Sustainability in the Biopharmaceutical Market
The Biopharmaceutical market adopted single-use biomanufacturing equipment, also called Single-Use Technology (SUT), more than ten years ago for many reasons such as process efficiencies, increased manufacturing, and flexibility. Sustainability is a growing concern as global warming is accelerating and plastic usage is under environmental pressure. Thus, decarbonization and circular economy are the two main trends observed in the market. While SUT applies in a clean room where HVAC systems are very carbon intensive and are incinerated or landfilled as it is required for hazardous waste, switching to SUT helps reduce energy and water consumption for washing and sterilization operations.1 This does not mean that the industry is not taking action. In fact, it is highly committed to collaborating to fight climate change and promote circular economy through global industry organizations such as BioPhorum and BPSA.
References:
1 Single-use technology and sustainability: quantifying the environmental impact in biologic manufacturing, Cytiva
Our Offer
As one example, our ValPlus™ service offers sustainability benefits to customers:
The documented cleanliness of ValPlus™ eliminates the need for our customers to rinse and cleanse the inner part of the tube. Thus, it is reducing the time needed for operations, and, therefore, the resources required on site. In addition, this offer demonstrates environmental benefits. Our customers are reducing their usage of Water for Injection (WFI) consumption by up to several million liters and the energy required to dry the tubes.
Manufacturing in a Responsible Manner
In line with the Saint-Gobain 2025 and 2030 objectives on waste, water, energy, and CO2 (scope 1 and scope 2), Saint-Gobain Bioprocess Solutions plants are reporting on several indicators to keep improving their environmental performances. To continuously improve our environmental performance, 60% of our plants obtained the Environmental Management certification ISO 14001. View ISO Certificates
Energy & Carbon Emission
Saint-Gobain Bioprocess Solutions' Scope 1 is relatively low compared to Scope 2 and Scope 3. However, improvements are being made in every category.
Scope Examples
- Scope 1 - At the Beaverton site in the USA, the Sustainability team of volunteer employees identifies energy efficiency improvement opportunities. One of their actions helps to reduce CO2 emissions by 60 kg through compressed air leaks elimination per year from electricity generation.
- Scope 2 - In the USA, Saint-Gobain has entered into a 12-year virtual Power Purchase Agreement (PPA). The Bioprocess Solutions plants receive a 33% reduction in their scope 2 emissions in 2021. News Release
- Scope 3 - Saint-Gobain Bioprocess Solutions also starts to investigate quantification. We remain available for any further inquiry on our own customers’ scope 3 calculations.
Increasingly, Saint-Gobain Bioprocess Solutions is localizing its production sites. This will help reduce the footprint coming from transportation, among other benefits.
Having a Conscious Use of Plastic
As a principle of circular economy, reducing the use of plastic is the most virtuous option. Committed to starting work in circularity, an internal project has been launched to explore new concepts around reducing or removing spool packaging. This is a win-win-win approach: reducing waste generation and costs associated at our customer site, reducing dependency on plastic packaging on our side, and reducing the consumption of plastics for a reduced impact on the environment.
We also intend to explore eco-innovation in our product development for weight optimization, reduced packaging, design for easy disassembly, extended shelf life, and so many other paths for a more sustainable offer.