Pharma’s sustainability push continues as Merck signs renewable energy deal
The German pharma company’s agreement for its South Korea sites is the latest green initiative to be unveiled by the industry.
Merck has become one of the latest pharma companies to signal its commitment to manufacturing sustainability, signing a renewable energy agreement for its business in South Korea (pictured above).
Its deal with local green energy firm SK Innovation E&S will see the German pharma company’s life science sites in Daejeon and Songdo receive 16 megawatts (MW) of new renewable electricity capacity.
Tim Jaeger, Chief Strategy and Transformation Officer for Merck’s Life Science business said: “This agreement reflects our long-term commitment to manufacturing sustainability. By adding renewable electricity to the grid for our operations in South Korea, we are taking further measures to reduce our environmental impact and enabling our customers do the same.”
The 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) is Merck’s longest renewable energy commitment in the APAC region and the company said it “underscores its leadership in manufacturing sustainability as a driver of business innovation”.
The PPA is expected to be operational by late 2027, which will point SK Innovation E&A will supply around 21,000 megawatt-hours of electricity each, an amount that will provide approximately 75 percent of the pharma firm’s electricity demand from its Life Science business in South Korea.
Merck already has PPAs in place in Europe and North America as it works towards a 2030 target for 80 percnt of its purchased electricity from renewable sources.
Elsewhere in the industry, sustainability remains high on the agenda for many of the other big pharma players.
One of those is Bayer, which last week sent a delegation to the COP30 Leaders’ Summit in Brazil where they signed a letter of intent for a new form of rainforest-based carbon credit, the first of the tradable permits that can be bought directly from Latin American rainforest countries.
For its part Bayer said it was on track for all its electricity to come from renewable sources by the end of 2029, with its five production and two supplier sites in China to reach their 100 percent green electricity target by the end of next year.
This month has also seen Italian pharma group Chiesi complete the expansion of its French manufacturing facility for its new, greener generation of metered dose inhalers. Meanwhile, Takeda is investigating wind-powered logistics through a three-hulled ‘trimaran’ that’s been kitted out to ensure Good Distribution Practice (GPD) compliance and cold chain integrity.
