How life sciences companies are evolving sustainability strategies 

The life sciences sector is facing a more complex sustainability landscape shaped by evolving regulation, growing customer expectations and pressure to improve resilience across operations and supply chains. Companies are responding by treating sustainability less as a stand-alone reporting exercise and more as a business issue tied to market access, product development, procurement and long-term value creation.

The EY benchmarking analysis covered 18 companies across biotechnology, life sciences tools and services, medical devices and instruments, and pharmaceuticals.

Across the benchmarked companies, several patterns stand out:

• Strategy: All benchmarked companies have a sustainability strategy, and most have board-level oversight. Fewer fully embed sustainability into their core strategy and decision-making, with the strongest performers linking sustainability to measurable goals, risk management and leadership accountability.
• Reporting: Reporting is becoming shorter, more focused and more data-driven, with greater use of dashboards, key performance indicators and progress tables. Many companies increasingly prefer the term sustainability over environmental, social and governance (ESG), especially in the US, reflecting political sensitivity around terminology rather than reduced emphasis on environmental and social performance.
• Product innovation: Companies are increasingly linking sustainability to product development and R&D, especially through sustainable design and packaging. Sustainable packaging is the most mature area, while lifecycle assessments and product carbon footprints are gaining importance. Green chemistry remains an emerging opportunity.
• Supply chain: Supply chain sustainability is becoming a procurement priority, with companies embedding sustainability criteria into supplier selection and using digital tools and due diligence to improve transparency and risk management.