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Plants growing in four laboratory glass beakers containing green liquid formulasPlants growing in four laboratory glass beakers containing green liquid formulas

Global industries are focusing on sustainability more than ever, and the pharmaceutical industry is no exception. Manufacturing plays an integral role in environmental pharma solutions.

Various sustainable approaches for pharmaceutical manufacturers include:

  • Creating long-term sustainability plans by highlighting actionable and measurable goals for sustainable manufacturing
  • Focusing on environmental footprint reduction and undertaking pharmaceutical sustainability initiatives to incorporate or promote green manufacturing/synthesis across production units and facilities worldwide
  • Consistent improvement for established pharmaceutical processing technologies to ensure a reduced environmental footprint and high product yield without sacrificing quality
  • Emphasizing supply chain traceability to help ensure adherence to temperature control requirements for product integrity during transport

How Univar Solutions can support your ESG goals for pharma sustainability

At Univar Solutions, we understand how sustainable pharmaceutical manufacturing solutions directly connect to the health of our planet – from how we formulate in our labs to how we package and transfer across the world.

As a global chemical and ingredient distribution leader, we take our Environment, Social, and Governance (ESG) responsibilities seriously. Univar Solutions supports sustainable pharma manufacturing ingredient innovations and distribution with:

  • A sustainable supply chain that leverages our global distribution footprint, sustainable practices, and technologies to help us meet our sustainability goals and those of our customers.
  • Waste management and recycling programs that reduce costs, minimize environmental impacts, and optimize resource use for your operations.
  • Formulation and laboratory solutions that free your resources and better support your sustainable ingredient research and analysis in your eco-friendly product development journey.
  • Apply Sustainable ingredient alternatives from leading suppliers to your formulations.

Begin your pharmaceutical sustainability journey with Univar Solutions.


Watch the video below to learn about our eco-friendly transportation solutions for supply chain reliability.

3 ways CASE is contributing to sustainability

1. Extending the life span of maintenance coatings

The longevity of maintenance coatings is not always top of mind when it comes to environmental improvements, but it should be a major topic if one is trying to act sustainably in their community. Take for example metal bridges and general infrastructure. These structures must be coated to prevent rust and corrosion, but oftentimes for beautification and appearance standards in communities. Given the size and scale, coating these forms can be a major undertaking requiring huge amounts of chemicals, very high cost, and a lot of labor. Additionally, safety is a major factor given the heights and configurations involved. By developing direct-to-metal and other substrate maintenance coatings with longer life spans, we drastically reduce the impact of these key sustainability criteria.

2. Recyclability, resource reuse, and circularity in packaging and materials

Recyclability, resource reuse, and circularity in packaging and materials continues to be front of mind for many when they think about moving toward a more environmentally friendly community – especially when we think about the exponential growth in usage since the birth of plastics. Plastics in general can present an opportunity for sustainability in packaging in many end use products when it comes to development facets such as lightweighting. Univar Solutions and our supplier partners are finding ways to create a circular economy when it comes to plastics. A straight-line life cycle for plastics is not beneficial to our planet. To aid in this process, we provide plastic additives which act as compatibilizers and efficiency boosters when incorporating post-consumer and recycled plastic resin in new products and components.

3. Lightweighting vehicles to reduce energy consumption

Lastly, the lightweighting of vehicles has gained much attention in the world of sustainability given its symbiotic relationship to the above issues of energy consumption and recycled content. Roughly 80% of the products which come from a barrel of oil go into fuels such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel. Therefore, efforts are constantly being made to improve fuel efficiency in transportation. Lightweighting vehicles through plastic additives in place of heavier and less pliable materials provides a vital role in this efficiency endeavor. Similarly, demand for composites such as fiberglass reinforced plastics (FRP) and carbon fiber continue to grow for use in vehicles of all types to reduce weight. Finally, adhesives of all types are being employed to a greater degree for lightweight, strong, and versatile connectivity. Mechanical fastening tends to be heavier and more rigid, whereas adhesives have a near endless degree of formulating potential and cover the spectrum of performance criteria. We and our supplier partners help enable our customers to develop next-generation adhesives to help bond us to a brighter future.

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