Life cycle assessment and sustainability

The carbon footprint of products is much talked about and influences business decisions and consumer choices. You can now find clothes and foods with its carbon dioxide emissions printed on the label. Sustainability is a major motivation in contemporary product design, as required to meet company targets and satisfy government policies (as is true for vehicle emissions). So how do we calculate carbon footprint, and is it reliable? What about other important environmental impacts such as land use, water use, or loss of biodiversity?

Environmental impact

A Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a systematic tool used to assess the environmental impacts of a product, process, or service throughout its entire life cycle.  LCA is a valuable tool for evaluating and improving the environmental performance of pharmaceutical products. Given the industry's complexity, LCA provides a structured framework to assess the environmental impacts associated with each stage of the life cycle of a pharmaceutical product considering measurable indicators. These indicators can include carbon emissions but frequently include a variety of impacts relating to toxicity, resource use, and other types of emissions.

The results of an LCA can influence product development and inform environmentally-conscientious purchases, but reducing environmental impacts does not necessarily make a product sustainable. Sustainability encompasses environmental, social and economic dimensions and so LCA should be used in combination with other assessments.

A more detailed explanation of LCA is available in one of our advanced modules.

Sustainability

There is a distinction between Green Chemistry and sustainable chemistry. We must be careful to attribute the correct terminology, particularly in an era where the term 'sustainability' is often overused. Both fields share common principles, but whereas Green Chemistry principles may be effective to reduce waste, energy use, and/or safety risks, a truly sustainable chemical process must demonstrate the benefits of the product(s) justify the environmental impacts incurred. This should be evaluated from the original resource extraction to the ultimate disposal and environmental fate of chemicals (sometimes called 'cradle-to-grave'). The following initiatives represent the major international activities relating to chemicals, sustainability and the environment.

Planetary boundaries:

Earth systems are the complex and connected processes that control the climate and water cycle, stabilise ecosystems, and currently make the Earth habitable. Nine distinct Earth systems have been identified as having certain thresholds, above which, they become unstable and prone to collapse. These are the Planetary Boundaries. At present, 6 of the 9 Planetary Boundaries have been exceeded. We can use Planetary Boundaries as a reference point for the impact data obtained by LCA, giving it context.

Sustainable Development Goals:

The transition to sustainable chemistry provides greater alignment with the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) (see United Nations, 2015). This framework describes far-reaching actions relating to environmental and social issues. Sustainable chemistry can accelerate the achievement of 'sustainable consumption and production' for instance, which is SDG number 12.

Green Deal:

On an EU regional level, the European Green Deal was a big milestone towards the green transformation of the economy. Important objectives of the Green Deal include a stop to climate change (aiming that Europe becomes the first climate-neutral continent by 2050) and the prevention of biodiversity loss. The latest EU environment strategy contains nine aspects (see below). Within the Chemicals strategy plan is the 'Safe and Sustainable by Design' framework (see below), an important policy for future chemical development and manufacturing. Adjacent to the Green Deal actions is the EU Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe.

The Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe is guiding the reform of the EU pharmaceutical legislation, driven by 4 principles:

• Affordable medicine;

• A competitive, innovative and sustainable pharmaceutical industry;

• Responsive to medicine shortages and crises.

• High quality, efficacy and safety standards.

Other policies also encompass the activities of the pharmaceutical sector. The proposal on the restriction on the manufacture, placing on the market, and use of persistent perfluoroalkyl substances may affect the availability of raw materials for the production pharmaceuticals. Revisions to wastewater legislation are seeking to implement 'polluter-pays' rules to water treatment costs. This will impact the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries the most because they are the origin of the main sources of micropollutants in urban water.