Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO), Vetter is ensuring that all its sites are climate-neutral and no longer have a CO2 footprint. The company’s production sites and sales offices in Austria, the US, and Asia have followed the example of its sites in Germany, where climate neutrality was already achieved in the past year. The milestone was made possible by the interaction of many components within the scope of a long-term CO2 strategy in the company.
 
Over approximately the past ten years, the company has successfully implemented more than 100 efficiency projects, thereby saving over 30 million kWh of electricity, natural gas, and biogas. In the past five years alone, Vetter reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by approximately 4,500 tonnes. New buildings are always constructed according to the latest environmental standards.
 
Another important component is the energy supply. Since 2014, all German sites have been operated with green electricity from hydropower. The same is true for the company’s new Austrian site in Rankweil, which was purchased in 2020.
 
In addition, Vetter relies on a comprehensive, modular concept for alternative mobility to make switching to sustainable means of transportation as appealing as possible to its staff members. For example, the pharma service provider has already invested in two highly innovative bicycle parking facilities at its corporate sites in Ravensburg, with more to follow at the other sites. Moreover, the company cooperates with a local energy supplier on leasing bicycles. In this way, staff members can quickly commute between corporate sites while also saving resources. Furthermore, the JobRad programme a national bike leasing initiative offers staff members attractive leasing conditions when acquiring a new bicycle. Employees can also charge their electric vehicles with electricity from hydropower; the infrastructure required for this purpose has been provided at the first sites.
 
“As a family business committed to sustainability, we take our responsibility towards the environment and climate protection very seriously. Whenever possible, we opt for the most eco-friendly solutions,” said Thomas Otto, MD, Vetter.
 
However, emissions cannot be eliminated when producing drugs in a highly regulated setting. Henryk Badack, Senior VP, Technical Services/Internal Project Management, stated, “Operating within the pharmaceutical industry, we have to meet numerous regulatory requirements and high standards to enable patients around the world to have access to impeccable, high-quality medication. This results in energy-intensive production operations. Therefore, it is even more important to sensibly compensate for the emissions generated.”

The projects supported by Vetter are subject to strict requirements. On the one hand, they must be related purely to the generation of renewable energies; on the other, the systems used for this purpose may not be older than ten years. In addition, the certificates must conform to the standards of the Kyoto Protocol or the Paris Agreement.

“Despite the milestone of global CO2-neutrality, which we have now achieved, we maintain our efforts in further driving our environmental initiatives and making our company even greener,” said Peter Soelkner, MD, Vetter.