Renewable energy

The research, development and manufacture of medicines is energy intensive. That’s why we are committed to expanding access to clean sources of heat and power as part of our Ambition Zero Carbon strategy, as well as supporting decarbonisation across the healthcare value chain.

Our approach to renewable energy

We aim to use 100% renewable energy sources to meet all our power and heat needs by the end of 2025.

Guided by our science-based decarbonisation strategy, we are accelerating action to procure renewable energy and encouraging our suppliers to do the same. Using the Climate Group’s RE100 criteria, we've developed a scoring system to evaluate energy sourcing, ensuring quality and positive impact through our purchases, including:

• Investing in new to grid or on-site renewable energy capacity
• Energy purchase agreements in the grids where we consume energy
• Aligning our energy attribute certificates (EACs) with the time when we consume energy

In 2024, we became founding partners of the Climate Group's 24/7 Carbon-Free Electricity (CFE) Coalition initiative to help accelerate action on matching electricity demand with carbon-free generation where and when consumption occurs. Adopting 24/7 CFE sends a clear demand signal about where more carbon-free electricity is needed.

Clean power

Across our strategic sites in Sweden, the UK and the US, we aim to meet most of our electricity needs through new power purchase agreements (PPAs).

In 2023, we established a 10-year PPA with energy provider Statkraft, sourcing 200 GWh annually from three new wind farms in Sweden, covering 80% of demand at our Gothenburg and Södertälje sites.

Alongside PPAs, we're investing in on-site solar photovoltaic (PV) installations in 20 locations across 11 countries. In 2024, these projects produced 21,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity, or 3% of our global electricity use, enhancing site energy costs and business resilience.

Clean heat

We are also pioneering clean heat solutions for our China, the UK, and US operations. We’re taking new approaches to sourcing and using sourcing biomethane, as well as contributing to the circular economy. In addition, we are focusing on adding new-to-grid renewable capacity to support progress towards net zero.

In the UK, our 15-year agreement with Future Biogas brought the first unsubsidised biomethane plant online in 2025, supplying clean heat to all of our UK R&D and manufacturing sites. This plant adds renewable energy capacity to the UK's infrastructure and is expected to provide over 100 gigawatt-hours of biomethane, covering almost 20% of our total global gas consumption.

In China, we are sourcing biomethane and biomethane-based steam for our Wuxi manufacturing site through a collaboration with China Resources Gas and Everbright Environment. Using household waste including food and plant waste as feedstock, a municipal waste plant will supply AstraZeneca and our steam provider with 36,000 MWh of biomethane, enabling us to significantly reduce our Scope 1 and 2 emissions in China.

In the US, we collaborate with Vanguard Renewables to produce renewable natural gas (RNG) from food and farm waste which powers our US sites. In June 2023, we began purchasing RNG from Vanguard Renewables for our Newark campus in Delaware and by 2026, this partnership will supply up to 190 gigawatt-hours annually for our US sites, equating to 36% of our total global gas consumption. Our approach means that methane that would be emitted into the atmosphere is used to support the production of innovative medicines.

Accelerating the transition to net zero healthcare

Sustainable Markets Initiative Health Systems Task Force

Through the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) Health Systems Task Force chaired by our CEO Pascal Soriot, we collaborate with global health leaders from the private and public sectors to accelerate the transition to net zero health systems.

We are focused on decarbonising supply chains and patient care pathways, as well as leveraging digital innovation to decarbonise clinical research. We are also supporting the education of medical students on climate change across over 30 European universities through a partnership we launched with the SMI.

In 2024, we announced an industry-first renewable power agreement in China, with sector peers, which we expanded this year to include suppliers.

Energize

We are also a founding member of the Energize programme, launched at COP26, to support suppliers in purchasing renewable energy at scale. This first-of-its-kind collaboration leverages collective buying power to help suppliers switch to renewable energy at competitive costs, thereby cutting their Scope 2 emissions and our Scope 3 emissions.