“Environmental Sustainability can be a substantial differentiator for CDMOs”
Jürgen Wieland, Development Environmental Sustainability Lead at Novartis, is engaged to integrate sustainability into development processes, including reducing the emissions of clinical trials. Jürgen brings over 20 years of finance and controlling experience to his sustainability role at Novartis, where he’s responsible for embedding environmental considerations across R&D and clinical operations. Before joining Novartis in 2011, he served as CFO of an NGO bringing solar energy to rural East Africa.
In a recent PharmaSource podcast, Jürgen shares how pharmaceutical companies and their Contract, Development and Manufacturing Organization (CDMO) partners can reduce scope 3 emissions while improving operational efficiency—proving that sustainability and profitability are not mutually exclusive.
Where Greener is More Affordable
With scope 3 emissions dominating pharma’s carbon footprint, manufacturing partners hold the key to meaningful decarbonization. Jürgen identifies clear priorities for CDMOs looking to differentiate themselves.
“In the CDMO business, which is typically very cost-conscious, identifying areas where you have win-wins is key,” Jürgen explains. “Reducing consumption of natural resources, reducing waste, and applying circular economy principles—that’s a good starting point.”
Electricity decarbonization offers the easiest entry point. Novartis has partnered with other major pharmaceutical companies through the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s “Energize” program, creating virtual power purchase agreements that smaller suppliers can join without significant investment. “We realized making large renewable energy projects was overwhelming for smaller players, so we teamed up,” Jürgen notes. “Each CDMO can sign up to contribute without big hurdles.”
Heat and steam decarbonization present more complexity but significant opportunity. “Switching to biogas is typically more expensive, but if you find operational efficiencies by reducing consumption or optimizing your Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning (HVAC) system, you can decarbonize in a cost-neutral or cost-beneficial way,” he says.
For small molecule production, solvent management and precious metal catalyst recovery offer substantial savings. “Rhodium and palladium catalysts—if you can recover and reuse them—offer a great business case. You don’t need to source raw materials, you have fewer supply chain risks, and less waste disposal cost.”
Supplier Evaluation: Separating Substance from Greenwashing
I asked Jürgen how Novartis distinguishes between suppliers that are truly committed to sustainability and those that are simply talking the talk.
“You can see relatively quickly where there are unsubstantiated green claims,” Jürgen observes. Sustainability has evolved – companies need to show evidence and action that they are making an impact. Sustainability needs to demonstrate business value as well as overall positive societal impact.
Novartis requires its suppliers to meet environmental sustainability criteria. For the largest carbon-emitting partners, Novartis conducts some detailed one-on-one sustainability roadmap discussions. “We discuss the specific product and process they are supplying, identify optimization opportunities, share our experience, and see how we can get suppliers on board.”
The most valuable CDMO partners go beyond compliance and competitive costs. Advanced suppliers tend to be proactive and can propose how an established production process can be further improved, such as through additional steps of solvent recovery, recycling, and waste valorization projects.
Evaluation criteria of suppliers include understanding scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions, setting ambitious targets, disclosing progress, and sharing decarbonization roadmaps. For specific products, Novartis asks for product carbon footprints or more comprehensive life cycle assessments, alongside carbon emissions and, for example, also water use, land impact, and ecotoxicity.
“The more mature and advanced you are, the more likely you become a preferred supplier,” Jürgen emphasizes.
Sustainable Product Design
Novartis integrates environmental considerations throughout drug development, with Phase 2 clinical studies offering the optimal intervention point.
“The sweet spot is typically during Phase 2,” Jürgen explains. “Before that, there’s a high probability compounds won’t progress. After that, in Phase 3, the manufacturing process is already part of your regulatory submission. So, starting at that point means potentially missing the launch window.”
From early research through commercialization, sustainability assessments become more granular at each milestone. “With every major milestone, we reassess the product and identify hotspots and optimization opportunities. It’s a core deliverable of our technical development plan.”
The approach considers production technology, raw materials, batch size, yield improvements, and packaging design. “There’s a substantial opportunity during development. What raw materials you use, how you scale up, how you improve yields.”
Balancing Patient Need with Environmental Impact
When asked how Novartis balances its sustainability goals with the need to produce life-saving drugs, Jürgen says every decision depends on context, with the patient need at the forefront.
“The clear priority is patient need. A cell therapy might be carbon-intensive per dose, but if that single dose cures the patient and avoids years of standard care, hospitalization, and other drugs, the overall impact is positive.”
The Business Case for Sustainability
Contrary to consumer perceptions that more sustainable products cost more, Jürgen’s approach to sustainability can drive financial savings: “When we started looking at clinical supply, we realized that by consolidating medication shipments, introducing reusable shipper boxes, and reducing overage, we had huge savings potential. “From my first day, I was able to draw on previous optimizations from my former finance role, to tackle areas where sustainability within clinical trials had no natural owner and offered meaningful improvement potentials.”
Examples of cost-positive sustainability initiatives in pharma manufacturing include:
- Green chemistry principles: Solvent and catalyst recovery eliminates raw material sourcing costs and waste disposal fees
- Packaging optimization: Multi-device hospital packs reduce material costs, storage space, and transport expenses
- Process improvement: Eliminating unnecessary chromatography steps in biologics manufacturing without compromising quality
- Yield enhancement: Advanced technologies that reduce raw material needs while improving output
“Sustainability has a business case,” Jürgen emphasizes. “Employees are committed and willing to go the extra mile. And thinking bigger picture: protecting the planet advances human health.”
Industry Collaboration
Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly treating sustainability as a pre-competitive issue, collaborating through multiple forums to accelerate progress.
The Pharmaceutical Environmental Group brings sector peers together in work streams covering, for example, environmental topics such as water management and solvents. “Everyone realizes that going together in the same direction regarding sustainability goals makes the journey easier,” Jürgen notes. “It’s good for CDMOs and suppliers to have clarity that progress is not dependent on individual action alone.”
Within the Sustainable Markets Initiative, introduced by King Charles, the Health System Task Force brings together large pharmaceutical companies, the WHO, UNICEF, NHS England, and the Sustainable Healthcare Coalition.
Advice for Emerging Biotechs
For small organizations without dedicated sustainability teams, Jürgen recommends starting with resource efficiency and regulatory-relevant decisions.
“You don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Try to learn what best practice looks like in your area and integrate that as much as possible. If you can apply sustainable approaches from the very beginning in your processes, you’ll benefit.”
The advice extends to CDMOs. “If you’re willing to consider more sustainability activities, I recommend reaching out to existing collaboration forums or leading companies in this field. Pharma companies are willing and happy to engage on this topic with their suppliers.”
Starting with win-win opportunities—resource efficiency improvements that reduce costs—creates momentum without requiring significant investment. “You can reallocate freed-up savings into those areas and deliver on both sustainability and business performance.”
