How Merck Links Sustainable Care to Global Health Outcomes

As a global healthcare and pharmaceutical company, Merck and Co (known as MSD in the UK) is paving the way to meet net zero, provide global health benefits and apply key focus areas to create a healthy, stable environment. 

“Our purpose to save and improve lives is inextricably linked to fostering a healthy planet. It’s why we embed our commitment to enabling a safe, sustainable and healthy future within our Corporate Strategic Framework,” says the company. 

As part of its environmental sustainability strategy, Merck is continuing to decrease energy demand and increase the use of renewable energy, all in order to positively impact the planet.

Energy increase and carbon decrease

Powering health starts with a healthy planet. 

Merck recognises that environmental sustainability underpins human and animal health, as well as the long-term resilience of its business. 

As part of its strategy, Merck is reducing energy demand while increasing renewable energy use to help cut its greenhouse gas footprint. 

Its renewable footprint is expanding through Virtual Power Purchase Agreements (VPPAs), long-term contracts that help bring new clean energy projects online and match electricity use with renewable sources. 

Since 2019, Merck has secured 209 MW of VPPA commitments across North America (118 MW) and Europe (91 MW), with its second US VPPA beginning operation in 2024 and a new solar project in Spain commencing in Q2 2025. 

To drive consistent progress across sites, Merck’s Global Energy Network for Improvement in Usage & Supply (GENIUS) programme provides tools and a structured framework focused on efficiency, effectiveness and collaboration. 

“Our long-standing commitment and focus on advancing access to health, operating responsibly and implementing strategies that protect the health of people, animals and the planet is unwavering,” says Robert M. Davis, Chairman and CEO of Merck.

“As we continue to navigate the rapid pace of change happening all around us, I am proud of the progress we’ve made thus far, and I remain optimistic about our future.”

Merck has committed to sourcing 100% of purchased electricity from renewable energy by 2025 and has reached 61% to date. 

It is also working towards net-zero greenhouse gas emissions across global operations (Scopes 1, 2 and 3) by 2045, aligned with the Science Based Targets initiative, supported by 400+ supplier partnerships that represented around 60% of its Scope 3 emissions in 2023. 

By the end of 2024, Scope 1 and 2 emissions were 16% below its 2019 baseline, while Scope 3 emissions were 6% below baseline, with a target of a 30% reduction by 2030.

Incorporating water stewardship

“Water is a key input to our manufacturing operations and we assess water risk throughout our network as a standard business practice,” says Merck.

Merck continually evaluates site-level waste disposal methods to better understand performance across its network, identify shifts over time and pinpoint risks and opportunities across the value chain. 

As part of this work, Merck is targeting a significant reduction in disposal impacts by aiming to send no more than 20% of global operational waste to landfills and incinerators without energy recovery by 2025, while also increasing to at least 50% of sites that send zero waste to landfill by 2025.

Access to clean water is equally central to Merck’s sustainability approach because it is vital for human health and a key input to manufacturing operations. 

Merck assesses water risk across its network as a standard business practice, recognising it may face water stress in some operating locations. 

Its global water strategy supports United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 6 on clean water and sanitation and is designed to deliver sustainable water management across operations and the supply chain. 

This includes ensuring wastewater discharges meet local and national standards as well as internal requirements, understanding and controlling its operational water footprint, managing water risk at facilities and within the supply chain and reporting publicly on water use and goals. 

Merck’s Water Management Standard requires sites to comply with relevant regulations, minimise discharge-related impacts, identify water reduction opportunities and assess watershed-level risk. 

Progress is overseen through site ownership supported by Merck’s Environmental Compliance Center of Excellence and Environmental Sustainability Center of Excellence, with cross-company teams providing additional support. 

To reduce water use, sites apply measures such as: 

• Integrating water considerations into process design
• Optimising cooling systems
• Maintaining steam distribution systems
• Recovering and reusing steam condensate and ‘reject water’ for non-potable applications
• Optimising process water purification systems
• Avoiding water use in mechanical seals where possible.

Nature and biodiversity care

Merck recognises that protecting and restoring nature and biodiversity is essential to a healthy planet and the Company’s long-term growth because nature provides critical ecosystem services such as air and water purification and genetic resources for medicines, all of which support human and animal health and Merck’s operations. 

Biodiversity also underpins nature’s resilience to environmental pressures including climate change so Merck views nature loss and climate change as interconnected challenges that must be addressed together, aligning its approach with the conservation objectives of the Convention on Biological Diversity. 

Merck supports biodiversity across aquatic and terrestrial environments by monitoring and tracking species, improving its understanding of: 

• Wild populations
• Survival rates
• Migration patterns
• Invasive species impacts.

The company also aids in providing medicines, vaccines and technologies that advance aquaculture and conservation, alongside solutions that aid the protection of species ranging from salmon and sturgeon to sea turtles, penguins and bats. 

Since 2016, Merck has also invested annually in habitat restoration and reforestation projects linked to its UN CEO Water Mandate Commitment, working with partners such as The Nature Conservancy and One Tree Planted to back initiatives near its sites.