Environmental Sustainability

For the past 100 years, West has been committed to working side-by-side with our customers to improve patient health. We are also committed to helping to create a healthier environment and to being good stewards of a sustainable future.

In the words of our founder, Herman O. West, we are committed to “Keep everlastingly at it” — and never stop working towards improving our impact on the environment. As our business has evolved, so have we. As the world evolves, so do we. Our Sustainability Program is designed to target reductions in the areas where we can have the greatest impact: CO2 emissions, waste and increased recycling, and energy and water use.

Over the past few years, the pandemic and continued growth of our core business resulted in historic growth in production for West. While this increase in production required an overall increase in energy and water use, our ability to adapt and continue to improve our efficiencies has resulted in a higher output of product per unit of energy and water used.

• In 2022, we saw steady improvement in our Energy Intensity, bringing us to 12% improvement, and well on our way to achieving our 2023 goal of 15%.
• For Emissions, we made a 4.1% improvement over 2021, and have plans in place to help us meet our goal by the end of 2023, despite a significant increase in production over the 5-year period of this metric.
• We made continuous progress against our Water Target, achieving a 6.7% reduction in water intensity versus the baseline year.
• We continued to focus on Landfill Diversion. In 2022, 83% of our waste was recycled, and we are exploring ways to increase this amount towards reaching our goal in 2023.

In 2022, West was recognized by several organizations, serving as a testament to our commitment to caring for our environment. These recognitions include being named as one of Barron’s Top 100 Most Sustainable Companies and one of America’s Most Responsible Companies by Newsweek. In addition, West was honored with several regionally focused awards, including a Corporate Societal Excellence Award in Singapore and Global Public Service Award in Ireland.

West is a signatory to the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), which affirms our commitment to fiscal transparency and to being a leader in addressing the current climate emergency. In addition, West is a proud member and active participant with the Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI) and is a signatory of the PSCI Principles, aligning with their vision for excellence in safety, environmental, and social outcomes for the global pharmaceutical and healthcare supply chain.