Sustainability - co2

Estimating CO2 Emissions at the Product Level : A Practical Approach

Hélène Thar-Jaccard and Nick Wigdahl

The Challenge

What do a Swiss Air flight from Zurich to San Francisco, a bag of Blue Circle cement and a Wasa biscuit have in common? In each case the company can tell the consumer how much CO2 was emitted for that particular service or product. Pharma companies are a long way from having that capability. 

At first the healthcare industry played the trump card of “we produce life-saving medicines” to overcome objections to its CO2 emissions. Climate change, however, itself has become a healthcare issue. Every year, environmental factors take the lives of around 13 million people[1]. In 2019, The Lancet published a report showing a potential net increase of 529,000 adult deaths per year by 2050 due to climate change[2]. So now pharma companies are producing figures for corporate level emissions and corporate level targets, often showing a reduction to net zero by 2035 or 2040. That, however, is not enough. There are now more stakeholders wanting to know the CO2 emissions footprint for particular products. These include healthcare insurers, hospitals – whose scope 3 emissions are heavily influenced by pharma companies – and financiers. Recent tenders from the National Health Service in UK and the Norwegian Procura+ included questions on product-level CO2 emissions. 

In short there is pressure to be able to be able to print on a box “CO2 emissions of xxx grams.” There has been understandable caution by pharma companies in publishing figures : genuine scientific disagreement on emission factors, concern over different starting points, particularly further back in the supply chain; intellectual property concerns. But the pressure will not go away so it is important to make a start. 

How To Do It

The authors directed a project at Roche from May 2022 called the “Product Carbon Footprint”. Our objective was to estimate the tonnage of CO2 emitted by selected products at Scope 1, 2 and 3 level, to identify abatement levers and associated timelines for execution as well as a communication package for the affiliates (country selling entities) on Roche sustainability efforts. 

We selected products representative of the total portfolio. There were two classical monoclonal antibodies, two small molecules and a pre-clinical stage oligonucleotide.  The aim was to test a methodology that would allow us to quickly move from analysis to action. With a description of the key process parameters, geography of the production facilities and volumes, we should be able to quickly point towards the carbon dense areas. Then we could map out the five or six key levers to pull that  would significantly reduce the emissions for the molecules. The key data to assemble are the process flow diagram for the production, the bill of materials and recipe and the routings of products sold in the markets that accounted for 80% of the volume. 

We applied emission factors to the main elements of the products across the value chain:- drug substance / API, drug product, finished product and then distribution to the markets. Quantity of material used x emission factor = CO2 output. Quantity of material is derived from the Bill of Materials or recipe. We will spare you the details of when to use spend based, process based or even mass-balance calculations (but feel free to contact us for more detail!)

Key Findings

Typically, a consumer or health authority procurement team will only see the packet of medicine. So natural questions are “do you use recyclable cardboard?” or “what steps have you taken to reduce plastic?” The packaging step, however, typically accounts for less than 5% of total CO2 emissions. The key findings are that the overwhelming weight of CO2, around 60 to 70% is produced at the drug product or API stage from processes such as fermentation and distillation. Location of the plant is important due to the “greenness” of a country’s energy supply. The real levers to pull are around the source of electricity supply, the efficiency of the process (titer, yield) and mundane elements such as the heating and ventilation regime in a plant. 

For each product we constructed a CO2 reduction roadmap. A roadmap needs to include elements that show quick progress. For example one of the products we switched from air to sea transportation. This gives particpants a sense of optimism that something is being done. The “heavy lifting” elements however are what will really reduce the emissions. Product specific recommendations have to be aggregated to the plant or even corporate wide level. For example, introducing a solvent recovery process will be a plant wide initiative. Designing in sustainability is crucial. As a molecule progresses through clinical trials there is an increased reluctance to make process changes that could slow down the registration, particularly in phase 3. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The work was a strong team effort but particular thanks goes to  Eva Brombacher, Rachel Allison, Sara Beretta. 

 Hélène is a Therapy Area Head at Roche Pharma Technical Services (PTS) for the I2O franchise.  Nick was previously Therapy Area Head for Established Products in PTS. He is now  managing director of Pharmagro Ltd (www.pharmagro.co.uk). 

[1] WHO: Climate Change impact on world’s health

[2] The Lancet: Global and regional health effects of future food production under climate change: a modeling study (link)