At Oxford Nanopore, we take immense pride in our commitment to fostering a sustainable future. Through energy efficiency, eco-conscious product design, and a holistic approach to responsible practices, we aim to protect the planet by continuously reviewing and improving our sustainability efforts.

Responsible practice for a sustainable future

We strive to grow in a responsible way, by protecting the planet through energy efficiency, product design, and ensuring that our commitment to sustainable practices extends beyond our internal operations to encompass our entire value chain.

We are fully committed to:

  • Reducing the carbon intensity of our operations with a target to reduce the tonnes of CO2e emitted per £m revenue by 2.5% in 2023.

  • Setting out a detailed plan by the end of 2023 to achieve net zero.

  • Aligning our EHS programmes with the international standards for the environment and occupational health and safety by 2024.

  • Continuing to work with key suppliers on social and environmental factors and updating our procurement process to focus on ESG and risk.

Find out more in our FY22 sustainability report.

Responsible Scaling

At Oxford Nanopore, our devices contribute to research designed to analyse, assess, and develop solutions to address the impacts of climate change, which affect us all globally.

We are mitigating against, climate change risks and impacts, through commitments to improved efficiencies throughout our operations, including in our buildings and value chain.

We are actively working to prevent pollution — the reduction of waste, releases, emissions, and water use — and ensure the efficient use of energy.

Energy & Greenhouse Gas

For the year ending 31 December 2022, we aimed to reduce the tonnes of CO2e emitted per £m revenue by 2%. We have successfully reduced tonnes of CO2e emitted per £m revenue by 25.47% in 2022. In 2023, we have set an updated target to reduce the tonnes of CO2e per £m revenue by 2.5%.

For the first time, in our FY22 report, we reported against all material categories of our Scope 3 emissions. Our reporting of Scope 1 and 2 emissions and energy data covers 100% of our global operations. Furthermore, our reporting of Scope 3 emissions covers 100% of our upstream and downstream value chain.

Additionally, we are analysing our shipping and distribution processes to increase our energy efficiency and reduce emissions related to our distribution chain.

Environmental performance

Within all our operations, we aim to reduce, reuse, and recycle waste. We also reduce the waste associated with distribution by using Woolcool®, a recyclable cardboard container with a wool-based insulator, which keeps devices at the required temperature without the need for polystyrene. We encourage customers to return their used products in the same packaging, which allows us to reuse or recycle the materials, creating a closed-loop system.

Another process in place to reduce waste is our Winchester bottle collection scheme. Previously incinerated, the bottles are now collected by our suppliers and sent for recycling. In addition, we resold a significant number of our used FPGAs (semiconductors) and GPUs (graphics processors) from returned devices to third parties, rather than disposing of them.

During 2022 we installed LED lighting at two facilities on our Oxford campus and we will be implementing further LED upgrades in 2023, whilst investigating the feasibility of solar panel installations for several of our facilities.

We have undergone an Energy Savings Opportunities Scheme (ESOS) to determine where energy efficiency improvements and reductions are possible at our headquarters in Oxford, while also encouraging employees to join workplace energy reduction initiatives, such as our ‘Cycle to Work’ commuter bicycle program.