Climate change

Climate change is a real threat to society, which will affect everyone on the planet. The need for concerted action is clear. At RB, climate change continues to be a material issue and we are committed to driving change; to making more with less, reducing the emissions of our operations and our products across their lifecycle.

At RB, we take a value-chain approach to understanding and managing our climate change risks and impacts. This is based on carbon lifecycle modelling and we prioritise our efforts to address the biggest risks and opportunities in our operations.

Our strategy involves taking action right across the footprint of our products; implementing energy-efficient production processes, investing in purchased and on-site renewable energy, and advancing our sustainable innovation programme. We have joined the RE100 initiative, a collaborative, global initiative to drive change in renewable energy.

You can read more about our analysis of our impact on climate change in our ‘Climate change’ Insight.

Understanding risk

In recognition of Science Based Target setting and recommendations from the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), we reviewed our current climate change strategy and targets in line with various scenarios. Our materiality review supports our current and developing strategies and operational activity on energy and water, and climate change more broadly.

You can read more about our work identifying and understanding climate change risk and our strategy to combatting it in our ‘Understanding climate change risk’ Insight.

Our 2020 goals and progress

Goal: 40% reduction in GHG emissions from manufacturing by 2020
Progress: 35.2% reduction in GHG emissions from manufacturing*

Goal: 35% reduction in energy consumption by 2020
Progress: 22.6% reduction in energy consumption*

Goal: 100% renewable electricity by 2030
Progress: 30% of manufacturing sites sourcing renewable energy

Goal: 1/3 reduction in our carbon footprint per dose by 2020
Progress: 4% reduction in our carbon footprint*

*since 2012

Greenhouse gases

We are committed to reducing the greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions produced as a result of the manufacturing process of our products; improving energy efficiency, increasing our use of renewable energy and focusing on the design of our products to minimise the climate change impact.

Greenhouse gases

Energy-efficient lighting at RB Mexico

RB’s plant in Chihuahua, Mexico, was able to reduce its warehouse’s energy consumption by 50% after installing sunlight ‘domes and tubes’ and highly efficient replacement lighting.

The ‘Solatubes’ collect, multiply and project natural sunlight into the warehouse, removing the need for electrically powered lights.

Roof-mounted solar power at Mauripur

At our factory in Mauripur, Pakistan, we’ve increased our use of renewable energy with an installation of a 107 KW high efficiency roof-mounted poly-crystalline solar system. The system is designed to operate during day time (off-peak hours) in parallel with the local electricity grid, providing the site with clean power and reducing its GHG emissions.

Mucinex Fast-Max

The Sustainable Innovation Application helped to identify some surprising carbon, water and packaging savings for these Cold, Flu and Sore Throat Caplets. The product was originally available in a bottle but incorporating Sustainable Innovation at the forefront of our development process helped to identify that the caplets are almost 95% lighter, saving more than 80% of greenhouse gas emissions and more.