Summary
Details
- Global
All suppliers and third parties working with, for, or on behalf of AstraZeneca must comply with the environmental expectations in the Code of Conduct for Third Parties. However, climate disclosure & target-setting, and broader ESG requirements apply at defined thresholds:
- Suppliers with annual spend of ≥ USD 1.3 million with AstraZeneca are expected to participate in annual CDP climate data disclosure, including greenhouse gas emissions covering Scopes 1, 2 and 3.
- Suppliers with annual spend of ≥ USD 250,000 must achieve an annual EcoVadis rating score above 45.
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Introduction
AstraZeneca’s Code of Conduct for Third Parties extends the company’s sustainability values into its supply chain, requiring suppliers to align with principles of environmental compliance, impact reduction and transparency. This supplier code supports AstraZeneca’s Ambition Zero Carbon strategy — a comprehensive climate programme launched in 2020 to accelerate decarbonisation across its operations and value chain.
Under Ambition Zero Carbon, AstraZeneca committed to eliminating greenhouse gas emissions from its own operations by 2025 and becoming carbon negative across its entire value chain by 2030, with significant strategic investments and targets verified under science-based frameworks.
Because the company’s Scope 3 emissions (value chain emissions) represent the vast majority of its climate footprint, engaging suppliers on emissions measurement, disclosure and reduction is a core pillar of the strategy. The supplier code’s environmental and climate disclosure expectations (including CDP reporting and science-based targets) directly support this overarching ambition by helping AstraZeneca and its partners manage and reduce indirect emissions.
Reporting requirements
AstraZeneca’s environmental expectations combine foundational controls (compliance and pollution prevention) with climate disclosures and decarbonisation signals that are increasingly used across global pharma supply chains. Suppliers are required to understand and minimise the environmental impacts of supplied products/services and provide data publicly or provide data that enables AstraZeneca to report environmental footprints. Climate and disclosure expectations include:
Science-based targets: set science-based GHG reduction targets covering Scope 1 & 2 and value chain Scope 3, using SBTi/GHG Protocol frameworks.
SBTi validation milestone (one-time): suppliers that have committed but are not yet validated are directed to obtain a validated target by the end of 2025.
CDP Climate Change disclosure: suppliers with annual spend over $1.3m are required to complete CDP’s climate questionnaire, within annual submission timelines communicated by the organization.
Annual Ecovadis rating: suppliers with whom AstraZeneca spends over $250,000 annually are required to achieve an annual EcoVadis rating score above 45.
Consequences of noncompliance
As a private company standard, AstraZeneca’s leverage is primarily commercial and contractual rather than statutory fines. In practice, consequences may include:
Reduced sourcing opportunities: the Supplier Sustainability Hub explicitly notes that failure by suppliers to attend to disclosure requests may affect sourcing decisions, thereby reducing business opportunities.
Preferred Supplier List: AstraZeneca states it maintains a Preferred Supplier List for suppliers meeting compliance and sustainability requirements; failure to meet expectations may put preferred status at risk or prevent inclusion.
As stated in the Code, suppliers are expected to demonstrate ongoing improvement in sustainable business performance throughout their relationship with AstraZeneca. The Code is designed as a development pathway, supporting suppliers to progress towards world-class sustainability performance. AstraZeneca emphasizes collaboration in this process, covering governance, operations, reporting, and the extension of equivalent standards across suppliers’ own supply chains.
Current status
AstraZeneca’s supplier code of conduct is being robustly implemented, administered by its Global Procurement team with structured monitoring, threshold-based reporting and engagement tools. Beyond compliance checks, the company runs active sustainability initiatives — partnering with platforms like Secaro to help suppliers measure and reduce operational emissions and with ERM on heat-efficiency decarbonisation programs that deliver tailored roadmaps, abatement savings and implementation pathways. These initiatives reinforce clear expectations and tangible support for supplier progress.
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