“We want to be the leader in decarbonisation of the glass industry.” says Olivier Rousseau, Chief Executive Officer of SGD Pharma.
SGD Pharma is a worldwide manufacturer of molded and tubular glass for pharmaceutical primary packaging, producing 8 million vials and bottles per day.
In the latest episode of the PharmaSource podcast, Olivier sets out the company’s plans for 2024 and explains how the whole company is now lazer-focused on being the most sustainable in the industry.
“2024 will be a full year of innovation” says Olivier. “We are on a growth path” with new partnerships and facilities being announced to join its existing global infrastructure of five ISO 15378 certified GMP compliant manufacturing plants.
SGD Pharma’s Decarbonisation Strategy
Decarbonisation is now the company’s top priority, explains Olivier.
“Our goal is to clearly lead the pharmaceutical glass primary packaging industry. We truly believe that more and more drug manufacturers will look to carbon levels and sustainability strategies to choose their suppliers.”
“We had the ambition of reducing our CO2 emissions by 35% by 2021, and now we are working towards reducing them by 65% by 2040.” he says.
“We are investing significantly in the decarbonisation of all our industrial processes, and working with customers and partners across the full value chain to uncover scope one, scope two and scope three emissions to get to our goal.”
Some of the decarbonisation initiatives for SGD Pharma include:
1. Hybrid furnaces
“We are moving furnaces to be fully electric wherever possible.” says Olivier. The company will move to hybrid furnace model that will be 80% electric : 20% gas, a reversal of current situation which is today 80% gas: 20% electricity.
“We are also changing the way we buy green energy to bring less carbon into the product than what we have today.” adds Olivier.
2. Re-designing industrial processes
The company is working on full industrial process re-design within their factories, with tests to change the composition of their energy.
“All factories are already ISO 15378 certified and we work diligently year-to-year on continuous improvement on the use of our energy across our factories.”
3. Collaborating on lighter products
SGD Pharma is proactively working with its customers, suppliers and partners to develop lighter product with a reduced carbon footprint.
“If you can provide basically the same product in terms of physical properties, and chemical properties, but with a lower weight, that will create less carbon.” says Olivier.
4. Working across the full value chain
“We’re working with all our partners across the full value chain.” says Olivier. “From the moment we buy raw materials to the moment the product is delivered to the filling line of our customers”
By analysing all the options across the full value chain, the company expects to find many opportunities to reduce carbon over the coming years.
To find out more about SGD Pharma head to their website
LIVE on June 13 2024 
