A discussion paper titled “Challenges and recommendations for environmental sustainability assessments of pharmaceutical products in the healthcare sector” has been published in Green Chemistry by Wouter De Soete of Ghent University, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, the Sustainable Healthcare Coalition and the American Chemical Society.
Healthcare represents a significant portion of the global economy so, it is important to be able to understand the environmental impacts of this industry due to its size and the nature of its operations. Focusing on pharmaceuticals, the group used a range of methodologies to ensure a broad stakeholder coverage to reflect on the efforts towards environmental sustainability assessment of pharmaceutical products. The paper identifies future key action points and proposes a set of recommendations by and for the sector to steer further development in order to support decision making processes.