Decarbonization & Climate Change

We are comitted to reducing our carbon footprint.
We do this by:

• improving our operations, machinery and equipment to cut our own emissions (Scope 1)
• increasing the share of renewable energy we purchase (Scope 2)
• strengthening environmental responsibility across our supply chain (Scope 3)

Over the past years, we have continuously increased the share of renewable energy in our total energy use also by installing our own solar (photovoltaic) systems. As part of a major project in 2025, 8,000 solar panels were installed on 15 buildings at our Vršac campus in Serbia, covering an area of 21,000 square meters. On summer days, the system can supply up to half of the campus’s electricity needs and around 12% of its annual consumption.
This is a practical example of how local renewable energy projects can reduce reliance on purchased electricity, save costs in the long term and support STADA’s climate goals.

We also check climate risks for our production sites, such as extreme heat, wildfire or flooding, to see where we need to adapt. Today, all our production sites face low physical climate risk. If global temperatures rise significantly, long‑term forecasts show that risks will increase, but are still expected to remain moderate.

 

Sustainable Production & Packaging

We want to manufacture medicines safely and in compliance, while minimizing environmental impacts under established standards and management systems.

Our Global Environmental Management System is part of the Global HSE management system and is overseen by the global and local HSE functions. All our production sites operate local HSE management systems and processes. These are designed to meet environmental and legal requirements and to improve environmental performance beyond compliance, for example through annual environmental programs and site‑specific targets.
To ensure regular external monitoring, ten of our 16 production sites are certified under ISO 14001, an international standard for environmental management systems.

When it comes to managing waste in our technical operations, we aim to reduce and recycle as much as possible, and make sure all remaining waste is disposed of safely and in line with regulations by certified waste companies.
We distinguish between hazardous waste and non‑hazardous waste: Hazardous waste includes for example chemical substances, solvent residues or heavy metals that can be dangerous for people or the environment. Non‑hazardous waste includes packaging materials, office waste, pallets and similar items.
In 2025, we exceeded our global target of recycling more than 82% of waste from production sites, reaching 85%. This means that the large parts of production waste was kept in circular use instead of being disposed of. From 2026 onwards, all TechOps sites aim to reduce waste to landfill by 3% each year. In the long term, we are working towards “zero waste to landfill.”

Water is mainly used as process water in manufacturing, cooling systems and in sanitary facilities at our sites, and it is closely monitored. Last year, we used about 915.8 million liters of water, which is roughly the same as 366 Olympic‑size swimming pools, or the annual household water use of a small German town with around 20,000 inhabitants.
We work to reduce our water use an use water responsibly, balancing business needs with environmental care, with a particular focus on locations facing high water stress.
Most of the water we withdraw is released back into the environment through wastewater discharge or evaporation. We also keep an eye on potential water scarcity risks by using a water risk atlas. Only about 5% of our production water consumption takes place at sites located in areas with high water stress.
This means that most of our water use occurs in locations with lower water-stress exposure, while we can focus additional attention on the higher-risk sites in Miyun and Bad Vilbel.

Our operational wastewater management is integrated into our site HSE management standards and processes to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and environmental benchmarks. Wastewater from all sites is discharged indirectly into public sewer networks under local discharge permits. These permits define physical and chemical limit values and monitoring requirements.

Pharmaceutical packaging is essential to protect medicines, keep them safe and stable, allow secure transport and make them easy to use. Packaging must meet strict legal requirements, so we focus on reducing its environmental impact where we can. Our efforts are aligned with the new Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation and Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) schemes.

To improve products and packaging, we use our 5R strategy: Remove, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Refill. This helps lower the environmental footprint of our products and supports a more circular economy. A key part of the 5R strategy is to make packaging less complex, for example by removing unnecessary parts (such as leaflets where legally allowed and appropriate) or bundling packs for groups of countries.
Recyclability is also an important lever. For example, the new Ladival range launched in 2025 achieved recyclability rates between 90% and 100%, certified by the external organization Cyclos‑HTP.
This shows how packaging improvements can be applied directly to product ranges where technically and legally possible.