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News | 2021-09-16
Pharmacy health care and medicine.

Retailers to utilize life cycle analysis for sustainability

In collaboration with Apotek Hjärtat, Perrigo and Idun Minerals, IVL will examine how retailers can utilize life cycle analysis data to reduce the climate impact of their products. The aim is to drive improvements and encourage the industry to switch to a more sustainable business model.

– It will be interesting to see the extent to which retailers can exploit life cycle analysis to reduce the impact of consumption on the environment. The study will also contribute to increasing the understanding of the climate impact of pharmacy products throughout their life cycles, says Susanne Lundberg, project manager at IVL Swedish Environmental Research Institute.

Life cycle analysis delivers an aggregate view of the total climate impact of a product across its entire life cycle, from raw material extraction via manufacturing processes and use, to waste management. This data can be used by various actors as a basis for decision making. The current project focusses principally on retail and how life cycle analysis can be used to leverage product environmental performance.

The study will also attempt to ascertain how companies in the retail trade and along the entire product chain can use life cycle analysis to generate environmental benefits, and to create an implementation model for this.

– Getting hold of the data is the first step. After that it is vital to integrate the awareness this imparts into decision-making processes and actually use it to guide decisions at all points along the chain, observes Åsa Nyblom, environmental sociology expert at IVL.

The project will run through the autumn of 2021 and is intended as a feasibility study ahead of future projects. The knowledge must be used when purchasing and in collaboration with suppliers and customers.

For more information, please contact:
Susanne Lundberg, susanne.lundberg@ivl.se, +46 (0)10-788 65 32

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