Huvepharma is vertically integrated, meaning we have complete control over our production. Sustainability or ESG (environmental, social, and governance) initiatives are not new to the company. Huvepharma is continuously investing in reducing the environmental impact (fossil fuels, water resources, air pollution) we have as a company.
There are four critical utilities used throughout the fermentation process and in downstream processing that require quite some energy or natural resources. They are:
Decarbonisation
The first logical step towards decarbonisation is improving the efficient use of existing resources. As a vertically integrated company, our R&D and production teams are continuously looking for and implementing process optimisations and improvements all along the production chain. To give you an indication, over the last 10 years we have already invested more than €1 billion in state-of-the-art production equipment, making the facilities very resource efficient!
Nevertheless, even with these improvements, we still require energy. In 2020 we chose to decarbonise our production facilities, and we aim to reach that goal by 2030. We have planned a total investment of €300 million for renewable energy installations to ensure that we are self-reliant and autonomous for our energy needs.
In 2022, we started an ambitious project to install a 300 MW solar plant by 2030. We have currently installed nearly 100 MW of capacity which covers around 35 % of our electricity needs. We also operate biomass co-generation plants that allow us to feed 45 - 50 % of our used energy back into our production processes. By the end of 2024, around 35 % of our total energy use will be produced by renewable energy sources, from facilities owned and operated by ourselves.
Since the start of the project in 2020, our production facilities have already reduced their carbon emissions by 30 %. Our carbon intensity (expressed as kg CO2 eq / k€ revenue) has gone down by 44 %. This is a good additional indicator to track, since it considers business growth which was 24 % over the same period. An advantage of controlling the full production process is that we can combine our production efficiency efforts with renewable energy investments. We still expect significant improvements in the future as we further roll out our plan.
For example, in 2025 we will focus investments into battery storage equipment to maximise the use of the installed solar plants. In this way, electricity generated during the day can be used during the night as well. Geothermal plants will be another point of focus to reduce our dependence on natural gas. In the future, a green hydrogen plant is also in the plan, but we first need to optimise the use of our solar-generated electricity before using it to produce green hydrogen.
Air and water
Huvepharma has always valued its relationship with the local communities where it operates. It has always been a priority for us to use air and water resources efficiently and responsibly, and not have a negative impact on the citizens living around our production sites. Looking at the last 5 years, we have seen a 28 % reduction in our absolute water usage for production. Considering a business growth of 28 % in the same period, we reduced our water intensity (expressed as m3/k€) by 42 %. At the same time, we maintained a water re-use and recycling percentage of, on average, 76 %.
The next step will be to investigate the feasibility of further reducing our water usage and investigate how we can increase the re-use and recycling of our water.
In the past 5 years we have seen a significant drop in other emissions we emit from the waste treatment and production plants in Bulgaria. The emission of harmful air pollutants like nitrogen oxide (NOx), sulphur oxides (SOx), particle matter (PM) or total organic carbon (TOC) were reduced by 78 %, 76 %, 40 % and 57 %, respectively.
All these efforts eventually result in a lower environmental footprint for our products which is a big benefit for our customers. We believe it is our responsibility to provide life cycle assessments (LCAs) of our products. For 25 of them, we already offer an LCA analysis including enzyme products OptiPhos® Plus and Hostazym®, feed additives B-Act®, Bio D® and Flavomycin®, anticoccidials Monimax® / Monicox®, Sacox® and Coxidin® / Poulcox®, and some products from our veterinary range including Pharmasin®, Tilmovet® and Huvamox®. Last month, we finalised the first LCA for one of our hygiene products, Prophyl® S. By the end of the year, we plan to finish five more product LCAs.
Although we control the entire production chain, we still rely on suppliers to help us achieve targets beyond our manufacturing footprint. Through our supply chain teams we are already engaging with our suppliers, outlining our sustainability goals and explaining why they are important to us, as well as asking them about their sustainability efforts.
Ultimately, we are part of the livestock value chain and would like to contribute to a global food system that is resilient, efficient, and capable of meeting the needs of a growing population without depleting natural resources.