Pfizers miljö- och ansvarsblogg

Sustainable Development and the Pharma Industry

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I have today, as I do roughly once a year, discussed sustainability programs in the pharmaceutical industry with students at The Ångström Laboratory, Uppsala University. Interesting and a lot of fun!

The Ångström Laboratory

My presentation is part of a course on Environmental Management Systems, so I tried to explain our sustainability programs from the system perspective. Starting out with a general background on why sustainability programs in general, and environmental programs specifically, are necessary. Going into several aspects (or potential problems) that those programs need to address. And then moving over to follow-up and corrections that may be needed to secure environmental improvements over time. The outline is quite similar to the presentations and discussions I regularly do at SLU (see for instance these two blog posts: From March 10, 2011 and from Feb 19, 2009.

To describe the great numbers of environmental aspects that needs to be assessed I used a series of slides where a full picture of aspects are built up step-by-step: From your own manufacturing facility, looking back into your suppy-chain, looking downstream following your products out on the market, and finally of course also adding the R&D-operations to give the full picture. Below you see all the slides condensed into one… Quite a busy slide I have to say…

We had good discussions, and especially during the last 15 minutes when the students were given the task of identifying potential environmental aspects on a made-up company called Juicy Drinks Inc. The students should, based on the knowledge they had recieved on environmental management systems (e.g. ISO 14001) perform an “initial environmental review”. So, which environmental aspects do you think Juicy Drinks Inc has to address?

Perhaps we could get some good interactivity going here. Please provide your suggestions…

COP-17 in Durban - just one week away…

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It is now just one week left before the UN climate change conference, COP-17, starts in Durban in South Africa. You probably remember the very lively discussions, and very high expectations, before the COP-15 meeting in Copenhagen 2009, and the not so intense discussions prior to and during the COP-16 meeting in Cancun. The level of discussions right now prior to the Durban meeting feels pretty much identical with the Cancun pre-meeting debate. Low expectations, and not very much of a debate at all in general public media. This surprises me to some degree. The threats to nature and human health from global warming is not smaller today than two years ago, most likely actually the opposite. More research has been published showing where we most likley are heading. And a lot of activities are ongoing in industry to manage energy and climate change issues. So why do we not see activities on the political level? Is it so simple that the financial problems around the world takes all focus from our political leaders?

Regardless of the outcome of COP-17 (and my expectations are extremely small), I am convinced that enterprises around the world will continue working with their energy and climate change agenda. It has become a very natural part of the environmental sustainability programs. And in several cases the programs are not only successful from an environental point of view but also from a financial point of view. Decreased energy consumption, changes of energy sources, and other activities very often make good business sense! I would be very surprised if that is not also true for society as such…

To get inspired, please read the IVL report on a Swedish low carbon scenario around year 2050. Please also read about Pfizer’s energy and climate change projects on our global webpage. Projects that have helped us to decrease our emissions of green house gases significantly since the beginning of 2000.

Green house gas emissions

LEAN and Environmental Management

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We have had a very interesting day at the Pfizer plant in Strängnäs today. Politicians from Jönköping County Council visited the plant to listen and discuss our experiences from LEAN manufacturing and from our environmental and sustainability programs. Combined discussions of LEAN and environmental management make a lot of sense to me.

Regardless from which perspectives you look upon LEAN - e.g. right first time, total quality management, 5S, reduction of waste, and continuous improvement - the connections to good environmnetal management is obvious. A perfect match is found between the LEAN tools commonly known as 3M (the Japanese words Muda, Muri, and Mura - or in English Waste, Overburden, and Unevenness) and health, safety and environmentral management.

The Pfizer Strängnäs plant has worked with LEAN for several years, and as you probably know already, their environmental management programs also have been in place for very long time. They received their first external “certification” already back in mid 90-ies (EMAS, Eco-Management and Audit Scheme), and are today certified to ISO 14001, ISO 9001, OHSAS 18001. Today’s agenda hence was a combination of LEAN-experiences, a site tour to visualize the work processes, Pfizer’s and the pharma industry’s general programs around sustainability, and our local environmental, health and safety management programs.

Sharing experiences and thoughts makes us all better! Thanks for a valuable day of discussions!

Pharmaceuticals and Environment at Läkemedelskongressen

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I have today acted both as moderator and lecturer in a Pharmaceuticals and the Environment session at Läkemedelskongressen, arranged by the Swedish Academy of Pharmaceutical Sciences. It has definitely been an interesting day. It started with introductory remarks by Anders Blanck, managing director for LIF (the research based pharmaceutical industry in Sweden). Anders said something very thought worthy about good, safe and rational use of pharmaceuticals. Of course he stressed the importance of providing the correct medicine and dosage, at the right time, to the right patient, but he also stressed the importance of the price of the medicine, equal care and treatment, and not the least environmental impacts. This was of course a prefect introduction to today’s key note address from Joakim Larsson from Sahlgrenska Akademin, at University of Gothenborg.

Joakim Larsson

I have mentioned Joakim’s research several times here at the blog. See for instance the following blog posts: Aug 16 2010, Jan 20 2011, Feb 18 2011, and Jul 4 2011. Joakim gave as always a very interesting, and horryfying, description of the situation at the Patancheru waste water treatment plant outside Hyderabad, in India. He decribed the risks with releases of active pharmaceuticals ingridients to the environment, focusing on the risks for antimicrobial resistance development. He also stressed the importance of collaborations between all parties in order to manage the situation.

Several actors involved...

He finished the key note speech with a slide summarizing the challenges:

Some challenges

As a moderator for the break-out session focusing in more detail on pharmaceuticals and the environment I then gave a short summary on “what is going on” in EU and here in Sweden when it comes to pharmaceuticals in the environment, e.g.:

- EU Water Framework Directive, which may come to include specific pharmaceutical substances

- The EU Pharmas project

- The MistraPharma project

- The Swedish MPA proposal on inclusion of environmental requirements into GMP

- The All Party Committee on Environmental Objectives

- The National Pharmaceutical Strategy

- Sofia Wallström’s review

After the my introduction, Åke Wennmalm from SustainPharma (and previously environemntal director att Stockholm County Council) gave us some detailed insight in environmental risk assessments on pharmaceuticals substances. You can read more on this link to the classification scheme on fass.se.

Åke Wennmalm

Åke also added some of our latests thoughts upon environmental assessments of the whole products. This has been the topic for several discussions during the last 6 months (see blog posts from Sept 28, Sept 1, May 17, May 11, and March 28).

In order for the industry to provide “green products” it is of greatest importance to utilize a green chemistry toolbox. Eva Jacobsson from AstraZeneca helped us to realize the large opportunities in green chemistry when it comes to lower the environmental impacts from manufacturing operations.

Eva Jacobsson, AZ

Eva gave us very good insight in AstraZeneca’s work processes to greening the manufacturing processes, as early as possible during the development phase.

Green Chemistry at AZ

But she also discussed Green Drug Design, very interesting. However really difficult… Could we possibly be successful in desiging the substances perfectly from an environmental point of view from the beginning, e.g. easily degradable substances, with low toxicity and no potential for bioaccumulation?

Green Drug Design

We then expanded our scope of discussion by looking into another industrial sector - textile and clothing. As always it was a real pleasure to listen to Renée Andersson from Indiska.

Renee Andersson, Indiska

I have listened to Renée’s experiences from her work with Indiska’s supply chain several times before (see for instance my blog post from Aug 26, 2010) and it is my clear opinion that we as an industry have a lot to learn from Indiska and their peers. Which is not really surprising since they have been dealing with these issues, in very much detail, years before it came up high on our industry agenda.

It was then my turn to enter the stage as a lecturer. I tried both to summarize reflections from the previous speakers, and to look into the future. What are our challenges of tomorrow, and what will our agenda look like in the coming 10 years?

I am on stage...

My final, summarizing slide was this one, where I discuss several aspects of pharmaceuticals and the environment which I believe will be crucial for our future success.

A very interesting day, with good presentations and discussions!

CSR training session at SWETIC

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Yesterday I participated in a CSR-training session at SWETIC (Swedish Association for Testing, Inspection, and Certification). SWETIC’s own presentation of the session can be found here.

After a brief introduction by Magnus Davidsson from SWETIC, Mattis Bergquist from Only R, gave some introductory remarks to CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) as a concept.

Mattis presents CSR as a concept

After the introduction to CSR from Mattis, I presented Pfizer’s sustainability platform, as a business case for CSR. If you have followed my blog over recent years you have become fairly familiar with our work. If you have not, I recommend that you follow these links:

- Pfizer’s corporate webpage, “Doing business responsibly”

- Pfizer’s Swedish webpage, where you will find information on our sustainability initiatives (in Swedish) in three levels:

– Level 1: “Pfizer och Ansvarsfullt företagande”

– Level 2: “CSR- och miljöarbete - en central del av vårt ansvarstagande”

– Level 3: “Hållbarhetsarbete i praktiken”

You could also read my two blogposts from October 11 back in 2009. There I give general information on our CSR and environmental initiatives under the title “Pfizer and Corporate Responsibility, Part 1” and “Pfizer and Corporate Responsibility, Part 2“. Somethings have of course developed since then, but the general idea still holds true.

Mattis entered the stage again after my presentation, and he went into more details on the different standards, rules, legislative tools etc. within the field of CSR.

Different rules, standards etc on CSR

Regardless of which system a company chooses to base their CSR-program upon, management commitment is of course crucial. Johannes Ingerby from The Information Company presented tools to secure management buy-in, commitment, and focus.

CSR as an opportunity or a risk...

Johannes, who has a great deal of experience in the field, told us that unfortunately still most management teams look upon CSR as “a risk to be managed”. Hence, it is rather being controlled than being used as a strategic business objective. He nevertheless presented balanced score cards for using CSR as a strategic business measure, in addition to a control card where CSR-issues are one of many measures to follow.

Johannes Ingerby from The Information Company

We then got the opportunity to listen to Åsa Edman from the governmental procurement investigation. The investigation, which should be reported no later than June 28, 2012, will review both financial as well as political perspectives of public procurement. Within the frame of “political considerations”, both social and environmental criteria will be looked upon. Åsa then gave the word to Lisa Sennström från Miljöstyrningsrådet, MSR, (in English: The Swedish Environmental Management Council). MSR have developed several guidance documents for social and environmental criteria in public procurement. One of the areas where such criteria have been developed is for pharmaceuticals. You can read my reflections on this matter in a number of my previous blog posts. Read for instance my blog post from Sept 8 this year, and follow the links within that blog post for further details.

The training session ended with further discussions on ISO 26000, and whether or not it will be certifiable, verifiable or nothing of that kind at all… The discussion was led by Dag Sjöholm from SP who acts as chairman on “SIS‘ verifying group of ISO 26000″. Read more regarding my views on this debate in the blog post from Nov 26, 2010, and via the links within that blog post.

Thanks SWETIC for interesting discussions on several aspects of Corporate Social Responsibility!