Our Sustainability Impact, Progress and Targets

Growing Our Sustainability Impact

As we commit to improving health and lives across our global communities, we also seek to take actions that will protect the environment and evolve our operations in increasingly sustainable ways. Human health and environmental health are interconnected—we strive to do our part to improve the planet’s health while we improve healthcare and the health of our patients.

As a next step in the evolution of Environmental, Social, and Government (ESG) factors at Labcorp, in 2021 we joined more than 2,000 businesses and financial institutions by committing to participate in Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). SBTi is a collaboration between CDP, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Nature.

By committing to SBTi, we are demonstrating our intent to reduce Labcorp’s carbon emissions at scale.

We Intend To:

Develop a science-based target aligned with the SBTi criteria
Submit the target to the SBTi for validation
Publish our approved targets within a maximum of 24 months

Our Operations

We are currently in the process of assessing our Scope 3 emissions and developing our targets and action plans. Scope 3 emissions are the result of activities from assets not owned or controlled by Labcorp, but indirectly impact our value chain. In preparation for our science-based target, we have identified six key drivers and seven functional areas we are focusing on to improve our performance:

Our Sustainability Drivers

Safety, well-being and comfort of employees, visitors and patients
Minimize the ecological impacts associated with operations

Reduce energy use within operations

Manage waste in the most environmentally preferred manner
Seek to improve the lifecycle impacts of purchases and assets

Reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with activities

Responsibly manage water consumption and lifecycle

Responsibly select and manage consumable materials

Sustainability Targeted Functions

Facilities design for construction and renovation
Facilities operations and Management
Laboratory operations
Sourcing and procurement
Information technology
Kit production and sample management
Courier and logistics

2021 Sustainability Highlights

We Established The Following Environmental And Sustainability Targets*:

* Targets are based on 2020 baseline levels, and are normalized as applicable for changes in operations and facilities.

Labcorp Environmental Impact

Despite COVID-19 creating increased demand for our operations and fleet, we are proud that our efforts to reduce Labcorp’s environmental impact netted an overall greenhouse gas emissions reduction of 4% and a 17% decrease in total energy consumed in 2020 compared to 2019. Those are significant achievements, and we plan to continue evolving our operations to do our part to protect the planet.

Labcorp has responded to CDP’s climate change questionnaire since the 2018 reporting period. We use the knowledge gained from our CDP participation to
refine our carbon and energy reduction strategy, including the setting of our carbon reduction goal.

The following annual GHG inventory was completed in accordance with the GHG Protocol: A Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (Revised Edition).

Labcorp Spotlight

Go Green Teams

Labcorp’s Go Green Teams aim to help our employees support local projects that link back to Labcorp’s broader approach to sustainability.

The Go Green Team’s mission is to:

Help drive local and global sustainability efforts
Use pilot efforts to help grow Labcorp’s sustainability efforts globally
Educate employees about the impact that lifestyle choices can have on the environment and offer employees easy opportunities to make eco-conscious choices both at work and at home

As an example, the U.K. Go Green Team, which includes more than 30 members, successfully implemented a polystyrene recycling program. The installation of polystyrene recycling equipment at Labcorp’s Harrogate site resulted in more efficient handling and processing of polystyrene waste.

Previously, polystyrene waste was collected twice per week, with each collection requiring approximately 40 miles round trip. With the new recycling equipment, the polystyrene waste is now compressed into small briquettes that weigh about four kilograms each. The briquettes are collected every four to six months and are recycled to be used in the construction industry.

Since its implementation, the equipment has paid for itself and has helped reduce our CO2 emissions.

Looking ahead, we plan to establish additional Go Green Teams at Labcorp sites around the globe.

Labcorp’s Sustainability Progress: CDP and EcoVadis Ratings

Beyond our annual corporate responsibility report, Labcorp proactively updates both internal and external stakeholders through other reporting channels. Labcorp prepares annual submissions to both CDP and EcoVadis, independent third-party assessors of Labcorp’s sustainability programs.

Labcorp publicly shares energy and emissions data in accordance with the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Protocol, as well as information about our environmental operations, risks and investments. Our current CDP rating is a B-, and we have specific programs in place to continuously improve that score over time. Our response is public information and is accessible through the CDP website.

In addition to answering the broader climate change questionnaire, Labcorp provides client-specific information to those who request it through the supply chain questionnaire.

EcoVadis covers more than 20 topics in the ESG space, and allows us to showcase broader social and environmental efforts across the enterprise. Different than the public response of CDP, EcoVadis is used by our clients and allows companies to assess the ESG performance of their global suppliers like Labcorp. EcoVadis provides individual scores on environment, labor and human rights, ethics and sustainable procurement, as well as an overall ranking. At the time of publication of this report, we achieved a bronze rating overall.

Shifting to Electric and Hybrid Vehicles

With more than 6,000 vehicles, Labcorp recognizes our opportunity to reduce our collective impact on the environment. To help combat climate change and reduce our fleet’s environmental impact, Labcorp plans to continue to increase our hybrid and electric fleet acquisitions and increase the fleet’s collective MPG by 10% over the next five years.

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly increased our daily test volume and the demands on our fleet for both specimen pickup and supply delivery. Our fleet’s ability to scale transportation and logistics assured that test specimens and critical supplies were delivered in a timely and secure manner.

Creating a more sustainable fleet is a key to our energy conservation and emissions reduction efforts.