold Standard.
Further details on our environmental performance can be found in the Group’s annual Sustainability Report, Quality of Life 5 (“QoL”). The recently published QoL report outlines the progress Helsinn has made in improving its sustainability performance across global operations in 2020, in six distinct areas:
- Quality of Life for Our Patients
- Quality of Life for Our People
- Quality of Life in Our Communities
- Quality of Life in Our Environment
- Acting Responsibly
- Economic Value Creation
and is now available here.
Riccardo Braglia, Helsinn Group Vice Chairman and CEO, commented: “Despite the global challenges last year, we remained focused on our sustainability journey, improving the way we measure our impacts, our priorities and the changing expectations of our stakeholders. Today, Helsinn is proud to announce that we have reached the goal of carbon neutrality in our value chain, which represents an extremely important milestone for the Group.’’
Giorgio Calderari, Helsinn Group General Manager, added: “Reaching carbon neutrality is an impressive achievement for Helsinn and demonstrates our commitment to sustainability. Helsinn continues to make significant headway in ensuring our ESG targets are being met and we continue to look for ways to improve on previous ESG performance.”
* The GHG Protocol Corporate Standard classifies a company’s GHG emissions into three ‘scopes’:
Scope 1 emissions are direct emissions from owned or controlled sources. Scope 2 emissions are indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy. Scope 3 emissions are all indirect emissions (not included in scope 2) that occur in the value chain of the reporting company, including both upstream and downstream emissions.
About the Helsinn Group
Helsinn is a fully integrated, global biopharma company headquartered in Lugano, Switzerland. It is focused on improving the lives of cancer patients all over the world with a leading position in cancer supportive care and innovative pipeline of cancer therapeutics.
Helsinn is third-generation family-owned company, that since 1976 has been focused on improving the lives of patients, guided by core values of respect, integrity and quality. It operates a unique licensing business model with integrated drug development and manufacturing capabilities. Helsinn has a commercial presence in 190 countries either directly, with operating subsidiaries in the U.S. and China, or via its network of long-standing trusted partners.
Helsinn Group plays an active and central role in promoting social transformation in favor of people and the environment. Corporate social responsibility is at the heart of everything we do, which is reinforced in the company’s strategic plan by a commitment to sustainable growth.
To learn more about Helsinn Group please visit www.helsinn.com
For more information:
Helsinn Group Media Contact:
Paola Bonvicini
Group Head of Communication
Lugano, Switzerland
Tel: +41 (0) 91 985 21 21
Email: Info-hhc@helsinn.com
Email: sustainability@helsinn.com
For more information, please visit www.helsinn.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn
