Pfizer’s Journey to Net Zero: Interview with Fred Turco

“Sustainability is giving more than you take.”

Fred Turco

Fred Turco is Vice President of Enterprise Indirects and Sustainable Sourcing Lead at Pfizer. In the latest episode of the PharmaSource podcast he explains how the company is making progress towards its targets by collaborating with suppliers.

Fred leads Pfizer’s Enterprise Indirects, with a team that operates across 85 countries and 300 facilities. They manage the majority of indirect spend for the company, and play a key role in driving sustainability initiatives forward.

Speaking to the PharmaSource podcast he shares his advice for how to be a successful procurement business partner and how Pfizer are making real-world progress towards a more sustainable business.

A commitment to Net Zero

Pfizer has committed to being net zero by 2040 and has signed up to the science based target initiative –  the third-party non-government organisation that defines science-aligned targets and reduction for greenhouse gas emissions across three scopes: scope one (direct emissions from owned or controlled sources), scope two (indirect emissions from the generation of purchased energy), and scope three (all other indirect emissions that occur in the value chain).

Pfizer’s scope three emissions, which are largely from suppliers, account for approximately 75% of its footprint, so the company has to focus on the supplier side to achieve its net zero goal by 2024.

Pfizer work with “45,000 suppliers who collectively generate 1 Trillion USD annualised  revenue” says Fred, explaining the opportunity they have to drive change in the supply chain.

Sustainable sourcing strategies

Fred explains that procurement adds real value in the sustainability journey by influencing the supply chain and working with a large network of suppliers that have a significant environmental and social impact.

Some of the main levers that they can pull to reduce supplier emissions include:

Segmenting suppliers based on their spend and emissions, and identifying the few hundred suppliers that contribute to the majority of the emissions.

“In our case there are a few 100 suppliers from the 45,000 that dictate almost 80% of overall emissions. So the first thing is understanding that and segmenting those suppliers.” he says.

Engaging with suppliers and assessing their maturity level on a scale of one to five, based on their emission understanding, public commitments, and reporting.

Improving the baseline maturity of suppliers and integrating it into the supplier relationship management programme which includes performance management, SLAs, KPIs, and selection criteria.

Improving data quality and accuracy is important. He explains how they are in the process of taking a cohort of roughly 400 suppliers, and working with them to have them submit their actual emissions and then incorporate that with Pfizer’s emissions going forward.

When it comes to setting financial incentives to suppliers based on hitting sustainability targets, Fred says it’s something they have debated that quite a bit but it became clear that for the suppliers “the juice really isn’t worth the squeeze”.

“What we’ve done instead rather than direct is to support through pharmaceutical, environmental group such as PSCI and other initiatives cross industry collaboration. “

Subscribe to the PharmaSource podcast for regular insights into how to build a smarter, more sustainable supply chain.