Nigel Winteringham, director, strategic sales, life sciences, EMEA & APAC, Loftware discusses how in today’s business landscape, an organisation’s environmental footprint is something that must be a priority and ignoring the importance can be detrimental.
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Some life sciences companies, although already on this journey, are understandably concerned with the costs associated with reducing their environmental footprint. However, this doesn’t need to be the case.
While customer demands for ESG conformity rise, organisations are now looking to react and supply their consumer pools with sustainable pledges, which in turn generates pressure for other firms to do the same. For example, AstraZeneca aims to achieve zero carbon operations by 2025 and a carbon-negative value chain by 2030, while Pfizer targets internal carbon neutrality by 2030 and net zero by 2040.
So, how can life sciences organisations balance ESG goals with costs? One answer lies in the Cloud. Alongside several strategic benefits, cloud technology provides companies with a cost-effective solution to help businesses reduce waste, improve efficiency, and comply with environmental regulations.
Cloud labelling positively affects carbon footprint
In a world where health system strains are more likely due to climate change and pollution, the life sciences industry is responsible for between 4-5% of Global Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions, and a similar proportion of toxic pollutants. Life sciences companies, conscious of the damaging effects of their industry, are turning to cloud labelling to support addressing the issue.
Creating a ‘single source of truth’ for key data offers a businesses-wide solution to avoid fragmentation, delays, and costly errors. Life sciences organisations can do this by adopting a centralised cloud-based labelling solution that offers them easy access to label templates throughout their business or across multiple sites. This helps to improve consistency and accuracy, while reducing the chances of mislabelling. As a result, there will be fewer instances of products needing to be withdrawn, recalled from the market, or scrapped as waste, as well as a huge reduction in the need for relabelling. This ultimately reduces a company’s environmental impact and supports in achieving their sustainability targets.
Waste as a mechanism for risk reduction
Some of the greatest sustainability improvements can be achieved through material waste reduction, much of which is produced as part of efforts to reduce risk. For example, conservative expiry dates to help ensure safety and efficacy of Investigational Medicinal Products (IMPs) and the overstocking of trial packs at clinical sites to support patient recruitment, are both measures that result in high levels of waste but can be crucial in making clinical trial logistics run smoothly.
Alongside the significant environmental footprint, this waste can also be exceedingly expensive for some studies, especially personalised medicine, and biologics where a year’s course of treatment can sometimes cost upward of one hundred thousand dollars. Shifting to a ‘Just-In-Time’ (JIT) approach can help significantly reduce these costs, however organisations need to have confidence that their supply chains are sufficiently robust to provide the necessary agility, and consequently JIT remains an area of massive untapped potential for many life sciences businesses.
Cloud labelling facilitates regulatory compliance
In the life sciences sector, companies are increasingly required to ensure thorough oversight of their supply chain to comply with regulations and governance standards. Cloud labelling is particularly beneficial here as it facilitates the creation of a comprehensive audit trail for each product, from the raw material phase through manufacturing and distribution, up to the end user. The transparency this facilitates throughout the supply chain enhances the implementation of effective governance, certification, data sharing, and standardisation.
Cloud-enabled organisations are better positioned to ensure compliance with important sustainability-focused regulations such as the Digital Product Passport, which are vital in collecting and disseminating product information throughout a product's lifecycle. Employing cloud-based documentation to proactively comply with forthcoming environmental laws, companies can strategically plan for growth and operate with clarity.
Furthermore, from pharmaceuticals to med tech, all life sciences organisations are operating in a highly pressurised landscape. With authorities and regulators demanding greater traceability and safety, effective labelling is imperative for firms to track products through each stage of the supply chain. If we think of the label as a product’s passport through the supply chain, printing essential data on products such as origin, batch number, and validity date is an important step in facilitating end-to-end traceability. By doing so, companies can seamlessly track and trace products and successfully address challenges such as counterfeit and substandard drugs.
Cloud solutions offer a way forward
The imperative for life sciences organisations to address their environmental footprint cannot be overstated. While the initial costs may seem daunting, embracing innovative and powerful solutions like cloud technology offers a cost-effective pathway to sustainability. With this in mind, cloud-based labelling solutions stand out as a pivotal strategy for reducing waste, enhancing efficiency, and ensuring regulatory compliance. Furthermore, addressing waste reduction through strategies like a Just-In-Time approach can yield significant environmental and economic benefits. In an industry where precision and safety are paramount, such advancements are invaluable.
As customer demands for ESG compliance rise and industry leaders set ambitious sustainability targets, life sciences organisations must recognise the Cloud not just as a technological tool, but as a strategic ally. By leveraging cloud technology to streamline operations and reduce their environmental impact, these firms can lead the way in fostering a more sustainable and responsible industry.