Peter Gisel-Ekdahl, CEO of Envirotainer suggests that sustainability doesn’t have to come at huge expense in pharma.
It’s a stark fact that aviation emissions are a significant contributor to climate change. Worldwide, flights produced 915 million tonnes of CO2 in 2019, according to the Air Transport Action Group. This is a small proportion at about 2% of the overall human-caused volume. However, planes have strong warming effects owing to nitrogen oxides, vapour trails and cloud formation.
In this context, transporting drugs via air freight could have a major impact on a pharmaceutical company’s overall global warming impact. Yet in many cases, there is no choice. Treatments often require very careful cold-chain handling to ensure they get from the manufacturer to the customer in perfect condition and on time. Keeping a shipment at very low temperatures requires herculean effort and there is a limited time window for doing so. Air transport is vital to the process.