Sustainability is increasingly important in pharma, but several hurdles are slowing the effort: survey (original) (raw)

A survey of more than 800 biopharma executives shows that sustainability has become an increasingly important priority but that companies are struggling to achieve it and as a result are putting their business at risk.

The study—which was conducted by Cytiva and Financial Times research unit FT Longitude—tabulated the input of execs from firms in 18 different countries. Of the respondents, 26% hold C-suite roles and 30% represent companies that generate more than $1 billion in annual revenue.

“We want to drive a conversation around innovation and strategy on sustainability,” Emmanuel Abate, Cytiva’s sustainability and corporate responsibility chief, said in a release. “These findings highlight where we as an industry must collaborate and push for better progress and prove the benefits of delivering on sustainability targets to employees, customers, and investors.”

Over the past 12 months, more than half of the sustainability leaders who participated in the review said their companies have experienced increases in brand reputation (58%), profit (57%), share price (56%), revenue (55%) and their ability to attract talent (54%) through their efforts to achieve sustainability.

Firms in the industry generally recognize these potential benefits, as 62% of the respondents said that their company has identified sustainability as a top priority.

Additionally, 63% of those surveyed see sustainability as imperative to differentiation and business growth, while 64% said that failure to achieve sustainability targets poses a critical threat to their business.

“There are cost savings in the long run associated with moving to more sustainable practices, as we will eventually be consuming fewer resources," David Butler, chief technology officer at Hongene Biotech, said in the report. "So strategically and from a financial perspective, it also makes sense for us to move in that direction."

But barriers to achieving sustainability are formidable. One of the major issues, according to 69% of those who participated in the survey, is that there is weak collaboration across the value chain on shared sustainability strategies and on setting achievable goals.

Measuring sustainability objectives is also problematic for companies. In the survey, 76% of respondents said that their firms’ approach to quantifying and forecasting the financial impact of sustainability measures is either somewhat or not at all accurate.

Sustainability efforts by companies—especially the larger ones, according to the report—are underway. At least 50% of those surveyed said that their firms had made efforts to reduce water consumption, switch to renewable energy, reduce single-use plastics, create more sustainable packaging and switch to greener chemicals.

But only 41% of respondents said their companies can track their carbon footprint, as there is a lack of ability to measure the upstream and downstream environmental impacts of their business. This shortfall is a barrier to achieving sustainability targets, according to 68% of those surveyed.

It’s relatively easy to gauge Scope 1 emissions, which are those resulting from a company’s production and buildings, and Scope 2 emissions, which are related to a company’s energy consumption.

The problem arises with Scope 3 emissions, which are created across every step of the supply chain—from the beginning of the manufacturing process to product disposal. According to the report, only 17% of companies are confident in their ability to accurately measure Scope 3 emissions.

The study concludes that companies must place sustainability at the top of their agenda and communicate this initiative internally and externally.

They also need to measure emissions by “moving away from spend-based methods by investing in technology and encouraging transparency with suppliers,” the report said.