At the start of July 2022, the NHS became the first health system to embed net zero into legislation. Despite the carbon footprint from packaging pills to active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) development, Aleiya Lonsdale, head of Event at Lab Innovations, explains how pharmaceutical companies in the UK can do their part to help achieve net zero by 2040.
Key insights:
- The NHS established an NHS Net Zero Expert Panel, which found that interventions in medicine accounts for 25 per cent of emissions within the NHS.
- Pharma companies are trying to de-carbonise through developing low carbon inhalers - 45 per cent of GSK’s total carbon emissions are a result of metered-dose inhalers.
- Drug formulation also has an impact on carbon emissions, in terms of temperature control and storage.
- Organisations like My Green Lab and Green Light Laboratories have been created to help laboratories improve their environmental impact, by reducing energy consumption and reliance on single-use plastics.
Finding the cause