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Irish biopharma-chemicals association recognised for sector-wide sustainability strategy

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24 September 2026

Irish biopharma-chemicals association recognised for sector-wide sustainability strategy

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The photo presents several blister packs of assorted tablets and capsules arranged on a blue surface.

BioPharmaChem Ireland (BPCI) won the National Associations and SMEs category for its Sustainability Strategy and Responsible Care Report 2025, a shared framework organised around four strategic pillars, electricity and infrastructure, Scope 3 emissions, data and standards, and safety culture, that gives Ireland's biopharmaceutical and chemicals sector a common reference point instead of fragmented, company-by-company efforts. For a national industry heavily weighted toward pharmaceutical manufacturing and its chemical supply chain, replacing fragmented initiatives with a coordinated strategy makes sector-wide progress genuinely trackable for the first time.

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Editorial team

Related Organisation(s)

CEFIC

Topics
Geographical descriptors

Ireland

Organisation Type

Company with 250 or more employees

Industry Associations and Chambers of Commerce

National authorities

SMEs (a company with less than 250 employees)

  • Policy type

    • Green transition

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The strategy's results, tracked between 2022 and 2024 across 48 participating member companies representing a 96% participation rate among relevant members, show carbon emissions falling 26%, water use down 2.9%, and energy consumption down 4.5%, achieved despite a 5.8% increase in production and continued employment growth over the same period, a genuine decoupling of output from environmental impact rather than improvement driven simply by lower activity levels. Renewable sources now supply over two-thirds of the sector's electricity, including on-site generation, though BPCI itself flags that further Scope 1 and 2 decarbonisation faces real constraints around grid capacity, supply reliability and access to affordably priced renewable electricity, an honest acknowledgment that the easier wins may already have been captured.

The most recent 2026 edition of the same report shows the trend continuing, with pharmaceutical exports up 29% to €99.9 billion in 2024 alongside a 30.5% reduction in electricity-related CO2 emissions and a 23% cut in volatile organic compound emissions, though BPCI also acknowledges a widening hazardous waste gap linked to growth in more complex active pharmaceutical ingredient production, a reminder that decoupling growth from environmental impact is not automatic across every metric even where the headline trend is positive.

#ChemicalSMEs #IndustrialDecarbonisation #SustainableChemistryFunding

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