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Environmental sustainability is a growing concern and the global pharmaceutical industry has undergone rapid change over the past decade with organisations urgently focusing on implementing sustainability activities.

More than 200 companies represent the global pharmaceutical market, yet only 25 consistently reported their direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions in the past five years. The pharmaceutical industry emission intensity is also about 55% higher than the automotive’s.

In an in-depth survey carried out by McKinsey in 2018, the top priorities for businesses are managing corporate reputation, capturing sustainability trends in the business portfolio and committing R&D resources to sustainable products. Healthcare and pharmaceutical executives stated a high importance in leveraging sustainability of existing products to reach new customers or markets and achieving higher prices or market share because if sustainable products.

Other areas of importance in the survey were improving employee retention/motivation related to sustainable activities, reducing emissions from operations and reducing energy, waste and water from operations.

About 80% of the pharmaceutical footprint is from the energy-intensive manufacturing process, and most of the remainder from sourcing raw materials. Even if electricity is generated from renewable sources, action is still required to reduce energy demand.

Whilst one of the greatest barriers to sustainable construction is cost, we are seeing some large organisations building new facilities that are essentially sustainable focused.

UK to get its biggest carbon capture plant in 2021, trapping 22,000 cars worth of emissions

Tata Chemicals Europe plans to build Britain’s most powerful carbon capture plant by 2021, which will stop the equivalent of 22,000 cars worth of emissions a year rising into the atmosphere. The £16.7m project – which will trap 100 times more carbon dioxide than the UK’s current largest facility

Johnson & Johnson’s super sustainable site in Belgium

Johnson & Johnson had a $40 million idea to build a system that could extract the vast reserves of hot water lying deep beneath the Janssen Pharmaceuticals (part of the Johnson & Johnson family of companies) campus in Beerse, Belgium, and use it to power everything on the site, from washing machines to air conditioners.

The geothermal energy initiative, which will help slash the site’s CO2 emissions by nearly one-third, is the first of its kind for Johnson & Johnson—and just one of the clever ways the company is investing in smart sustainability innovations across the globe.

Amgen

Total carbon emissions company-wide in 2018 decreased from 2017 after Amgen implemented carbon reduction projects that resulted in 7,500 metric tons (MT) of annual carbon emission reductions to achieve a total of 42,000 MT project-based reductions.

Below are other examples of the positive work being done by a number of organisations:

  • Vetter works – all German sites will be supplied only with CO2 energy
  • Indorama Ventures – increased recycled content and minimised environmental footprint thus winning coca cola sustainability award
  • Biogen – announced it achieved carbon neutrality by reducing its own emissions and investing in environmental projects.

With such forward-thinking companies making genuine changes to their policies and investing in making their business more environmentally friendly, they differentiate themselves and generate great credibility. Sustainability faces every company and with these fundamental energy saving costs being made within new and existing food and pharma, the Government target to reduce GHG by 80% in the built environment by 2050 may be achieved.

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