We are committed to responsibly managing the environmental impact of our business. We understand that the climate crisis is the most serious challenge currently threatening the global community and we know that decisions we make now, together with our actions and behaviours, must align with a net zero future.
Climate change
Allergy Therapeutics has set out its commitment to become net zero carbon by 2030. Our next steps are to deliver on this commitment. Over the coming year we will be setting out a net zero roadmap (which will include setting targets for our operations functions and integrating carbon reduction targets into senior managers’ objectives); we will communicate the net zero strategy with stakeholders, alongside the wider sustainability strategy. We will also continue to engage with all stakeholders to ensure a collaborative approach and embed sustainable practices across the entire business to make year-on-year improvements in this area.
This year we have formed a Group Environmental Management Committee to strengthen our local and Group-wide efforts and whose purpose is to investigate and manage ways of minimising our impact on the environment.
Energy management
The energy used to power and heat our manufacturing facilities and offices is one of the greatest contributors to our carbon footprint. For some time, we have invested in reducing energy consumption and lowering carbon emissions across our sites and this can be evidenced in the reduction of energy usage in our UK manufacturing site.
During this financial year, we increased our utility usage by 2.6% compared with 2021. This reflected more employees returning to offices compared to 2021.
This year, we started construction of an energy centre on our Worthing site, which will create independence from the shared utilities with GSK and which will contain our own more sustainable equipment to raise steam, cooled water and compressed air. The energy centre is expected to further reduce our emissions and we will report on this progress.
Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (“SECR”)
Allergy Therapeutics has engaged Enistic Limited to provide independent verification of the calculation of our SECR data, in accordance with the regulations.
Waste and water management
All our sites operate robust systems of recycling and we continue to raise awareness of recycling across the business. Our Italian and Spanish operations are now fully paperless and those which are not use FSC paper and recycled ink cartridges.
Our Worthing site has reduced much of the single-use plastic from its manufacturing processes, and has worked with Worthing Council to recycle any plastic that cannot be eliminated.
Water is now re-used in the manufacturing processes rather than being wasted.
We continue to monitor water usage across the business and have incorporated water‑efficient appliances and fittings into our newer offices.
Digitalisation
We are committed to growth and investing in technology and automation of processes, knowing that this creates efficiencies in the business while also reducing paper waste. Before COVID‑19, we had already established a good practice of working globally and virtually by utilising technology, however COVID‑19 forced the business to work in a fully digital way and we are proactively developing the lessons learnt and new ways of working to prepare us for the future.