AstraZeneca is partnering with Vanguard Renewables to enable the delivery of renewable natural gas (RNG) to all of its sites in the United States by the end of 2026.
AstraZeneca will begin purchasing RNG produced by Vanguard Renewables for its Newark Campus in Delaware. By 2026, this collaboration will enable as much as 190,500 megawatt hours (MWh) per year of RNG to be used across AstraZeneca’s U.S. sites, equivalent to the energy required to heat more than 17,800 U.S. homes for a year.
Pam Cheng, Executive Vice President of Global Operations & IT and Chief Sustainability Officer at AstraZeneca, said: “We recognize the interconnection between the health of people and the planet, and are committed to driving deep decarbonization across our operations and value chain. Our innovative partnership with Vanguard Renewables in the U.S. is an illustration of how we are collaborating at scale to deliver sustainable science and medicines, as part of the transition to net zero health systems and a circular economy.”
AstraZeneca is taking a science-led, patient-centric approach to deliver improved health outcomes with a lower environmental footprint. As heat and power are critical to the manufacture of medicines, the decarbonization of healthcare requires access to clean sources of heat, such as RNG.
This agreement will utilize Vanguard Renewables Farm Powered® process, allowing Vanguard Renewables to work with dairy farmers and food and beverage manufacturers, retailers and distributors to produce RNG using farm-based anaerobic digestion (AD) from food and dairy cow manure. Once the RNG is produced and captured through AD, it will be injected into existing natural gas infrastructure for use in AstraZeneca medicines research and manufacturing processes.
