Sustainability and life sciences: How to make it happen
Ian Bolland spoke to Richard Coxon, Dassault Systemes, to discuss sustainability in the life science sector and achieving net-zero carbon emissions.
IB: What kind of things can manufacturers and innovators do to be more environmentally friendly, and in turn, help health service providers?
RC: There is a huge opportunity for further innovation in the healthcare sector and this starts by moving towards low-carbon health systems, so the sector can mitigate its own impact on the climate and become more resilient to the impacts of climate change. One way the sector can do so is by using technology to improve processes and become more sustainable. An example of technology that the sector can use is collaborative 3D designs, which are based upon breaking down knowledge silos and allowing organisations to create sustainable solutions for the future.
We can create virtual copies of buildings and transport systems to identify efficiencies and reduce waste. We can then help use these 3D virtual models for example, to help design a new building or how to make the most efficient retro-fit project or how to select sustainable materials that perform as well as traditional building materials.
Another key area is Dassault Systemes’ long-term ambition of creating virtual twins or copies of people. These virtual twins will be utilised in health treatment hypotheses as well as in designing, testing and development of therapeutic products. It is still a long way off being a full human model of course, but we are making good progress with specific organs such as the living heart project. These virtual models offer huge potential for reducing waste – very little material is required – and environmental impact would reduce through needing less travel. In clinical trials this would have a significant impact.
IB: What can life sciences learn from other industries when it comes to more sustainable and environmentally-friendly manufacturing practices?
RC: It will be a difficult but necessary journey for the life sciences sector to become more sustainable and it will involve learning from other industries and following their best practises. When it comes to sustainability, the challenges faced by the life sciences sector are very similar to challenges faced by other industries. The life sciences sector obviously consumes and transports a lot of goods, so it is vital that it is doing this in the most sustainable way that it can. This includes using electric vehicles rather than petrol and ensuring that the supply chain is as maintainable as possible. At Dassault Systèmes, we help businesses to do this by using 3D technology to build a model supply chain in the virtual world which shows how medical devices are being transported, which allows us to see where the chain can be made more efficient.
Looking at other industries, we are in an era of ‘industry renaissance’, where the real and the virtual worlds merge to create new ways of inventing, learning, producing and doing business. This is enabling new categories of industrial firms to create new categories of solutions for new categories of customers. The various industrial sectors of the 21st century are much less concerned with flows of parts than with flows of usages and virtual models, existing in an economy that eliminates friction and optimises the life cycle using intelligent systems whose data is energy. This becomes the very definition of an industry. So, from air taxis to data-driven crop science, the power of virtual worlds created and managed on virtual platforms is enabling entire new business models that delight customers with previously impossible experiences that also offer far more from a sustainability perspective.
Life science organisations can apply the same knowledge here, as rich and accessible knowledge and know-how are the new keys to success, determining humanity’s capacity to invent innovative and sustainable solutions that address previously intractable global challenges. The ability to access and apply knowledge and know-how at hyper-speed is the new prerequisite for survival, and virtual worlds on virtual experience platforms deliver this.
One example of a business in another industry that is doing this is Laboratoires M&L, the manufacturing division of L’Occitane Group, which uses Dassault Systèmes’ DELMIA Apriso to help optimise its global production and logistics operations. With real-time availability of information, Laboratoires M&L has more foresight thanks to better planning and the availability of information in real time, which also improve decision-making, while reducing the rate of non-quality, waste by 50%.
IB: When do you think is a realistic timetable for the industry to get to net-zero?
RC: The UK became the first major economy to pass net zero emissions legislation in 2019, making 2050 the target for the UK to reduce emissions to zero. Yet, the UK’s life sciences sector has a very large carbon footprint, with the NHS making up 5% of all UK GHG emissions. The sector itself provides care to over 60 million people in the UK and on top of this, medical devices and pharmaceuticals account for 25% of the total health and social care footprint. Therefore, the healthcare sector needs to prioritise playing a pivotal role in finding solutions to this climate change challenge, in order to realistically reach the 2050 legislation. Achieving these objectives means that it needs to be looking into solutions for building housing patients or research facilities, to the energy and water requirements and waste produced, through transport and procurement of materials used to produce pharmaceuticals and medical devices. It’s worth bearing in mind most emissions come from the procurement of goods and services; better management of the supply chain would help reduce the impact of the delivery of goods.
There are also several ways research and development can be improved and technology will most certainly form the backbone of these solutions. 3D and virtual models will play a key role in learning how to scale up sustainable practices, and to realise efficiencies and cost savings at the same time. Virtual universes can transform the entire life sciences industry, from therapeutic product discovery, all the way to delivery of care and improvement of health for every single individual. One example of an organisation in the life sciences industry leading the way with on getting to net-zero is AstraZeneca, with the company recently unveiling an ambitious programme for zero carbon emissions from its global operations by 2025 and to ensure its entire value chain is carbon negative by 2030. This is exactly the type of initiative that will help the life sciences sector become sustainable and ultimately get to net-zero.