Sanofi Australia Embracing Solar Power

Major medicines and vaccines supplier Sanofi Australia has jumped on the renewable energy bandwagon in a big way – and isn’t done yet.

Established in 1980, Sanofi Australia is part of a global healthcare organisation employing more than 100,000 people across 170 countries. The company says 95% of young Australians will have had a Sanofi vaccine by the age of five, and 25% of Australians one of Sanofi’s flu vaccines. Beyond medicines and vaccines, Australians may be more familiar with its consumer healthcare brand Nature’s Own (vitamins and dietary supplements).

The company is also helping to protect human health in a different way – through the use of solar power.

Sanofi recently unveiled a rooftop solar installation at its Brisbane-based consumer healthcare manufacturing campus consisting of 1,500 solar panels. The official opening was attended by Federal Minister for Aged Care and Federal Minister for Sport Anika Wells MP.

“As the Federal Member for Lilley, it’s wonderful to see businesses in our local area acting on climate change and prioritising green energy to help future-proof our community,” said Minister Wells.

More Solar Panels To Come

Sanofi Australia plans to expand capacity at its Brisbane campus to 3,000 panels next year, which will include the construction of solar car park arrays. Also to be installed are charging points for electric vehicles.

The completed project is expected to generate 2 gigawatt-hours of clean electricity annually; more than 25 per cent of the site’s annual electricity requirements. For electricity consumption not covered by the installation, that will be purchased from the grid from an (unspecified) renewable source.

The final capacity of the Brisbane installation wasn’t mentioned, but working back from annual production of 2 GWh for a solar system installed in Virginia, Brisbane puts it at around the 1.2MW mark (guesstimate).

Working Towards Net-Zero Across All Scopes

Globally, Sanofi says it is committed to switching to renewable energy and achieving carbon neutrality by 2030, and hitting net-zero by 2050 across all “scopes”. There are three scopes of emissions:

• Scope 1 – direct emissions from sources an organisation owns or controls
• Scope 2 – indirect emissions associated with generation of energy purchased
• Scope 3 – all indirect emissions not included in scope 2 that occur in a company’s upstream and downstream value chain

 “As a healthcare company, we recognise that climate change presents one of the greatest challenges of our age and that environmental action, taken by everyone, is a key to protecting the health of people worldwide,” said Country Lead, Sanofi Australia & New Zealand Karen Hood.

This isn’t just about tree-hugging and human health though. No doubt the company will save a bunch of bucks by installing panels as commercial solar large and small is a no-brainer decision  these days for any business with a suitable rooftop.

It’s been really encouraging watching Australia’s healthcare sector embracing solar energy – it was just yesterday we also reported on a major solar rollout for Ramsay Health Care in Australia.