As a new company, Scripta has taken the opportunity to implement an Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) strategy from day one, and to place it at the core of operations. It can be difficult to change company culture once it becomes ingrained, and so we seized the opportunity to do things differently, not just in what we do, but also in how we do it.  

As a small company, it can be seen as onerous to implement ESG initiatives when there are so many other critical things that need to be done. But our experience has been that taking the time to think about appropriate metrics and implement initiatives at the start makes everything a lot easier.   

Accountability is key. Everyone in Scripta is part of an ESG initiative and has an individual annual ESG performance goal. This has helped to create a constantly improving set of initiatives which are owned by the team. For example, as highlighted in a case study from Recycle Labs, we have diverted almost half a tonne of single-use plastics from incineration in just over a year, significantly cutting our incineration collections.  

Experimental science inevitably generates waste. But by integrating best-practice recycling from the start, we have made minimising the environmental impact of our labs standard practice.   

This, alongside other sustainability initiatives, combine to create sizeable impact. For example, we have also introduced temperature and periodic power consumption monitoring to monitor electricity usages across laboratory  spaces, introducing efficiency measures to reduce energy consumption (e.g. equipment shut down protocols introduced during periods of non-usage), and even installing lab window reflector film to reduce solar heat gain, reducing air conditioning load.  

Our differentiated approach to drug discovery also relies on high-performance computing, including using GPUs. By partnering with Amazon Web Services (AWS) through its Activate programme, we have significantly reduced the carbon intensity of our computing: across a six-month period, we saw an approximately 73% reduction in emissions relative to a grid-average mix. It’s helpful to track these emissions through AWS's Sustainability platform allowing us to report accurately in line with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol international standard, and to identify ways to optimise both cost and environmental footprint.  

ESG is about more than sustainable practice. As set out in our Values, we work as one team to pioneer new ways of thinking about drug discovery and human biology. We’re building a stronger team by recognising and celebrating the diversity we have, while implementing recruitment and day to day working policies to enshrine equal opportunity.  This will inevitably create stronger and more sustainable foundations on which our science is built. 

As Emily Matthews, OSE's Responsible Investment & ESG Manager, notes: 

“The Scripta team's commitment to sustainability has been clear from the outset. In just its first year, the company has prioritised practical sustainability considerations across laboratory operations, hiring, and governance practices." 

We are proud of the progress we've made so far. Focusing on ESG from the start has given us a firm foundation on which to grow as we look to the future, to the therapies that our platform will yield, and to the world in which we live.  

If you’d like to hear more about our experiences of implementing ESG policies as a start-up, or more generally about what we do and why we do it, please do get in touch.  

Recycle Labs case study: https://recycle-labs.com/whats-going-on/f/case-study-scripta-therapeutics 

OSE Sustainability Report: https://sustainability.oxfordscienceenterprises.com/