A collection of articles highlighting the pharma industry's sustainability initiatives.
Down the sustainability road
The journey toward a greener future is one we must all take together, and manufacturing industries play a big role in the solution. Research sites and manufacturing facilities can be among the highest energy consumers, doubling the resource consumption of corporate office space. While pharma’s road to sustainability comes with unique challenges, the industry’s efforts will have a big impact, inspiring sustainability throughout the supply chain. Read more.
Reuse, review, refine
With supply chain issues continuing to ebb and flow along with staggering inflation and early warning signs of a recession, consumers are thinking differently in this post COVID landscape. Additionally, expectations that manufacturers implement greener processes without dramatically increasing costs are only rising. Read more.
Pharma: Green with envy
Borrowing tactics utilized in other industries, such as third-party resource management, secondhand equipment and LEED building concepts, pharma is now hustling down a greener road. And the even better news is, when the pharma sustainability wind blows, it carries with it all the stakeholders in the industry’s tightly-knit supply chain. As greener practices are mirrored by all parts of the interconnected pharma manufacturing network, sustainability will grow and thrive. Read more.
Upping your wastewater treatment game
Fortunately, as pharma companies hone environmental, social and corporate governance strategies, sustainability improvements — specifically in wastewater management — are helping these entities demonstrate responsible operating practices that benefit both the global community and the bottom line. Read more.
Engineering Angles: Is your cold storage energy use through the roof?
Cold storage buildings, where life-saving vaccines are manufactured and stored, are required to maintain frozen temperatures — much colder than a typical building. But a roof assembly — when properly designed and constructed — can play a critical role in maintaining these temperature requirements, while providing other benefits as well. Read more.
Healing the world
“I want you to act as you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if our house is on fire. Because it is.” Three years ago, teenage activist Greta Thunberg delivered these remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, as part of a speech that quickly went viral. The crisis that Thunberg was referring to is climate change. More specifically, the almost unanimous consensus among scientists that human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases have caused global surface temperatures to rise — a trend that could have far-reaching consequences that range from unfortunate…to downright terrifying. Read more.
The climate crisis: Is pharma ready?
The pharma industry is experiencing numerous stress factors which are growing year-on-year. These include increasing global demand from emerging economies, counterfeit medicines, antimicrobial resistance, new product types like gene therapies, and aging populations. There is also a very real threat facing global populations from the coronavirus pandemic, placing extreme pressure on pharma supply chains and health care systems. Read more.
Pharma’s shift towards a circular economy
Mounting concerns around sustainability within the pharmaceutical industry have driven the need for — and adoption of — green chemistry over recent years. Green chemistry refers to the design, development and manufacture of chemical products using efficient processes that reduce the resources required, minimize waste and eliminate the use or generation of hazardous substances. This push has resulted in more environmentally sustainable practices and technology throughout the drug development process. Read more.
