COLD CHAIN CORNER
6 Sustainability Drivers in TemperatureControlled Logistics Why it’s easier to choose more sustainable options in temperature-controlled logistics than it was just a few years ago. KEREN SOOKNE, DIRECTOR OF EDITORIAL CONTENT
There are so many reasons to make more environmentally friendly choices: personal goals, company goals to be seen as a leader, concerns over future regulations, and more. Some merely don’t want to be left behind because this is the way the industry is moving. First, a note: sustainability means different things to different people. There are so many ways to measure it—there are goals around energy and water use, cutting carbon emissions, switching to renewable energies, material choices, and more. Health systems may look at cutting the use of certain gasses in favor of more environmentally friendly ones. Some life science manufacturers look at electric vehicles for local sample transport, find ways to recycle internally, or measure compressed air usage in the plant and make cuts based on those measurements. Another way to cut down on consumption lies in switching to reusable or greener single-use transport packaging where possible, including shippers, data loggers, totes, tubs, and phase change materials (PCMs). The following are six reasons why it’s easier to make this switch now than ever before. 1. The financial sector is onboard. Making sustainable choices is no longer just for the “green set.” Investors are increasingly looking at environmental factors such as ESG Ratings, which are designed to measure a company’s resilience to long-term, industry-specific environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks. There are certainly semantic and practical details to be hammered out in this arena, with some European fund managers dropping the “ESG-integrated term” perhaps due to Europe’s anti-greenwashing rules. The bottom line is investors are seeking meaningful climate-friendliness. In the Reusable Packaging Association’s article, Climate Change Interest Isn’t Ideology, It’s Economics, they highlighted a peer-reviewed
↑ Returns logistics remain a challenge for the healthcare packaging community.
↑ A reusable MilliporeSigma cooler features a return label showing the simple procedure for shipping the cooler back, making the process easy for busy lab managers and techs.
10 | Healthcare Packaging • November/December 2021
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