Product sustainability

Our approach to product sustainability

We are minimising the environmental footprint of our medicines to contribute to more sustainable healthcare delivery, while ensuring the highest standards of medical efficacy and safety. 

We are focused on delivering innovation right across the product life cycle – from the research and development of a medicine, through to its manufacturing, supply and delivery to patients. Reducing our use of energy, water and materials is key, as is minimising our waste and adopting more circular business practices.

Our key targets

We know that the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from our product value chains contribute to our Scope 3 emissions. That's why we’re embedding sustainable decision-making, informed by data and science, across the product life cycle to reduce our environmental impact.

We want to ensure the environmental safety of our products and lead our industry in the management of Pharmaceuticals in the Environment (PIE), promoting responsible product stewardship.

We follow a life cycle approach for product sustainability

Safety, health and environmental aspects are considered throughout our medicines development including through:

• Environmental sustainability assessments of active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) manufacturing, formulation, packaging and devices.
• Implementing our Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) programme, aligned with ISO 14040 and 14044 standards, allows us to understand the environmental impacts of medicines that account for 90% of our total sales revenue.
• Establishing an internal Product Sustainability Index (PSI) to understand the environmental impacts of our launched products and inform sustainability improvement plans. 
• Applying green chemistry and engineering principles to our medicines development, as well as connecting our scientists to best practices. 
• Investing in new science and disruptive technologies that reduce environmental impact by enabling the development of shorter chemical sequences to create APIs and improve processes for new modality medicines.
• Redesigning our packaging by adopting more circular approaches.
• Setting resource efficiency targets for development projects. We use Process Mass Intensity (PMI), a measure developed by the pharmaceutical sector, to assess the sustainability of manufacturing processes.
• Playing an active role in our sector, including through our engagement in the American Chemical Society Green Chemistry Institute Pharmaceutical Roundtable.

Product sustainability in action

Reducing Scope 3 GHG emissions from product use: Studies show that chronic respiratory diseases such as asthma and chronic pulmonary obstructive disease (COPD) difficult to treat, poorly controlled and associated with a greater carbon footprint of care.¹ 

As part of our efforts to provide patients with access to treatment with a lower carbon footprint, we are progressing the transition of our respiratory pressurised metered-dose inhalers (pMDI) to a next generation propellant (NGP). pMDIs deliver essential, life-saving medicines for millions of people living with respiratory diseases worldwide.² The new propellant HFO-1234ze(E) has a near zero Global Warming Potential (GWP) – 99.9% lower than propellants currently used in respiratory medicines. In May 2025, in a world-first, we received approval for one of our inhaled respiratory medicines using the next-generation propellant in the UK. We have submitted regulatory filings in the EU and China as well and aim to transition our wider pMDI portfolio to the near-zero Global Warming Potential propellant by 2030 as part of our Ambition Zero Carbon strategy.

Product Sustainability Index (PSI): We are focused on reducing our resource consumption and minimising waste production. By end of 2024, 71% of our launched products based on sales revenue had been assessed against the PSI to measure their environmental performance and inform improvement plans. The PSI programme is also being piloted on development projects, with an initial focus on carbon.

Collaborating on a life cycle assessment standard for medicines

We are collaborating with peers through the Sustainable Markets Initiative Health Systems Task Force, the Pharmaceutical Environment Group (PEG) and NHS England to support the development of a sector-wide LCA standard for medicines.

Our aim is to ensure a unified approach to measuring and reporting on the environmental impact of medicines and healthcare products. We are working with the British Standards Institution (BSI) to reach consensus among key stakeholders including healthcare systems, health providers, professionals, representative bodies, academics and patients. With support from experts including Quantis, the delivery of this LCA standard will support the assessment of and reduction in the environmental impact of medicines across the life cycle, as well as enable greater transparency across the sector.

References

1. Bell, J et al. Greenhouse gas emissions associated with COPD care in the UK: Results from SHERLOCK CARBON. European Respiratory Journal 2021 58(suppl 65): PA3551; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1183/13993003.congress-2021.PA3551 
2. World Health Organization Model List of Essential Medicines – 23rd List, 2023. In: The selection and use of essential medicines 2023: Executive summary of the report of the 24th WHO Expert Committee on the Selection and Use of Essential Medicines, 24 – 28 April 2023. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2023.[Online] Available at :https://www.who.int/groups/expert-committee-on-selection-and-use-of-essential-medicines/essential-medicines-lists [Accessed April 2025].

Veeva ID: Z4-74570
Date of preparation: May 2025