Meet the 2025 ISPE 2025 ISPE Facility of the Year Awards (FOYA) Category Winner for Social Impact, Sustainability Excellence: Sanofi
ISPE
Sanofi Toronto manufactures and distributes up to 100 million pediatric and adult vaccines for infectious diseases such as diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus each year. The Toronto site has been in continuous operation since 1914 and consists of more than 30 buildings across a 52-acre site. Sanofi is a leading research and development company and the largest vaccine producer in Canada, protecting millions of Canadians and people around the world from infectious diseases.
Sanofi’s ambition is to tackle the impact of environmental challenges on health and healthcare by focusing its key sustainability efforts on improving equitable access to healthcare, reducing the environmental impact of its products and activities, and transforming the delivery of care to reduce health systems’ environmental footprint.
The new Wastewater Treatment and Reuse Plant (WWTRP) enables Sanofi to reduce the environmental impact of its activities, while adapting the business to environment changes. The WWTRP is equipped with state-of-the-art technologies and innovative engineering solutions, setting a new sustainability standard for the industry. The plant includes a raw water lift station, two equalization tanks for storing and chemically treating high-strength wastewater, a flocculation tank, a dissolved air flotation (DAF) tank, two membrane bioreactors (MBRs), and an advanced oxidation system utilizing ultraviolet irradiation and hydrogen peroxide. The treated water is sent to the reuse tank where the water can be sent to double pass reverse osmosis (RO) system to produce high purity boiler feed or sent to municipal sewer. The plant is fully controlled and monitored by a supervisory control and data acquisition system, which allows for comprehensive data management and remote control, ensuring optimal operation and efficiency. The reuse water generated by the WWTRP provides business continuity and reliability to the steam plant while significantly reducing the site’s water consumption contributing to Sanofi’s sustainability goals.
The facility stands out due to its vertical construction, necessitated by footprint constraints, and its use of RO filtration to produce boiler feed water, an uncommon practice in industrial wastewater treatment plants. The building features two green roofs, energy recovery ventilators, variable frequency drives, and an odor control system that captures and treats foul air. The WWTRP has successfully achieved its design intent successfully treating all types of wastewaters produced at the site and has the capability of producing up to 500m3 per day of high-purity reuse water for boiler feed makeup.
The site for the WWTRP was strategically selected to minimize visual impact on the neighboring residential area and optimize operational logistics. The building's east façade presents an aesthetically pleasing view to blend seamlessly with the other state-of-the-art and historic manufacturing buildings on campus, while the west side allows for discreet delivery access such that operations can continue unencumbered.
The WWTRP exemplifies Sanofi's dedication to sustainability. By incorporating best practices in environmental, social, and economic sustainability, the new facility not only enhances operational efficiency but also contributes positively to the community and the environment.
Based on these innovative ways of working and implementing this project in a safe and sustainable manner, Sanofi is recognized as the 2025 ISPE FOYA Category Winner for Social Impact in Sustainability Excellence, for their WWTRP project in Toronto, Canada.
About the Social Impact Category
Winners in this category exemplify application of novel approaches, standards and practices which result in efficient processing, resourceful utilities and business advantage by: Accelerating a shift to sustainable facility design, intended to ensure the effective use of energy, minimize waste, reduce carbon footprint, incorporate green manufacturing techniques, and reduce environmental impact or increasing patient access and preventing drug shortages through in-country-for-country manufacturing; outbreak, epidemic, or emerging health crisis response via rapid deployment and fast- track drug production; and designs which overcome specific geographical challenges.> Join the 2025 FOYA Banquet and Awards Celebration.
Established in 2005, the FOYA program recognizes state-of-the-art projects utilizing new, innovative technologies to improve the quality of products, reduce the cost of producing high-quality medicines, and demonstrate advances in project delivery. The FOYA program provides a platform for the pharmaceutical science and manufacturing industry to showcase its accomplishments in facility design, construction, and operation, while sharing the development of new applications of technology and cutting-edge approaches.
ISPE delivers technical and operational solutions to support across the global pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industry in the manufacture of quality medicines for patients.
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