Our Commitments to Water Stewardship
As part of Sanofi’s Planet Care program, and commitment to limiting our impact on Nature, our strategy for water stewardship is based on:
- Sustain our water withdrawals at 15% less than 2019 (baseline year);
- The recognition that water challenges are specific to each watershed and need to be addressed at local level, we are implementing water management plan (WMP) supplemented by context-based targets on all our manufacturing sites by 2030;
- A focus on priority sites, presenting higher water-related risks, such as increased water scarcity, where we have implemented water management plans (WMP) in 2025;
- The continuous assessment of water-related risks; and
- Improved knowledge of the water footprint of our products.
As a public engagement Sanofi signed the pledge to the CEO Water Mandate and is a member of the Alliance for Water Stewardship. Our water roadmap is aligned with their guidelines and standards to ensure sustainable and responsible use of water.
The Different Uses of Water
Water is used in Sanofi’s operations for both domestic needs (like irrigation, drinking water, and sanitation) and industrial applications including drug synthesis, pharmaceutical formulation, heat transfer systems and cleaning applications. Sanofi relies exclusively on freshwater, with approximately 77% of its total withdrawals supplied by third parties (municipal or industrial), 9% that are directly abstracted from surface waters (lakes and rivers) and 16% from groundwater.
Sanofi internally promotes water recycling and reuse practices to reduce its water footprint, such as harvesting rainwater and reusing water in cooling systems and for irrigation. As of 2025, 171 sites are engaged in water recycling practices. Programs are underway in India, Belgium, and Italy to further increase our wastewater recycling capacities2.
Sanofi’s Water Risk Assessment Program
Sanofi’s Water Risks Assessment Program (WRAP) provides a comprehensive overview of risks (of which water stress) potentially impacting our direct operations. Based on the 2020 campaign, 5 priority sites located in Algeria, India, Mexico, and China were identified. As per company commitment, each site must prepare a specific action plan including:
- Internal or external audits on water use, comprising a detailed water balance and a review of the performance of major water systems;
- The identification of opportunities to improve water efficiency considering recycling solutions, the modernization of key equipment, revision of operational procedures and the improvement of water monitoring;
- The definition of context-based water targets to better understand local water challenges so relevant actions are implemented.
In 2025, Sanofi completed a comprehensive WRAP refresh, incorporating updated water stress projections to reassess risk situation across all sites and identify emerging water challenges requiring targeted action plans.
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Between 2020 and 2025, the number of priority sites identified increased from 5 to 8 revised sites. This evolution reflects a methodological change: while the 2020 campaign relied on a global water risk indicator, the 2024 campaign shifted its focus to water stress as the primary basin-level indicator, based on the World Resources Institute (WRI) AQUEDUCT database.
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As a result, priority sites are in Algeria, Mexico, China, Belgium, Canada, Egypt, Italy.
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The new priority sites identified in the last WRAP exercise are expected to follow the same methodology approach used by previous priority sites to develop their water roadmap and address their local challenges.
Sanofi works closely with its suppliers to address water security across its value chain, conducting risk assessments amongst key suppliers, sharing good practices in water management, and performing regular HSE audits, including on water and wastewater management. In 2025, 91 audits were conducted, identifying findings across three primary areas: wastewater treatment and discharge, API and chemical contamination, and infrastructure and equipment. Corrective actions and continuous improvement initiatives are systematically implemented and monitored through collaborative oversight by Procurement and External Manufacturing leadership.
Details on HSE supplier audit can be found in our sustainability statement.
Management of Wastewater
Details of Sanofi’s management of emissions to water, including pharmaceuticals in the environment considerations, can be found on the page Industrial Emissions to the Environment.
Our Performance in 2025
- Total amount of water withdrawals: 8,5 millions m3.
- 29% reduction of our global water withdrawals (vs. 2019 baseline)3.
- 4 sites, with very high water-stress, have implemented their water balance and context-based water targets.
- Our emissions of Chemical Oxygen Demand (COD) released by our sites have decreased by 16% (baseline 2019).
References
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Number of sites has been restated following the change in scope in 2025 (divestment of Opella)
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France project not mentioned as it was linked to a divested site. Canada project was delivered.
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Our water withdrawal reduction objective of 15% was achieved ahead of the schedule, thanks to the implementation of water-saving solutions (start-up of a water recycling plant at our production facility in Belgium, and improvements to our research and production platform in the Ile-de-France region), which delivered better-than-projected outcomes. Sanofi will continue to improve the efficiency of our processes, however, as our targets are based on absolute volumes, projected business growth and industrial development may limit further improvement.
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In 2025, following the refreshed WRAP assessment, 5 new sites were added to our list of priority sites and 1 was removed.