How Big Is Pharma’s Carbon Footprint? Highlights From My Green Lab’s 2025 Impact Report
Despite political and economic headwinds, the biotech and pharma sectors are making promising climate commitments.
Despite economic and political headwinds, companies in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors are still making advances in reducing their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. According to a new climate report, a majority of companies have now set medium-term climate targets for direct emissions and purchased electricity that are aligned with limiting global warming to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels.
Since 2021, My Green Lab – a non-profit dedicated to advancing environmental responsibility and sustainability in science – has published its “The Carbon Impact of Biotech & Pharma” report. Updated annually, the report draws on carbon emissions data collected by the Intercontinental Exchange to quantify the GHG emissions associated with the full value chain of the biotech and pharma industry.
The 2025 edition of the report includes data from 765 publicly listed and 290 privately held companies, evaluating their emissions compared to other industries and the extent of their target-setting in climate commitments.
While the largest of these companies are continuing to achieve yearly reductions in emissions, the overall pace of emissions reductions and scope of current targets in the sector still remains insufficient to fully align with a 1.5 °C target trajectory, the report warns.
Top firms report continued reduction in emissions
The biotech and pharma space is a source of significant technical and scientific innovations that advance society. However, the sector also has a significant carbon footprint; laboratories consume up to 10 times more energy and 4 times more water than standard office space.
When evaluating the carbon footprint of a company or an industry, it is important to capture its full carbon footprint – assessing both direct and indirect GHG emissions.
Emission scopes and carbon accounting
The GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard defines direct and indirect emissions under three categories, or Scopes:
- Scope 1 emissions: direct emissions from owned or controlled sources, i.e., company facilities and company vehicles.
- Scope 2 emissions: carbon emissions associated with purchased energy consumed by the company, i.e., electricity, heating and cooling.
- Scope 3 emissions: all other indirect emissions associated with activities upstream or downstream in a company’s value chain, i.e., purchased goods and services, transportation, end-of-life product treatments, processing of sold products.
For most industries, Scope 3 emissions are significantly larger than Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions combined.
According to the My Green Lab report, the top 25 biotech and pharma companies by revenue have continued to report yearly reductions in their emissions, achieving a 10% decline in Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions and 5% reduction in Scope 3 emissions.
However, overall carbon intensity numbers are still on the rise, largely driven by smaller companies and privately held firms. In 2025, the top 25 privately held companies reported a 3% decrease in Scope 3 emissions; across all 290 private companies included in the analysis, an overall emissions increase of 6% was recorded.
Commitments to reducing Scope 3 emissions still lacking
In 2025, the political and economic environment for biotech and pharma companies has become significantly more volatile, with tariff regimes, reduced federal research funding and policy shifts from the US Food and Drug Administration increasing levels of uncertainty in the sector. Simultaneously, shifts have also been occurring with regard to support for global climate policies; a UN Global Company and Accenture report from September 2025 notes that mentions of climate, clean energy and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) rules on earnings calls have dropped nearly 45% since their peak in 2021.
Yet still, against this backdrop, Net Zero commitments from pharma and biotech firms have passed a clear tipping point. Of the 146 companies with the highest quality of data disclosure included in this report, 52% (72 companies) have set medium-term targets for Scope 1 and 2 emissions that are aligned with a 1.5 °C warming limit. This is up from 46 companies in 2023.
As in many other industry sectors, the Scope 3 emissions intensity for biotech and pharma firms greatly exceeds that of Scope 1 and 2 emissions combined. According to the report, Scope 3 emissions intensity is 75% of total emissions intensity for publicly-listed companies and 88% for privately-owned companies using the highest disclosure quality data.
Digitalizing the Pharmaceutical GMP Laboratory Bench
Join this webinar to explore approaches to digitizing GMP laboratory workflows, from guided procedure execution and automated calculations to instrument integration and audit-ready records.View Webinar
However, the reporting of these Scope 3 emissions is not uniform across the board. Looking at historical data, there is a significant spike in Scope 3 emissions around 2018, due in part to a number of the largest companies by revenue beginning to include these figures in their emissions reporting. Currently, many smaller firms are still catching up on reporting this data, meaning there is a high degree of variability in reported Scope 3 emissions figures.
In order to reduce Scope 3 emissions, companies will need to work closely with their suppliers to incentivize the increased adoption of renewable energy, better end-of-life options for products and other measures. To support this, a number of collective-action initiatives have been launched by the largest pharma companies, aimed at simplifying sustainable purchasing and strengthening supplier requirements.
Life science as a Net Zero leader
Encouragingly, the biotech and pharma sector is continuing to make significant progress in the UN Race to Zero – a global campaign launched by the UN Climate Change High Level Champions to rally non-state actors to take immediate action in slashing emissions. Companies, cities and institutions taking part pledge to cut their total carbon emissions by 50% by 2030 and reach Net Zero emissions by 2050. Currently, 42 major biotech and pharma companies are participating in the campaign, up from 38 in 2024.
Since the publication of the first Carbon Impact of Biotech & Pharma report in 2021, 64% of the biotech and pharma companies in the Race to Zero campaign have started a green lab program, with 63% of those having now achieved a My Green Lab Certification for their lab operations at a global scale – including major sector leaders such as Biogen, IQVIA and AstraZeneca.
“Despite political and economic challenges, the life sciences sector continues to lead in setting ambitious climate targets and delivering yearly reductions in emissions,” the report concludes.
“As industries worldwide work to operationalize Net Zero pathways, the life sciences sector offers a scalable model for climate leadership grounded in data, accountability and coordinated supply chain action.”
Key report findings
- The top 25 biotech and pharma companies by revenue achieved an approximately 10% decline in Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions, and 5% reduction in Scope 3 GHG emissions. However, across the broader industry, overall carbon intensity is still rising, driven largely by smaller companies and privately held firms across the value chain.
- Zero-carbon commitments have passed a clear tipping point, with a majority (52%) of 146 companies included in this study having set medium-term Scope 1 and 2 targets aligned with a 1.5 °C pathway. But full Paris Climate Agreement alignment requires expansion of these targets to include Scope 3 emissions.
- The industry has launched a suite of collective supply chain initiatives aimed at reducing Scope 3 emissions – these currently represent 75% of total emissions for public companies and 88% for private companies, driven primarily by purchased goods and services.
- 42 major companies are now participating in the UN Race to Zero. Progress toward the 2030 Breakthrough Outcome is also accelerating: 64% of Pharma and MedTech members have begun My Green Lab Certification for lab operations, with 63% of those programs operating at a global scale.
Add Technology Networks as a preferred Google source to see more of our trusted coverage.
