Bayer to Pilot Wunderman Thompson Commerce’s Sustainable Commerce Practice

Global life sciences enterprise Bayer has agreed to join Wunderman Thompson Commerce and Vaayu’s Sustainable Commerce pilot, the first business to commit to tackling two Sustainable Development Goals in digital commerce: Climate Action and Responsible Consumption & Production. 

The consumer health division of Bayer is a leading supplier of non-prescription OTC (over-the-counter) medicines, nutritional supplements, medicated skincare products and other self-care solutions in the categories of pain, cardiovascular risk prevention, dermatology, digestive health, allergy and cough and cold. Bayer will work with the retail focused, climate-tech expert Vaayu to develop new approaches that drive carbon reduction, from product to logistics. 

Vaayu is the world’s first and only carbon-tracking software and will allow Bayer to optimise its carbon footprint by providing access to automated, real-time data that delivers clarity on company emissions. Connecting via Bayer's point-of-sale system, Vaayu is able to accurately calculate the carbon footprint of daily transactions using its proprietary database of more than 600,000+ data points. 

By automating Bayer’s carbon footprint calculations across three key areas of commerce, including product, packaging and delivery, Vaayu will help identify carbon hotspots and provide reduction scenarios that empower tangible action. Using Artificial Intelligence and optimising business processes will enable Bayer to improve efficiencies, reduce packaging waste and green-house gas emissions. At the same time as lowering its impact on the environment, the data will inform a reduction in the cost to serve, ultimately allowing Bayer to reinvest these savings back into responsible consumption and production programmes. 

The target outcomes of the programme include cost savings, reducing CO2 emissions to meet environmental targets and improving transparency and access to information throughout the customer experience. The initial rollout will take place with flagship personal healthcare products and services in Germany, enabling Bayer’s Consumer Health division to test these new approaches and learn from them with a view to scale across other areas of the business. 

The Sustainable Commerce Practice was unveiled by Wunderman Thompson Commerce and Vaayu in December 2021 and launched to market officially in a closed beta in January 2022. The offering covers consultancy, creative, operations and technology services to support clients in reducing the carbon footprint of their digital commerce propositions and meeting the evolving needs of consumers. 

Dr. Andrea-Victoria Noelle, global director eCommerce at Bayer, said: “We are embracing this opportunity to pilot with Wunderman Thompson and Vaayu to reduce our CO2 footprint in eCommerce, while delivering continuous growth towards our business. Our vision at Bayer is ‘Health for All, Hunger for none’ and partnering with ventures such as Vaayu will further accelerate the delivery of our sustainability targets.” 

Ruth Zohrer, global chief client success officer at Wunderman Thompson Commerce, said: “We’re delighted to partner with Bayer’s Consumer Health eCommerce team to explore innovative ways to continue to deliver growth from digital commerce with less detriment to our planet. Realising carbon reduction – rather than offsets – has proven challenging for many companies but we have confidence that through our Sustainable Commerce Practice, powered by Vaayu, we can find ways to achieve this and get clients like Bayer closer to their Net Zero targets. The pilot is a true reflection of Bayer’s commitment to deliver eCommerce in a sustainable way, and our joint effort will hopefully reassure consumers that there is a commitment in place to drive genuine change. We’re still early in this journey, yet recognise tangible action is needed and hope this pilot will inspire others to reassess the impact from their commerce operations.”  

Namrata Sandhu, CEO and co-founder of Vaayu, added: “This is a really exciting moment for the Sustainable Commerce Practice and we look forward to providing the data-driven insights necessary to help Bayer mitigate carbon emissions across its global business. We believe that progress starts with collaboration and, alongside Wunderman Thompson Commerce, are proud to join forces with Bayer to power its commitment to reducing its carbon footprint. By accurately measuring and understanding carbon impact in real-time, it is Vaayu's mission to mobilise retailers with the tools and transparency needed to take tangible action at scale."