We published another sustainability goals benchmark report today, this one focused on the pharmaceutical industry. A couple of things that stand out from the benchmark:
- Judging from the goals they have announced, the major pharmas are serious about sustainability. All but one have specific, quantified sustainability goals.
- The pharmas are facing a major opportunity. Ninety percent of the goals they’ve announced deal with their internal operations. Most of the pharmas are not yet willing or able to announce supply-chain goals of any specificity. Yet the supply chain may account for the bulk of potential environmental impacts in some cases. GlaxoSmithKline, for instance, found that in 2009, the greenhouse gas emissions from its supply chain were twice those from its internal operations.
This suggests an opportunity to seize sustainability leadership for whichever companies can bring some focus to improving the environmental performance of their supply chain. These are highly sophisticated companies. I’m sure they are up to the challenge.
You can find our goals benchmarking research here.
