Packaging, supply & logistics
back programmes and recycle. Yet, waste management solutions vary geographically. Aptly, Baxter recently participated in the Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council’s Unlocking Recycling Potential study. Baxter doesn’t consider sustainability an “add-on”.
Rather, “at the heart of” patient safety and product quality. According to Kezar, sustainability efforts are fully integrated into Baxter’s quality systems and regulatory processes, meaning no separation throughout its central mission statement to “Save and Sustain Lives”.
Meanwhile, “safety, quality and service are at the heart of how we design, manufacture and deliver products,” says Stead. BD “partners” with customers to ensure quality healthcare for current and future generations, while minimising impacts on their planet. But how to translate this message to the wider masses? Collective visibility, via partnerships, can help. Examples include the Sustainable Healthcare Coalition, Healthcare Plastics Recycling Council, Collaborative for Healthcare Action to Reduce MedTech Emissions (CHaRM) and Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative.
Reactions elsewhere
Thankfully for those involved, the market appears to adapt well to more sustainable models. BD is seeing both increased weightings for environmentally preferable products in tenders, as well as customers asking for products and packaging with reduced environmental impact.
In this regard, Stead expects customers to continue focusing on sustainability: product quality, patient safety, clinical efficiency and reducing waste. “While there is some willingness to pay for environmentally preferable alternatives, generally cost is one of the top factors in purchasing decisions,” adds Stead.
Siemens Healthineers, too, is seeing healthcare providers increasingly eager to reduce packaging volumes and disposal burdens.
The company explained: “Every innovation in packaging, materials, or logistics is developed with the same guiding principle: ensuring essential medical technologies arrive safely, quickly and reliably, while advancing our collective responsibility to reduce environmental impact.”
What’s to come?
This movement is evolving fast, and with sustainability poised to permeate more consciences and boardrooms, the future is key.
Demand for devices is set to surge globally, meaning increased production must align with sustainability, which may become a more complex balance. And counting the UK’s NHS among its customers, BD considers reimagining medical device packaging vital for reducing emissions. BD’s lean operating system helps it maximise
www.medicaldevice-developments.com
manufacturing efficiency, reducing waste and scrap. By finding inefficiencies in processes, it hopes to reduce both environmental footprints and healthcare inefficiencies, while improving patient safety, automation, digitalisation and logistics optimisation. Meanwhile, Kezar sees two core opportunities for Baxter to deepen sustainability: driving comprehensive decarbonisation and embracing circularity in everything.
“Decarbonisation goes beyond our own operations,” continues Kezar. “It’s about engaging our entire supply
“Decarbonisation goes beyond our own operations. It’s about engaging our entire supply chain to help eliminate carbon from materials and processes.”
Renae Kezar, Baxter
chain to help eliminate carbon from materials and processes. Over the next year, we’ll continue working closely with suppliers to better understand their carbon footprints and identify actionable ways to reduce emissions together.
“Energy use is another area we see significant potential. Baxter has made meaningful progress on energy efficiency across our sites, cutting energy consumption and increasing our use of renewables. Looking ahead, we’re exploring how digital solutions – like AI-driven facility management – can make our energy use even smarter, and how we can leverage larger renewable energy projects to further power our operations sustainably.”
She also sees an opportunity to expand circular design thinking across materials, packaging and logistics; not just across Baxter, but broader medtech. Real progress will come from strengthening collaboration across its value chain, from suppliers and logistics partners to customers, so it’s integrating circularity into its R&D programmes and scaling reuse and recycling initiatives.
A united cause? Globally, it’s apparent that medtech is awakening to the role it plays in promoting sustainability. Other wide-reaching examples include how Japanese company Terumo advances product development under its Human x Eco design guidelines, to “balance value for patients and society with environmental considerations”, and Siemens Healthineers divulging how improved system integration and workflow alignment have transformed packaging efficiency at its Americas Distribution Centre.
How the industry worldwide will continue to build on its progress so far remains to be seen, but behind the scenes the cause appears non-negotiable to many. ●
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