Natural Resource Conservation

Water

Water scarcity and quality issues are global concerns; however, the challenges regarding water must be managed at the local level. At Takeda, we’re working to understand our water impacts across our company, site by site, so that we can focus our efforts at the locations where we can make the most meaningful difference. Understanding our water impact goes beyond measuring water consumption and includes assessing local water risk — looking at factors such as access to water challenges, regulations, biodiversity, future demand and seasonal fluctuations in water availability.

Currently, we assess local water risks using the World Resources Institute Aqueduct and WWF Water Risk Filter Tools, which indicate that approximately 22% of our manufacturing sites are located in areas considered to have “high” or “extremely high” water risk. Remaining manufacturing sites are in areas considered to have “low” to “medium” water risk. This mapping process will help us target and prioritize our efforts.

We have a long history of reducing water consumption in our manufacturing facilities by investing in water-efficient equipment and processes, as well as by maximizing water reuse where possible. These initiatives will continue as we pursue our environmental sustainability goals. Since the processing of water requires significant amounts of energy, many of these initiatives have the benefit of not just saving water, but also reducing energy and associated GHG emissions. We’re proud that, as a result of these efforts, we achieved our 2020 water stewardship goal ahead of schedule, allowing us to establish a new context-based water stewardship strategy, which includes the following long-term goals:

• By FY2021, Takeda will establish mitigation plans, risk-reduction goals and water conservation goals for 100% of sites with high water-related risks.
• By FY2025, Takeda will reduce water consumption by 5% from a FY2019 baseline.

In 2019, we withdrew 11,114 thousand cubic meters of fresh water and discharged 8,175 thousand cubic meters. Water consumption was due to inclusion in finished product, site cooling and irrigation purposes.

Wastewater and chemical substances

Takeda manages the quality of effluent wastewater in line with the following principles:

• Prevent negative effects on people and the ecosystem.
• Comply with applicable laws and regulations.
• Manage wastewater proactively, based on scientific evidence, substance concentrations and environmental toxicity.

We handle a wide variety of chemical substances, including our pharmaceutical products, and we manage these substances in ways that minimize emissions in line with our policies. This includes better understanding and limiting the potential impact of APIs and the larger issue of Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (PiE) from our manufacturing and R&D operations.

We manage requirements for PiE in our manufacturing facilities through robust waste management and wastewater treatment processes, while complying with national, state and local discharge regulatory obligations. We partner with and communicate our EHS requirements to our contract management organizations (CMOs) to prevent the release of hazardous substances and byproducts into the environment. We comply with regulatory requirements to perform environmental risk assessments and toxicological and safety assessments to evaluate and build in environmental and patient safety as  part of our marketing authorization applications in the U.S. and internationally. We continually review regulatory requirements for products we manufacture internally and through CMOs, to minimize the impact on the environment.

In addition to proactive waste management and wastewater treatment processes, Takeda also collaborates to address PiE and antimicrobial resistance (AMR). For example, Takeda is part of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA) consortium that is involved in developing a position and roadmap for addressing PiE at the industry level.

Additionally, due to the increasing number of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics, Takeda is one of more than 20 leading biopharmaceutical companies that have launched the AMR Action Fund, a groundbreaking partnership that aims to bring two to four new antibiotics to patients 
by 2030. The Fund is working on two primary areas of focus:

• Bolster and accelerate the research and development of antibiotics through investment and sharing of industry resources and knowledge with biotechnology companies.
• Create a unique, collaborative platform with support from multilateral development banks, philanthropic funders, other impact funds and strategic partners to facilitate policy reforms to create an environment that encourages long-term investment into antibiotic R&D.

Waste

We work to reduce the amount of waste sent to landfill, first by limiting the amount of waste we generate and then by reusing what we can and recycling the rest. We’ve set a goal to achieve zero waste-to-landfill status for all major locations² by 2030.

In 2019, Takeda generated 74,108 tonnes of waste, of which 71% was recycled. An additional 9% was diverted from landfill via incineration without energy recovery or via other treatment technologies.

Many of our sites have begun finding innovative solutions that not only reduce waste, but also help reduce energy and associated GHG emissions. For example, Takeda’s Thousand Oaks, California, U.S., site introduced the AeroSafe® 18L and 39L ISC shipping solutions, which are reusable while offering a simple pack-out and maintain temperatures between 2-8°C. With vacuum-insulated panels and phase-change material, they can be refrigerated to extend their life, making them a “green solution” that will help reduce our carbon footprint.

² Major locations include manufacturing, R&D sites, BioLife plasma donation centers and major commercial office locations.

¹ Changes in FY2019 waste management percentages compared to past performance are attributed to the harmonization of waste tracking reporting practices after the integration of the Shire acquisition.

Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Performance Data — FY2019