Pharma companies mark a key milestone on their journey to nature positive

World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) is collaborating with leading companies in the sector, with support from PwC UK, to develop a Roadmap to Nature Positive for the pharmaceutical (pharma) sector. Today marks a key milestone in the Roadmap’s development with the release of the draft ‘Overview for the Pharmaceutical Sector: Priority actions towards a nature-positive future’ (Overview), now open for public consultation until 18 November 2024.  

This Overview forms part of a wider collaboration with Business for Nature and the World Economic Forum aiming to develop sector-specific guidance. The Overview highlights the key dependencies and impacts of the pharmaceutical sector as well as priority actions companies in the sector should take to drive progress toward a nature-positive future. Feedback is encouraged from a broad range of stakeholders – including business leaders, policymakers, civil society and academia – the input received will play a critical role in ensuring the key dependencies, impacts and priority actions identified are robust and applicable, supporting the pharmaceutical sector in refining its contributions to nature positive. 

Achieving the global goal of halting and reversing nature loss by 2030, as outlined in the Global Biodiversity Framework, requires system-wide transformation. In partnership with GSK, WBCSD is convening leading pharmaceutical companies including AstraZeneca, Bayer, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Reckitt and Roche to develop the Roadmap to Nature Positive for the pharma sector and accelerate business action. 

The Roadmap is part of a series of Roadmaps to Nature Positive, launched by WBCSD in 2022 and include forest products, agri-food (row crops), energy and the built environment, to accelerate business action toward the global goal for nature. The multi-phased Roadmaps are developed through a collaborative process with peers from the same sectors or economic systems defining shared impacts, dependencies and opportunities that focus on the activities that will accelerate credible nature-positive ambition, action and accountability.  

As the pharmaceutical sector continues to grow and develop novel therapies to improve patient outcomes, its impacts and dependencies on nature are increasing. The complexity of pharmaceutical value chains makes it challenging to identify and manage these impacts. This is especially true for impacts deeply embedded in the supply chain, such as the sourcing of raw materials and end-of-life treatment of pharmaceutical products, where traceability is difficult and limited.  

The Overview proposes nature-related impacts and dependencies as well as impactful actions the pharmaceutical sector can take to halt and reverse nature loss across the full value chain. These will vary among pharmaceutical companies, depending on their specific business models and resulting materiality. The feedback gathered from the public consultation will help refine and confirm these priorities, contributing to the content of the Roadmap to Nature Positive: Foundations for the pharma sector, set to be published in early 2025. 

The second phase of the Roadmap will tie the actions to a set of prioritized metrics – work that is already underway for forest products, agri-food, energy and built environment. This effort will support sustainability practitioners to navigate and identify the most relevant metrics to measure progress, set targets and disclose information on companies’ key nature impacts and dependencies in alignment with major voluntary and regulatory frameworks. The outcomes of this initiative will be accessible via a user-friendly Nature Metrics Portal, set to launch by UNFCCC COP30 in November 2025.  

The Overview is now open for public consultation. If your organization would like to participate in the consultation, please access the feedback form to provide your input on the Overview by Monday 18 November 2024, or please reach out to Holly Metcalfe, Manager Nature Action, at metcalfe@wbcsd.org.