Sustainability - at the heart of what we do

Chrissy Leslie, Senior Director, Corporate Sustainability, Equality Ambassador

Across our network of companies globally and regionally in North America, Eurofins has made a significant amount of progress related to our Environmental, Social and Governance initiatives.

At the global level, our 2022 ESG Report is published on our Corporate Sustainability website. At Eurofins, we believe that sustainability is at the heart of what we do. We are guided by our vision to be the global leader in Testing for Life, our mission of contributing to a healthier and safer world, and our core values that provide a strong foundation towards Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) initiatives.

Eurofins’ commitment to sustainability starts within Eurofins Companies themselves, through a shared responsibility towards people and the planet. Through our testing and certification work, we serve as an ESG enabler for our customers across numerous industries by assessing, monitoring, and limiting the negative impact of their activities on the environment or society, while constantly innovating better technology to detect threats to the health of people and the planet. The result is that more companies are able to meet Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria, which are a set of sustainability and ethical standards for a company’s activities.

Related to our own ESG focused actions, Eurofins has made great strides in 2022 to continue to reduce our impact on the environment, improve our efforts towards diversity, equity and inclusion, foster meaningful career advancement and development opportunities for our employees, and drive sustainable procurement and supply chain management. In addition, Eurofins Foundation continues to contribute to communities across the world through its philanthropic efforts. Refer to our 2022 ESG Report for a more detailed explanation about the results achieved in 2022.

Eurofins will look to make further progress in 2023 as we work together to embrace and comply with the forthcoming European legislation to implement the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) in fiscal year 2024.

At the local level, our US-EBPT sites actively support the Eurofins target to become carbon neutral by 2025 as well as driving actions to improve wellness, diversity and inclusion, and giving back to the communities where our sites are located. In April 2023, the US-EBPT 2022 Sustainability Report was published, which highlights many of the key actions taken in 2022. These include:

• Measured and reported carbon footprint data for all required Scope 1, 2 and 3 categories for all US-EBPT sites included in the 2022 reporting scope.
• Partnered with My Green Lab^® to begin the certification process for 20,000 ft² of lab space at the Lancaster, PA, site. In addition, provided education and visual tools at all US-EBPT sites to implement energy saving behaviors such as “Shut the Sash” and “Turn Off” initiatives. Furthermore, all sites either have converted to 100% LED lighting or are in the process of completing these upgrades.
• Two electric shuttles were introduced into the Lancaster, PA, on-site fleet in May 2022. This will result in an estimated savings of 8.16 tonnes CO₂e annually.
• Sites participated in local events such as LGBTQ+ Pride activities, the YWCA Race Against Racism, blood drives, fundraisers to support veterans, and various volunteer STEM initiatives for students.
• The US-EBPT scope showed score improvement in all areas surveyed in the annual Equality Driving Excellence (EDE) survey (e.g. career advancement opportunity awareness, company support in career development, opportunities for career advancement regardless of background (gender, ethnicity, disability, LGBTQ+/sexual identity or gender identity), work/life balance support, and welcoming to diverse talent).

As we look towards making further progress in 2023, the US-EBPT sites will continue to explore ways to reduce our carbon footprint, focusing on renewable energy sourcing, laboratory equipment upgrades, and more efficient waste management through enhanced recycling efforts and reduced solvent and reagent use where possible. Greener, alternative methods for employee commuting will continue to be encouraged and incentivized (e.g. installing EV chargers and bike racks, facilitating carpooling, public transportation and/or remote work opportunities).

The health & wellness of our employees will remain a top priority. All sites, in collaboration with local Equality Champions, EHS teams and wellness and social committees, will set goals and drive improvements in 2023. This will include providing education and enrichment opportunities to the teams and implementation of local actions to support diversity and inclusivity.

Finally, collaboration with our customers will play a key role in how we can work together moving forward to meet mutual ESG targets through sustainability engagement plans, test method improvements, and diverse supplier qualification requirements.