For modern pharmaceutical sponsors and Contract Research Organizations (CROs), reducing corporate environmental impact requires looking closely at the vendor supply chain. Scope 3 emissions, which include the third-party software and cloud services powering clinical trials, often represent a significant portion of an organization’s indirect carbon footprint.
CRIO is built to address this challenge. As a 100% remote-first organization operating on a fully cloud-native infrastructure, we have structurally eliminated the carbon liabilities associated with traditional software companies. This document outlines how partnering with CRIO directly supports your organization’s upstream Scope 3 sustainability targets.
1. Minimizing Client Scope 3 Liabilities Through a Zero-Office Model
When evaluating software vendors, legacy on-premises infrastructure or carbon-heavy corporate offices represent passed-down carbon liabilities for your organization. CRIO bypasses this entire emission category by design.
CRIO’s remote-only model achieves significant baseline reductions:
- Zero Leased Office Footprint: By eliminating the need for a centralized corporate headquarters, CRIO avoids an estimated 23,000 square feet of office space. This completely removes the emissions tied to commercial HVAC systems, facility lighting, water consumption, and office waste management from our operational baseline.
- 1,610 Metric Tons of CO₂ Eliminated Annually: Keeping our 115 employees 100% remote prevents approximately 1,610 metric tons of CO₂ from entering the atmosphere each year.
- Virtual-First Engagement: CRIO minimizes business travel, the single highest emission source for professional services firms, by conducting client onboarding, sponsor interactions, and technical collaboration virtually.
Methodology Note: Our commuting avoidance figures are strictly calculated using the U.S. EPA average of ~0.411 kg CO₂e/mile for passenger vehicles, assuming an industry-standard 30-mile round-trip daily commute across 250 working days per year for 115 employees. Office space avoidance is based on the 200 sq. ft. per employee industry benchmark.
2. Data-Driven Transparency via Google Cloud Platform
Because CRIO runs entirely in the cloud, our primary technical footprint resides in the data centers hosting our platforms. To provide enterprise clients with absolute transparency, we anchor our technical infrastructure to Google Cloud Platform (GCP), allowing us to map our workloads to audited, regional carbon data.
Hyper-Efficient Infrastructure
By utilizing GCP, CRIO benefits from global infrastructure that has matched 100% of its electricity consumption with renewable energy annually since 2017, with a firm commitment to operate on 24/7 carbon-free energy (CFE) on every grid worldwide by 2030. Furthermore, Google data centers achieved a 2024 average Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of 1.09 compared to the industry average of 1.56. This means CRIO’s computing infrastructure requires roughly 84% less overhead energy than standard data centers.
Regional Carbon Tracking
We track and report the precise carbon profiles of our four distinct hosting regions based on Google Cloud’s 2024 annual sustainability disclosures. This enables your procurement teams to accurately map the grid intensity of the specific regions where your trial data resides:
| Hosting Region | Carbon-Free Energy (CFE %) | Grid Intensity (g CO₂/kWh) | Environmental Profile |
| Canada (Montreal) | 99% | 5g | Near-Zero Carbon: Maximizes clean energy hydro-grids for localized data processing. |
| EU West (Frankfurt) | 68% | 276g | Moderate Clean Energy: Balanced grid profile aligned with strict European environmental mandates. |
| APAC (Sydney) | 34% | 498g | Transitioning Grid: Active tracking deployed as regional infrastructure shifts to renewables. |
| US East 1 (South Carolina) | 31% | 576g | Baseline Grid: Standard domestic data residency utilizing regional grid mixtures. |
Note: CFE% represents the average hourly carbon-free energy percentage according to the Google Cloud Sustainability Region Carbon 2024 annual report.
3. Verified Governance: Independent EcoVadis Rating
We recognize that self-reported data is insufficient for enterprise-grade vendor compliance. To provide independent, evidence-based validation of our Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance, CRIO participates in annual EcoVadis sustainability assessments.
As the world’s largest and most trusted provider of business sustainability ratings, EcoVadis independently evaluates CRIO across four core dimensions:
- Environment: Validating our remote-first reduction methodologies and cloud-computing efficiencies.
- Labor & Human Rights: Ensuring equitable, diverse, and secure working standards across our distributed workforce.
- Ethics: Upholding data privacy, compliance, and transparent corporate governance.
- Sustainable Procurement: Assessing our own vendor network to ensure compliance echo-effects.
By aligning our sustainability reporting with external frameworks like EcoVadis and public GCP carbon data, CRIO provides life sciences companies with a verified, low-carbon vendor profile that integrates seamlessly into your global supply chain goals.