Sustainability in Pharma: A healthier and cleaner future
Croda Pharma
Empowering drug delivery with the highest purity excipients and innovative solutions.
Human health and planet health are interlinked.
Climate change resulting from global warming is now widely recognized as the biggest threat to global health. The climate and nature crisis are a threat that impacts mental, cardiovascular, and respiratory health and drives malnutrition, allergies, and more.
The climate crisis poses a significant threat to human health, with the healthcare industry itself contributing over 4% of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.
In recent years, the pharmaceutical market has shifted its focus towards sustainability. Manufacturers recognize the threats posed by weak supply chains and interruptions to critical raw materials due to extreme weather and the depletion of natural resources. Sustainability is often defined as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own. It encompasses three pillars—the environment, economy, and society's needs—and is a long-term goal that requires action from individuals to global entities.
The pharma industry is strongly positioned to tackle sustainability challenges by reducing the need for treatment, reducing hospitalisation, and providing equitable access to medicines, but the pressure is on to do more. The Sustainable Markets Initiative Health Systems Task Force called for greener, more efficient, and circular healthcare supply chains, setting supplier targets to drive value chain decarbonization, last year. Addressing this topic empathetically is crucial, as joint, large-scale action is needed to make significant progress in sustainability.
Understanding carbon emissions and the need for reduction
The current level of carbon dioxide (CO2) in our atmosphere is the highest it has been in almost a million years, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels. This increase in CO2 leads to an enhanced greenhouse effect, trapping heat energy from the sun and warming the planet. This warming causes climate change, which can have devastating effects. Climate change is real and human-caused, but if we take action and work together to reduce emissions, we can limit and even avoid some of its worst effects.
Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Accounting
GHG accounting tracks a company’s emissions, divided into three categories:
o Upstream emissions: Occur before materials arrive at the organization.
o Downstream emissions: Occur after materials leave the organization.
Tracking Scope 3 emissions is challenging due to its broad scope but is essential for an effective climate strategy. The GHG protocol requires companies to track and report Scope 1 and 2 emissions, but accounting for Scope 3 emissions is crucial for identifying sustainable changes to reduce GHG emissions and slow global warming.
Defining Net Zero: our commitment
Under the 2015 Paris climate agreement, 197 countries agreed to try to limit global temperature rises to 1.5 °C by 2100. To achieve this, greenhouse gas emissions need to fall by nearly half by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050, according to the UN's climate body, the IPCC. Many organisations in the pharmaceutical industry have made public commitments to be Net Zero by 2050 and some a decade ahead of this.
While it may be impossible to completely stop using and emitting carbon dioxide, we can minimize our impact by balancing emitted GHGs with equivalent sequestered emissions. This state, known as net zero, should primarily be achieved through rapid carbon emissions reduction rather than relying on offsetting. Climate science suggests that human-caused emissions should be reduced as close to zero as possible and offsetting limited to a maximum of 10% of an organisation's baseline.
The role of product carbon footprints
As many organisations in the pharma industry commit to net zero aspirations, product carbon footprints enable the tracking and tracing of decarbonisation actions taken through the supply chain.
Product carbon footprints are a mechanism to allocate an organisation's GHG accounting to the products and services it provides to its customers. As the organisation takes specific actions to reduce its emissions, the product carbon footprint will decrease, lowering customers' scope 3 emissions.
As part of Croda, we are guided by our purpose, Smart science to improve lives. Our Commitment is to be Climate, Land and People Positive by 2030. We are already Land Positive: our crop and seed technologies save more land than is used to grow our bio-based raw materials. We now aspire to contribute to a Nature Positive world by 2030, working towards our goal of becoming the world’s most sustainable supplier of innovative ingredients.
References
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Sustainability for vaccines. Available on
Sustainability response letter. Available on
Product carbon footprint data. Available on
The life sciences carbon journey. Available on