Environmental stewardship position statement
Learn about Bristol Myers Squibb's commitment to environmental stewardship and its efforts to reduce environmental impact, conserve natural resources, and support a more sustainable future.
Purpose
At Bristol Myers Squibb, we recognize the intrinsic connection between human health and environmental well-being, and acknowledge our obligation to limit the environmental impact of our operations while ensuring continued access to our medications for patients. As we transform patients’ lives through science, we believe that access to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, including clean air and water, is a universal human right. This position statement serves as BMS’ formal articulation of our environmental stewardship program, defining our governance approach, strategic priorities and commitments for managing environmental risks and opportunities across our global value chain It includes our positions on nature, climate change, emissions reductions, renewable energy, water stewardship, waste management, pharmaceuticals in the environment, responsible sourcing and how we engage our stakeholders. Links to additional resources are provided for further detail, where available. |
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Our ambitions
At BMS, the identification and evaluation of environmental risks and opportunities is fundamental to building business resilience — and central to our commitment to environmental stewardship We strive to support a healthier planet by reducing our environmental impact, better understanding our dependencies on nature and increasing the transparency around our actions. Our legacy of pioneering life-changing science drives our aspirations to advancing human health. We recognize the vital connection between healthy ecosystems and thriving communities, as emphasized by the World Health Organization. We continually review and assess our ambitions and progress to ensure we remain aligned with our business while delivering against our objectives.
We understand that our operations — from research and development to clinical trials, to manufacturing and distribution — impact the world around us, and we are working to address these challenging environmental issues at each stage. We have designed and implemented environmental goals that not only reflect our science-led, innovation-focused approach, but also uphold accountability to those we serve through strong governance and transparent reporting practices.
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Environmental stewardship
At BMS, Environmental Stewardship is our approach to responsibly managing our environmental impacts across our value chain — reducing emissions, protecting water and natural resources and minimizing waste. It reflects our desire to advancing human health by mitigating our impacts on the environment while working to adapt to the environmental changes that may come.
While we recognize that specific forces affect climate and nature individually, the shared pressures, dependencies and risks necessitate a unified approach to our environmental stewardship strategy. Our work in developing a climate-related transition plan integrates our current understanding of nature impacts and dependencies as a first step in articulating a holistic environmental stewardship ambition for BMS. Expanding our understanding of nature impacts and dependencies enables us to better identify the nature-related pressures most relevant to our business. We will continue to evolve our plan to enhance business resilience to risks posed by climate change and nature degradation as our approach to environmental stewardship matures.
Environmental stewardship governance
Our approach to corporate governance includes thorough and thoughtful oversight of our Sustainability and Social Impact (SSI) practice, ensuring engagement and alignment with BMS’ Board of Directors, senior leaders and with support from key functional areas. As a result, our SSI strategy and the related governance practices are closely aligned and integrated with our Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) process.
We take a holistic approach across our entire value chain to evaluate environmental risks and opportunities. We utilize climate and nature scenario analyses as one of our tools to understand potential dependencies and impacts, aiming to ensure we are responding responsibly to mitigate and manage these risks. This approach to risk management helps protect our operations and creates value for stakeholders, including our patients, employees and the global communities where we operate
The governance of our environmental stewardship strategy is designed to drive action and accountability, at the Board level and throughout the organization, by integrating environmental considerations within business decisions. The Board and relevant committees are responsible for overseeing the Company’s environmental stewardship strategy, including climate-related strategies. The Executive Vice President of Product Development and Supply is the Environmental Executive Sponsor, and receives, at minimum, quarterly updates about environmental progress.
Our Environmental Advisory Committee is a cross-functional group with sponsors and leaders from key sustainability-related business units and functions. This group is pivotal in fostering cross-functional collaboration, integrating our sustainability initiatives across the enterprise and supporting transparent disclosures of our efforts.
Our SSI Strategy & Reporting Steering Committee works to ensure BMS is prepared for regulated environmental, social and governance disclosures that accurately reflect our material matters. This sub-group includes Corporate Financial Reporting, Business Controls, Corporate Governance, Internal Audit, Sustainability and Social Impact and Legal. Our most recent Double Materiality Assessment (DMA) engaged a group of internal and external stakeholders to better understand the impacts, risks and opportunities most relevant to the company and the communities it serves. Insights from these stakeholders informed the identification and prioritization of topics as part of the double materiality assessment process. You can learn more about our material matters in our most recent double materiality assessment.
BMS maintains an Inventory Management Plan (IMP) to outline our environmental data management and calculation approaches for developing organization-wide annual inventories across energy, waste, water, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
Our inventory is developed in alignment with the GHG Protocol, with additional guidance from the Science Based Target initiative (SBTi), Corporate Net-Zero Standard and the RE100 Technical Criteria. The IMP is reviewed annually and updated as necessary. For all environmental sustainability reporting, we utilize an Operational Control Approach (as defined by the GHG Protocol). Our boundary includes all facilities equal to or greater than 1,000 square feet in countries with aggregate Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions at or above 100 mt CO₂e, Countries below the 100 mt threshold may also be included where required by regulatory mandate or market tender obligations. These inclusions are estimated to represent more than 99.8% of total company-wide emissions, consistent with the GHG Protocol's materiality principle.
Environmental performance data is collected from various subject matter experts (preparers and reviewers) following our standardized data collection, aggregation process. Data is collected from across the organization, and ultimately utilized to calculate organizational-wide inventories. Annually, we assure environmental data (GHG Emissions, Energy Usage, Water Withdrawal and Discharge) through a third-party auditor prior to publicly reporting. Results of the assurance process, and discussions with the assuring organization help us to enhance our processes year over year.
Climate mitigation and climate adaption
Our approach to climate risk management is forward-looking and designed to help us navigate emerging challenges while capitalizing on the opportunities created by the global shift toward a low-carbon economy. This focus equips us with the knowledge to make better business decisions that support a sustainable future. We continue to build our practice of conducting climate risk assessments that incorporate a range of scenarios and time horizons, reflecting our commitment to robust strategic planning. These assessments are grounded in the latest scientific data and methodologies, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Representative Concentration Pathways, the Shared Socioeconomic Pathways and the International Energy Agency, which inform our understanding of potential physical and transition risks. Our climate risk assessment is a continuously evolving process that encompasses a wide scope, including an enterprise-wide approach across multiple geographies. This allows us to identify and prioritize risks and opportunities across our diverse portfolio.
Supporting our belief that a healthy environment is critical to human health, our climate-related targets were approved by the SBTi in 2024. BMS has set an ambitious goal to reach net-zero GHG emissions across our value chain by 2050, based on a 2022 baseline. In the near-term, BMS aims to reduce Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions and Scope 3 GHG emissions (from fuel and energy related activities) by 54.6% by 2033 and engage 75% of our suppliers, by emissions (Scope 3 categories 1, 2, and 4), in their development of science-based targets by 2028.
Please see our Environmental Stewardship Report (based on IFRS S1 and S2), located within our transparency and reporting page for more detail on our identified physical and transition risks and opportunities and our scenario analysis. You can also find more detailed information on our climate risks and opportunities in our most recent CDP Response.
Reducing emissions through energy efficiency and cleaner energy
Our environmental stewardship strategy includes implementing significant carbon reduction solutions across our largest facilities, measured by environmental impact. This includes rethinking the way we consume energy, developing low carbon-emitting solutions, leveraging building automation systems and advanced technologies, transitioning to an electric commercial fleet, working with suppliers to reduce emissions across our value chain and the procurement of renewable energy.
We have set a target to achieve 100% of purchased electricity from renewable sources in our operations by 2030. We expect to achieve our target by building on our current renewable energy portfolio, using virtual power purchase agreements and other renewable instruments as an important part of our strategy.
Please see our most recent Building a Better Future Report and Climate Change Report located within our Transparency and Reporting page for progress, details on projects, opportunities we have identified that contribute to energy efficiency and our shift towards renewable energy.
Please see our most recent Building a Better Future Report and Climate Change Report located within our transparency and reporting page for progress, details on projects, opportunities we have identified that contribute to energy efficiency and our shift towards renewable energy.
Water stewardship
We recognize that water is a vital part of our medicines, from development to manufacturing. This is why we've implemented a comprehensive approach to water stewardship that combines reduction, prevention, monitoring and adaptive risk management. Through proactive identification and management of water-related risks and opportunities, we protect our ability to serve patients while supporting the communities where we operate. Water stewardship ensures business continuity through the protection of the ecosystems we depend on, allowing us to lower resource intensity.
Across BMS’ global footprint, we adhere to stringent corporate standards that govern water use and wastewater discharge. We start with clean, efficient pharmaceutical manufacturing processes that aim to decrease our water withdrawal while minimizing the volume and composition of wastewater, and provide effective and appropriate treatment as required by local laws, regulations and permit conditions. Treatment may be provided at our facilities and/or at authorized third party treatment facilities.
BMS is aligning with Alliance for Water Stewardship standards at our facilities in areas of high or extremely high water stress. We have established water reduction roadmaps for our top five water-using facilities that contribute to approximately 70% of our total enterprise water withdrawals. This helps enable our operations to reliably develop life-saving medicines in water-stressed regions.
Please see our most recent Building a Better Future Report for progress, details on projects and opportunities we have identified that contribute to water efficiencies. You can also find more detailed information on our water-related risks and opportunities in our most recent CDP Response.
Waste management
Pharmaceuticals in the environment
Managing the environmental impact of medicines throughout their lifecycle helps to protect human and environmental health. By implementing standardized pharmaceutical discharge standards and collaborating with industry partners, we work to minimize the risks of pharmaceuticals in the environment (PiE) while conducting business in a safe and environmentally sustainable manner.
BMS recognizes that active pharmaceutical ingredients have the potential to affect human health and the environment if not properly managed. Trace amounts of pharmaceuticals have been found in the environment for decades, but with advancements in environmental monitoring, the number of pharmaceuticals identified has increased. The primary source of pharmaceuticals reaching the environment is expected to be through human use and subsequent excretion into wastewater systems. To a lesser extent, additional sources of PiE include the improper disposal of unused medicines and manufacturing effluent discharge.
Please see our Pharmaceuticals in the Environment Global Position Statement for more information.
Responsible sourcing
We source a wide range of materials, ingredients and inputs to produce life-saving therapies for patients. Our approach to supplier engagement rests on a foundation of transparency, mutual trust and shared commitment to business ethics while helping to ensure compliance with policies and regulations and optimizing the end-to-end process. Recognizing that our environmental impact extends beyond our own operations, we work collaboratively across our entire value chain to drive meaningful progress. Suppliers are the backbone of our business. They are also our most critical lever for influencing environmental impact. From sourcing and manufacturing through logistics and distribution, each stage of our value chain represents an environmental responsibility — and an opportunity to innovate.
Approximately 70% of our global emissions come from our supply chain (Scope 3), primarily through purchased goods and services, capital goods and upstream transportation and distribution. These emissions represent a significant environmental challenge and an opportunity for meaningful decarbonization.
BMS partners with trusted suppliers who bring quality, expertise and experience to the table. Together, we work with purpose to discover, develop and deliver medicines that help patients overcome serious diseases Our Responsible Sourcing Program is designed to provide enhanced visibility of our suppliers' environmental and social risks and performance and to encourage continuous improvement across the BMS supply chain through ongoing management and engagement.
For more information on responsible sourcing, please visit our Supplier page, view our Responsible Sourcing handbook, or view our Supplier Code of Conduct (Standards of Business Conduct and Ethics for Third Parties).
Stakeholder engagement
Stakeholder engagement is an integral part of our efforts to achieve our mission. We recognize that discovery, development and delivery of innovative medicines to address unmet medical needs are improved by partnership and understanding of stakeholder needs and expectations. Our stakeholders include patients and the broader healthcare community, caregivers, our employees, business associates, government, non-governmental organizations, investors, academics, industry organizations, patient advocacy groups, suppliers and the communities in which we operate.
Engagement with our stakeholders provides opportunity for greater understanding of emerging issues, trends and expectations, fosters increased trust and support and provides synergies. Addressing stakeholder expectations and emerging issues as part of business strategy facilitates the sustainability and success of our company.
Please see our Stakeholder engagement page, as well as position statements on individual topics to learn more about how we engage our stakeholders.