AstraZeneca, Sanofi, Opella and UCB are now joint founders of the Clean Heat Program, an initiative aimed at cutting fossil fuel use for industrial heat in pharmaceutical production. The program covers more than 1,000 sites across the companies' supply chains and is managed by ERM and Secaro. It focuses on replacing natural gas boilers with heat pumps, biomethane, electrification, and other low-carbon alternatives, with efficiency improvements as a first step. Early examples include an Opella plant in Japan that cut natural gas consumption by 20 percent using smaller boilers paired with heat pumps, and sites in France and Brazil where gas boilers were replaced with heat pumps for hot water systems. The article also highlights an accounting challenge: electrifying heat can shift emissions from Scope 1 to Scope 2, depending on how purchased energy is reported. That makes data quality and methodology important for suppliers trying to show real decarbonization progress.
