Andrew Toher, head of customer insights at Enel X, discusses the sustainable energy strategies that pharma manufacturers are using to reduce carbon emissions and create valuable sources of new income.
Key highlights:
- In its 2021 report Delivering a ‘Net Zero’ National Health Service, the UK’s NHS attributes as much as 1/4 of its carbon footprint to medicines.
- The four governments of the UK established the scheme to increase the climate ambition of the UK's carbon pricing policy, whilst also protecting the competitiveness of UK businesses.
- To capture the environmental benefits of sustainability programmes, carbon reporting should be an integral part of any software solution. This allows organisations to track data associated with the purchase.
- Independently run workshops are also a powerful way to support the development or a decarbonisation roadmap for any organisation. The outcome should be a strategic plan that maps out energy strategies to support the business’s sustainability goals.
- Like other energy-intensive businesses, pharmaceutical companies are choosing to become off-takers using PPAs to buy renewable energy and to complement the use of on-site generation. This increases the percentage of renewable energy utilised, so reducing emissions.
- By adopting a sustainable energy strategy, pharmaceutical manufacturers can reduce carbon emissions, help maintain the stability of the grid and create valuable sources of new income.
The pharmaceutical sector is not typically seen as a highly polluting, ‘heavy industry’ but it is far from green.