Pfizers miljö- och ansvarsblogg

LIF, Green Public Procurement and follow-ups

Kategorier: Loggboken, Miljö, Socialt ansvar

As I have mentioned earlier here at the blog (see blog post from Oct 19 and from Nov 29), I start working part-time at the LIF Office today. And perhaps I should take it as “a good sign” that an issue I have worked upon for several years (both within Pfizer and in LIF’s environmental committee), namely green criteria in the tender business process, was highlighted in NyTeknik yesterday. The article shows great progress in the willingness from Swedish County Councils to start evaluate, and follow-up, green criteria. As you may know if you have read my blog post on tenders and public procurement previously (see for instance the blog posts from Sept 8, and May 26), I regard follow-ups as extremely critical for the process to work satisfactory:

Quote from blog post May 26: “And I restated LIF’s position: We welcome requirements, if they are fair, reasonable and in line with the public procurement regulations, e.g. LOU (Lagen om Offentlig Upphandling). LIF’s position also clearly states that requirements should be followed-up, otherwise “honest and serious” companies may suffer compared with “cheaters”.

Green criteria in the public procurement of pharmaceuticals have been developed by the Swedish Environmental Management Council (MSR) in collaboration with all relevant stakeholders in the sector. Those criteria, and all good discussions leading forward to the development of the criteria, will be very valuable during 2012 when green economic incentives and green criteria within the framework of the pricing and reimbursement system are being discussed. One of my main tasks working at the LIF Office during 2012 will be to connect with Sofia Wallström in her review and to establish a model of green criteria and evaluation on which green economic incentives could be based. My task here is the work related to action item 7.2 in the National Pharmaceutical Strategy, and Sofia Wallström’s task is the one described in action item 7.1:

7.1. Investigate if the environmental aspects should be considered when decisions on subsidy for a pharmaceutical are decided (Lead: Ministry of Health and Social Affairs): Review of possibilities to – within the context of the national reimbursement system - increasingly take environmental considerations.
7.2. Encourage voluntary control of emissions from pharmaceutical factories (Lead: LIF): Introduction of a voluntary environmental labeling of pharmaceutical products.

I am looking forward to an interesting year 2012!

A Regulatory Update on Pharmaceuticals and the Environment

Kategorier: Loggboken, Miljö

The regulatory committee of LIF, the Association of the Ressearch Based Pharmaceutical Industry in Sweden, had invited all member companies to a session on “regulatory updates” today. I participated with a brief presentation on ongoing regulatory initiatives, on an EU level as well nationally in Sweden, in the area of Pharmaceuticals and the Environment.

Since I will start working part-time for LIF on Thursday, December 1 (see my blog post from Oct 19 for more details) I took the opportunity already today to share my “LIF coordinates”:

If you have followed my blog over the recent months, the examples of ongoing regulatory initiatives mentioned by me today will not come as a surprise (see for instance my blog post from June 14 for a summary).

On the EU level I mentioned among others things the WFD, the water framework directive. Ethinyloestradiol (EE2), oestradiol (E2), diclofenac and ibuprofen were initiatlly proposed  as Priority Substances (PS) under WFD. Ibuprofen is taken away from the discussions as far as I understand, whereas there are still discussions ongoing for the other three (although it seems likely that the sex hormones should rather be discussed together with other “potential endocrine disruptors” under another EU initiative). The WFD discussions will continue, and it will be very interesting to see the outcome. Personally I cannot really understand how an EQS (environmental quality standard) set for a pharmaceutical substance will relate to a market authorization granted through the pharmaceutical regulations. If the EQS is surpassed in a water body, would that imply that no more such substance could be released into the water body. And if so, wouldn’t that in reality mean “no more usage” (due to the simple fact that the publicly owned waste water treatment plants still cannot remove all excreted pharmaceutical substances from patient use).

National initiatives of course included

- Swedish MPA’s proposal of including environmnetal requiremenst in GMP (see for instance my blog post from July 19 for comments on the proposal)

- The National Pharmaceutical Strategy, and especially the two first action items identified within the scope of intervention area number 7 “Reduce effects on the environment by pharmaceuticals, locally and globally”:

7.1. Investigate if the environmental aspects should be considered when decisions on subsidy for a pharmaceutical are decided (Lead: Ministry of Health and Social Affairs): Review of possibilities to – within the context of the national reimbursement system - increasingly take environmental considerations.
7.2. Encourage voluntary control of emissions from pharmaceutical factories (Lead: LIF): Introduction of a voluntary environmental labeling of pharmaceutical products.

I will be the project manager for action item 7.2 and will hopefully be able to connect 7.2 strongly with action item 7.1 which is to be managed by Sofia Wallström in her review. I think it is very important, and it feels reasonable,  that society presents some form of economic incentives if industry is supposed to “volontary implement a system and an assessment model”…

- The All Party Committee on Environmental Objectives, and especially their work on the goal “A Non-Toxic Environment” where they have been commissioned to more clearly than before include pharmaceuticals in the scope. See my blog posts from Nov 14, Sept 16, and Sept 02 for more details.

I also briefly mentioned the MistraPharma-project which clearly interacts with all these regulatory initiatives. Read more about MistraPharma on the project website and/or in my blog posts from e.g.  Nov 10, Sept 22, and Jan 18.

Sustainable Development and the Pharma Industry

Kategorier: Andras arbete, Loggboken, Miljö, Pfizers egna arbete, Socialt ansvar

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…

Kategorier: Andras arbete, Miljö, Pfizers egna arbete, Socialt ansvar

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

Kategorier: Miljö, Pfizers egna arbete, Socialt ansvar

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!