Honoring Earth Day: Reflecting on Our Sustainability Journey at Ultragenyx
Every year, Earth Day offers a moment to pause and reflect on our impact on the planet and consider how we can make a positive difference.
Ultragenyx is committed to responsibly managing our environmental footprint and advancing sustainability across our operations. We aim to reduce our impact and improve our performance in ways that benefit our employees, patient and physician communities, the localities where we work, and the broader environment.
This Earth Day, we’re taking time to look back on the progress we’ve made, the insights gained along the way, and how these learnings continue to guide our approach to environmental sustainability.
Caption: Ultragenyx team members participating in our 2025 Global Days of Service activity in Massachusetts
Reaffirming Our Strategic Focus:
In 2025, we surveyed key stakeholders to evaluate our corporate responsibility materiality assessment conducted in 2021 and remain committed to the established pillars: Innovation, Patients, People, Communities, Planet and Governance. This framework helps guide the allocation of our resources toward initiatives that we believe support the creation of long-term value and positive impact for our shareholders and society.
Improving Lab Sustainability: Building a Culture of Sustainability in Science
Laboratories are the foundation of scientific innovation, but they also have a significant environmental footprint1. Enhancing the sustainability of lab operations at Ultragenyx remains a key focus area of our environmental strategy. After achieving the highest level of My Green Lab certification at our Translational Sciences lab in Novato, California in 2024, we expanded our efforts by initiating the certification process at our Somerville, Massachusetts laboratory in 2025.
Participating in My Green Lab helped us:
- Identify where small behavioral shifts can have outsized impact
- Build shared ownership of sustainability within lab teams
- Strengthen the connection between scientific excellence and environmental responsibility
Waste Partnerships: Reducing our Impacts and Improving Circularity
Reducing laboratory waste is a key component of our environmental strategy. Over the past year, we continued to strengthen our waste partnerships with organizations such as Polycarbin, Red2Green, and RightCycle to reduce our lab waste and support diversion and circularization programs.
These collaborations help us reduce single use plastics, improve recycling pathways, and support innovative solutions that transform traditional waste streams into valuable resources.
Together, these efforts reflect our commitment to responsible resource management and continuous improvement across our operations.
Expanding Our Use of Renewable Energy: Aligning Local Action with Global Sustainability Goals
We continue to increase our use of renewable electricity across our operations. At our Novato, California headquarters, we procure ~100% renewable electricity through Marin Clean Energy’s Deep Green program, sourcing Green‑e® certified solar and wind power. This reduces emissions associated with our electricity use and supports the City of Novato’s Climate Action Plan 2030, which aims to reduce statewide emissions 40% below 1990 levels by 2030.
At our Gene Therapy Manufacturing Facility in Bedford, Massachusetts, we participate in the Bedford Community Choice Aggregation program, which supplies ~100% renewable electricity from MA Class I sources on the New England grid.
The transition to renewable energy is not only an emissions reduction strategy, but it is a way to align our operations with the climate goals of the communities where we work. These partnerships have shown us that local action can meaningfully contribute to global progress, and that sustainability is strengthened when we collaborate with regional energy providers and align with municipal climate initiatives.
Inaugural Climate Risk Assessment: Understanding the Bigger Picture
In 2025, Ultragenyx completed its first Climate Risk Assessment to better understand how climate-related risks and opportunities may impact our business, operations, and stakeholders. The assessment evaluated both physical and transition risks across all Ultragenyx facilities and select key supplier locations.
Completing our first Climate Risk Assessment in 2025 helped us step back and look at sustainability through a broader lens. Beyond reducing our footprint, we also need to understand how climate change may affect our operations, supply chain, and stakeholders.
This work emphasized the importance of anticipating future challenges, strengthening resilience across our facilities, and integrating climate considerations into long‑term planning, reminding us that environmental stewardship is not only about mitigation, but it is also about preparedness.
Water Stewardship: Recognizing a Growing Global Challenge
Recognizing the growing global challenge of water scarcity, in 2025 we launched a Water Stewardship program to better understand and manage our water-related risks. Using the World Resources Institute’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas Tool, we conducted a comprehensive Water Risk Assessment across all owned and leased facilities, evaluating multiple indicators with a focus on water stress.
This work helped us better understand the increasing importance of water resilience, as well as identify where we can strengthen water management practices and ensure responsible use of water as a resource.
Looking Ahead: Our Commitment to Sustainability Continues to Evolve
Earth Day 2026 reminds us that sustainability is a continuous journey. This past year has shown us that progress is strongest when it is integrated across our operations, supported by strong partnerships, and grounded in long‑term thinking. Our initiatives, from lab sustainability to climate and water risk assessments, have helped us better understand our environmental impact and the opportunities ahead.
As we look forward, we remain committed to advancing our environmental initiatives, deepening our collaborations, and continuing to embed sustainability into the way we work every day. Additionally, we remain committed to sharing our learnings to support sustainability across the industry as well as learning from others when we can. We welcome fellow sustainability professionals to connect with us through [email protected]. We invite you to join us in celebrating Earth Day and striving for a more sustainable future.
For more information on Ultragenyx’s sustainability initiatives, please see our Corporate Responsibility page: https://www.ultragenyx.com/ultra-committed/corporate-responsibility/
1. Freese, T., Elzinga, N., Heinemann, M., Lerch, M. M., & Feringa, B. L. (2024). The relevance of sustainable laboratory practices. RSC Sustainability, 2(5), 1300–1336. https://doi.org/10.1039/d4su00056k
