Sense and sensibilities

For the pharmaceutical industry, saving lives is all in a day's work. But saving the planet is an altogether trickier proposition fraught with pitfalls.

Nonetheless, it is clear from the Envirowise seminar held at the end of last year that environmental concerns are high on the list of priorities among many pharmaceutical companies in Europe.

As well as doing - and being seen to do - the right thing, there are several sound business reasons for making a plant or a process as "green" as possible.

First, sound environmental practice goes down well with investors; in some cases, the purchase of shares in a company is based as much on its ethics as its profitability. Second, there are increasingly stringent legal and financial burdens imposed on those producing and subsequently disposing of significant amounts of hazardous waste. And continuously rising oil prices are having a knock-on effect not only on the cost of energy and transport but also the price of many raw materials.

For all these reasons there is a good case for integrating an environmental strategy into the wider picture of process optimisation to wring every last drop of efficiency out of a manufacturing facility.

So far, so good - but is this the best or even the only option?

Surely there is an equally good business case for cleaning up production in Europe by shipping the messiest and least environmentally friendly processes lock stock and barrel to parts of the world where not only is labour cheaper and operational costs lower but environmental pressures are not nearly so great.

Whatever happens, it is highly unlikely that environmental pressures in Europe will lessen in the future - in fact the signs are that restrictions will continue to tighten.

Virtue may be its own reward, but there could come a point in the future when it is no longer enough to balance out the increased costs and bureaucracy of operating in Europe when there are lower cost options readily available.

This invidious position will be faced by an increasing number of manufacturers and it will be interesting to be see whether it is ethics or economics that prevail.