SCHOTT Pharma’s sustainable journey with CPHI

Sustainability is of paramount importance in the pharmaceutical industry. See how a recent partnership between CPHI and SCHOTT Pharma has helped to highlight and accelerate their sustainability journey to reach global goals. 

From the years of experience gathered by providing such a space and capturing these conversations, CPHI has gained a wealth of knowledge, which it can share with our partners. 

One such partner is SCHOTT Pharma. Together, CPHI and SCHOTT Pharma have been growing in this field, and as a result SCHOTT Pharma was the sponsor for the Sustainable Futures Track at Pharmapack Europe 2024 and CPHI Milan 2024. In the following article we see more about SCHOTT Pharma’s journey around ESG, how events such as CPHI can be used to help distribute key messages, and the future of sustainability in the pharmaceutical industry.

SCHOTT Pharma’s commitment to sustainability

Similar to most pharma companies, sustainability and climate change have made it to the top of the agenda at SCHOTT Pharma. 

The pharmaceutical industry faces the challenges of meeting sustainability targets, transforming business, and reducing emissions. In line with these challenges, SCHOTT Pharma is not only committed to improving human health but also to doing their part to deliver change for a more sustainable future.

As a provider of glass- and polymer-based drug containment and delivery solutions for the pharmaceutical industry, SCHOTT Pharma is committed to reducing GHG emissions in line with the Science Based Targets initiative-validated climate protection strategy for the SCHOTT Group. The main areas of focus for SCHOTT Pharma are the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in their own operation and their supply chain as well as the development of responsible resource practices for waste along the value chain. 

The key climate actions include the following to decarbonise the supply chain:

•    Using 100% green electricity since 2021.
•    Driving energy efficiency across global sites – by reducing gas consumption in production processes and optimised infrastructure. 
•    Integrating low-emission technologies to produce glass and reducing the use of fossil fuels in this process with SCHOTT Tubing, e.g. via new electric melting tanks. 
•    Engaging and collaborating with suppliers and customers. To reduce Scope 3 emissions SCHOTT Pharma encourages their partners to use renewable energy and reduce waste. Another example is in their site in Müllheim, Germany, they have launched a project where waste heat from their production process is rerouted into a local heating network.
•    Pioneering circular packaging solutions with suppliers and pharmaceutical customers. E.g. at CPHI Milan, SCHOTT Pharma presented a closed-loop recycling system, which was demonstrated to secure the high quality polymer resources and cut the emissions related to the main packaging components by 50% for the supply of non-sterile primary packaging goods without an increase in product risk.

Sustainability practices at trade shows

Trade shows are a necessary part of many industries, they are key for bringing people and businesses together, for forming partnerships, achieving sales, and educating and driving an industry forward. Thinking about how sustainability fits in to these shows is extremely important, especially in the pharmaceutical industry, where healthcare, human and planet is the driving force behind everything they do. 

CPHI hosts one of the biggest pharmaceutical trade shows in the world, with CPHI Milan 2024 catering for over 58,000 attendees and more than 2,800 exhibitors. To ensure the events are as sustainable as possible, CPHI puts in place several schemes and initiatives. Digital signage along with the CPHI app ensure a mostly paperless show, water fountains and reuseable bottles are provided where possible to help reduce plastic use, and less carpeting is used across the show floor. 

Employees are encouraged to travel via train where they can, and on-site food waste is collected and donated to be used to generate electricity. The events are also powered by 100% renewable energy. 

For exhibitors, CPHI have developed a Better Stands Programme, which encourages exhibitors to use recycled or reuseable materials in their stand designs, and to move away from single-use stands so their booths can be used year on year. 

Below are a few examples of how SCHOTT Pharma ensures their sustainability values are carried through to their actions when attending trade shows such as CPHI. 

•    Reusing construction materials (aligning with the Better Stands Programme at CPHI).
•    Collaborating with service providers committed to sustainable practices in the MICE sector, such as exhibition builder certified as a “Sustainable Company” powered by FAMAB (Fachverband für Ausstellungs- und Messebau sowie Ausstattung, Specialist Association for Direct Business Communication in Germany). 
•    Opting for touchscreen displays instead of paper brochures at the booth.
•    Conservative and environmentally conscious selection of the booth team size to avoid unnecessary travel. 
•    Implementing a travel guideline that requires all employees to travel by train rather than by air for any trips less than 600 km. 
•    Catering orders are tailored precisely to the number of team members on booth duty. Similarly, to prevent food waste, avoid overestimating the number of participants for the booth party. 

SCHOTT Pharma’s views on collaboration, education and wider strategies for the integration of sustainability into the core of the pharma industry

In an interview with SCHOTT Pharma representative Arne Kloke, he covers the importance of collaboration – in particular why SCHOTT Pharma and CPHI have worked together on shaping sustainability content at CPHI Milan to capture key points of interest in ESG, and how addressing these is critical to creating a better environment for the future. 

Arne Kloke serves in SCHOTT Pharma as Head of Service and Sustainability Management. In this role he is responsible for the company’s sustainability strategy and action programme. Next to his company role he is the President of the Alliance to Zero – a pharma supply chain initiative that aims to facilitate the transition of injection devices to Net-Zero. Within both organisations, his specific interest is working towards product solutions and service models enabling a simultaneous match of environmental responsibility and financial viability. He is a scientist by training, member of the PDA Parenteral Packaging Conference Committee and experienced in realising new primary packaging and processing solutions with partners throughout the injectables industry.

Why is collaboration so important to succeed on the sustainability agenda?

Most of the measures which have potential to reduce the environmental impact of our products are linked to other parties in the value chain. If we want to change something in a component we purchase, we need the respective supplier to implement this change with us. But, if our customers are not accepting the outcome, we not even need to start the change. Hence, if we want change, we must learn to understand ourselves beyond our company limits as part of a value chain or ecosystem.

How is the importance of collaboration integrated into the sustainability strategy of SCHOTT Pharma?

Wherever we have dependences in realising new solutions, we strive to integrate partners from the beginning. For instance, our development of a circular solution for pharma trays which was presented at CPHI Milan in October 2024. Here we have built a team with Corplex, a key tray supplier to us and like-minded customers like Takeda. To have our customers within the team helps us to understand the customer’s current pains, develop requirements for a better solution and test them. Or in short, we create an integrated assurance for future compatibility of the new solution. To have our supplier on board supports to understand the upstream restrictions in solution design and creates a test environment to pilot the new solution.

Next to such project specific setups, we collaborate with other companies in the Alliance to Zero to develop a holistic overview on the supply chain for injection devices and how it can be decarbonised. This continuous collaboration mode enables exchange in trust and co-innovation beyond the existing business scope of the company. One example is the secure blister free syringe packaging concept developed out of the Alliance to Zero.

Here, the functionality of a thermoformed blister to safely distribute prefilled syringes was transferred to the combination of syringe, label and cardboard box. This enables packing without the blister and as such reduces the need for a single-use plastic component, simplifying manufacturing, increasing packaging density for storage and distribution. Hence, the solution comes with many valuable benefits, but the related problem would have not been raised out of an existing operational scope of the companies. It has been the ecosystem perspective of the Alliance to Zero that enabled the creation of a value chain rather than component strategy.

Why does SCHOTT Pharma engage as a sponsor and partner of the Sustainability Theatre at the CPHI?

The interpolation of climate science on global warming and the related consequences are more than serious. As a single actor, no company is big enough to solve the pressing challenge, yet we all heavily rely on this transformation to happen. Accordingly, there is a need for our industry to jumpstart serious and effective action.

This requires individuals to understand what the challenges are behind the buzzwords of sustainability that we have to solve. Since the business activities of the different companies are interlinked in the pharma ecosystem, a broad understanding is required to build a basis for change. By our engagement to co-design the programme of the Sustainability Theatre we saw the chance to share experiences we learned to be helpful for this transition with the broad audience visiting CPHI and find further partners to accelerate change.

What is the concept behind the programme of the Sustainability Theatre at CPHI?

Over two days, the programme aimed to present a journey to CPHI visitors, going from creating an understanding of key decarbonisation challenges, to inspiration on approaches to support successful implementation. In addition to understanding, we also wanted to emphasise the conviction that change is feasible and hence let’s start right now. 

We invited various speakers to work with us on a programme that prioritises content rather than generic company messaging. The goal was for participants to develop an action-oriented perspective on sustainability beyond the reporting and data stage, and for them to leave the room inspired, motivated and committed to supporting industry transformation.

How does sustainability play into vendor selection? 

With all our key suppliers we have carried out detailed surveys to understand how mature they are. We are looking for their know-how on their footprint drivers, share of green electricity and ideas to improve the sustainability of what they deliver to us. The survey results are an input to our annual vendor assessments next to their supply and quality performance. When we're starting a new tender, their sustainability score is one of the KPIs that is on the table so that we can systematically ensure that over time, the partners we are selecting are supporting our targets, including the SBTi targets that we’re working towards. 

What is SCHOTT Pharma working on to ensure more diversity and inclusion in the workplace? 

We have 13 sites around the globe, so diversity for us is a need to fit with different personas and geographical sensitivities within the world that we try to serve. We started an initiative across the entire SCHOTT network, where we strive for a more diverse composition of our teams, especially in the middle and upper management. We have specific KPIs around hiring women in leadership roles, we updated our recruitment process to include more women in the search and in the final decision making. We apply the same action towards recruiting people of different backgrounds and nationalities. We have added a key focus on topics like anti-harassment, and we want everybody to stand up for those principles, whether it’s about gender, or different social or racial backgrounds, we see diversity as a central element of our company culture and essential to deliver our company goals. So, we need to make sure that those who are representing a minority have a safe environment and everybody can contribute their strengths. This is a belief that is lived from the top in our organisation: what matters is what you bring in. 

What are the main areas of concern that you think we should be concentrating on in reducing the environmental impacts of the pharma industry?

That depends on where you are in the supply chain and the products themselves. If you think of drug product manufacturing, we need green chemistry solutions to solvents, and fossil-free base materials to cut the emission footprint. For inhalers, it’s the propellant gas that is making up the footprint. For autoinjectors, it’s the polymer components and their raw material footprint that dominates. So, for each type of company it is important to know the key drivers of the products to therefore understand where the majority of their contributions lie, and inform on what to focus and deliver for their responsible share to the industry’s transition. For us at SCHOTT and SCHOTT Pharma, the key drivers are glass melting and the packaging systems to deliver our syringes, ampoules, vials, and cartridges. This is why we focus on the new electric melting technology and the circular packaging initiatives with our partners.

Next to understanding our own responsibility, we also need to understand our role for the final products. Typically the drug inside our primary packaging solutions has an impact that’s significantly greater – often by two orders of magnitude and more – than the primary packaging itself. This means the primary role in delivering packaging remains to protect the contents. If you over-engineer the “sustainable” solution, it can lead to issues that overshadow the product itself. It’s crucial that we strike a balance to ensure the secure storage and administration of the drug without unnecessary complications. 

And although focus is typically on the carbon discussion, other parameters like water consumption, water or air pollution, biodiversity impacts, and resource consumption have to be considered. Typically, a reduction of virgin resource demand is supporting a positive impact on all environment factors and thus a great direction of thought.

What do you consider the key hurdle for the required transformation?

Typically, more sustainable solutions come with higher cost. To get the sustainability transformation moving, we need to find a model to balance this extra cost along the value chain. We need to find new business concepts that support collaborative efforts for holistic value chain solutions. One of the panels from CPHI Milan’s Sustainable Futures track emphasised the importance of finding this balance. Businesses are less likely to prioritise sustainability if it comes with a significant cost. Changes need to be reasonable for everyone involved.

With your initiatives towards circular packaging, what are the key challenges you see to integrate such responsible resource management solutions in everyday operations? 

Discussions with suppliers, customers, and internal teams show that although companies follow GMP standards and take care with their processes, any materials that don’t go into the product stream are treated as waste. This means that responsible planning to secure the materials are kept in the loop for a high quality second use isn’t something in focus today. With the upcoming change in reporting duties via the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), resource management policies and recycling are encouraged, but recycling alone doesn’t guarantee that materials will replace raw materials in the future.

Currently, 50–70% of recyclable materials still end up being incinerated, leading to a loss in resources as well as the resulting emissions. While companies receive credit for forwarding materials for recycling, the current system doesn’t distinguish between low-quality and high-quality recycling. We need experts who understand these differences and can advocate for a holistic, circular approach that keeps materials in use.

The Circularity Gap Report indicates that globally only about 7.2% of materials see a second lifecycle, which equates to over 90% of raw materials being used only once. If companies shifted focus to sustainable materials, we could avoid depleting raw resources.

Do you think the goals outlined in the Paris Agreement are achievable as the situation stands? 

The Paris Agreement goals for reducing carbon emissions and climate change are ambitious for companies and the absolute minimum to secure the future of our single home called Earth. While the industry has made some progress, meeting these goals by 2030 will require more and accelerated efforts. Many sustainability professionals may feel that the current maturity level of the industry’s sustainability actions means that these targets will not be met. That’s why initiatives like the collaboration with CPHI and the Sustainable Futures track are crucial. By fostering focused discussions on decarbonisation and promoting immediate action, we can motivate and drive the industry toward achievable and collective progress, even though the full targets remain a considerable challenge. 

To catch up on the content from the Sustainble Futures Threatre at CPHI Milan, see here. 

Sources:

https://www.schott-pharma.com/en/about-us/sustainability

https://www.ondrugdelivery.com/pioneering-pharmaceutical-packaging-a-push-for-decarbonisation-and-circularity/

https://sciencebasedtargets.org/

https://www.cphi.com/europe/en/resources/resources/sustainability.html

https://www.circularity-gap.world/2024

https://alliancetozero.com/