Sustainability initiatives in life sciences packaging: cutting carbon from supply chains, reducing waste, and more.
Earth Day should be every day—planetary health is critical. While there are numerous important cross-industry initiatives, this year, we’re taking “official Earth Day 2022” to focus on the rise in partnerships targeting sustainability specifically in life sciences and healthcare, from material sourcing to cutting carbon emissions in production and supply chains.
- Alliance to Zero is a non-profit partnership dedicated to enhancing sustainability throughout the pharmaceutical supply chain. It aims to facilitate the transition of the pharma sector to compliance with net zero emissions in line with the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement.
- Kilmer Innovations in Packaging (KiiP) is an industry initiative “solving wicked problems in healthcare packaging.” With one of their four focus areas dedicated to sustainability, they’re gathering passionate volunteer team members to tackle nebulous topics in medical device packaging, ultimately improving patient safety.
- Global Self-Care Federation (GSCF) is a collaborative effort in the self-care industry, and they recently launched the Charter for Environmentally Sustainable Self-Care, which is “the first industry-wide climate action resolution issued by the consumer health sector.” It seeks to minimize environmental impacts without compromising healthcare outcomes and safety, and counts J&J, Bayer, GSK, and Sanofi among its members.
- The Sustainable Medicines Partnership, is a not-for-profit, private-public collaboration aimed at reducing the amount of effective medicines going to waste, cutting CO2 emissions, making medicine and knowledge more accessible, and more. They recently announced a partnership with the WPO (World Packaging Organisation).
- Founded in 2010, HPRC (Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council) is a private, technical consortium of industry peers across the healthcare, recycling, and waste management industries seeking to improve the recyclability of plastic products and packaging within healthcare. Comprised of globally recognized members, HPRC engages in pioneering projects designed to help boost plastics recycling efforts in clinical settings of hospitals. They recently released findings from their advanced recycling pilot.
- Practice Greenhealth, working closely with Health Care Without Harm, is a membership and networking organization for sustainable healthcare that delivers environmental solutions to more than 1,100 U.S. hospitals and health systems.
- ISTA’s Pharma Committee is a collaborative group (end users, suppliers, and service providers) working together on industry standardization for reusables in temperature-controlled life science products.
- Glass Futures, is a UK-based yet globally reaching non-profit researching the production of more sustainable glass.
- Alliance to Modernize Prescribing Information (AMPI) is an effort to reduce prescribing label waste to healthcare providers. Members include AbbVie, AmerisourceBergen, Johnson and Johnson, Merck, Bristol Myers Squibb, Viatris, Pfizer, Teva, and Fresenius Kabi.
 | Watch this video on ISTA Forum 2022 sustainability highlights. |
 | Listen to this podcast on sustainability in the life sciences. |
Have an initiative you’d like to share? Reach out to Keren Sookne on LinkedIn.
Looking for more? Check out decarbhealthcare and Kalundborg Symbiosis.
