**BSI Launches First Global Standard for Measuring Pharmaceutical Environmental Impact **
1 December 2025 marks a landmark moment for sustainable healthcare with the publication of PAS 2090:2025 – Pharmaceutical Products: Product Category Rules for Environmental Life Cycle Assessments, the first global standard designed to measure the environmental impact of medicines across their full lifecycle.
Developed through an extensive multi-stakeholder process, including input from more than 475 contributors across 35 countries, PAS 2090 offers the industry a harmonized, practical framework to assess environmental performance from manufacture to end-of-life. The new standard aims to improve transparency, enable better reporting, and help pharmaceutical manufacturers, investors, and health systems make more informed sustainability decisions.
**A Global Effort to Advance Sustainable Healthcare **
BSI’s collaborative development process included academia, regulators, aid organisations, health systems, consultancies, and manufacturers ranging from innovative biopharma companies to generics producers. The standard was developed with support from NHS England, the Office for Life Sciences, and the Pharmaceutical LCA Consortium, itself a partnership between the Sustainable Markets Initiative (SMI) Health Systems Task Force and the Pharmaceutical Environment Group (PEG).
PAS 2090 is designed to be accessible to organisations at all stages of data maturity. It avoids requiring primary data for activities outside a company’s operational control, making it suitable for global supply chains and companies of all sizes.
Gareth Presch, CEO of the World Health Innovation Summit, welcomed the standard’s release:
“PAS 2090 represents real progress toward a healthier planet and a more sustainable healthcare ecosystem. By giving industry a clear, consistent way to measure environmental impact, we can accelerate innovation, reduce emissions, and strengthen global supply chains — all while improving outcomes for patients and communities.”
Industry Leaders Welcome the New Framework
Susan Taylor Martin, Chief Executive of BSI, highlighted the importance of the initiative:
“PAS 2090 sets a new global benchmark for environmental transparency in the pharmaceutical sector… At BSI, we’re proud to support this critical step in accelerating progress to a more sustainable world.”
Office for Life Sciences Executive Chair Steve Bates OBE praised the collaboration behind the standard, noting the UK’s strong tradition of scientific excellence. Sanofi CEO Paul Hudson described PAS 2090 as “a defining moment for sustainable healthcare,” emphasising its potential to reduce the environmental footprint of medicines and vaccines.
Claire Foreman of NHS England underscored how the standard will support more sustainable patient care, while GSK’s Claire Lund called it “a significant step forward” for decarbonising health systems and building resilient supply chains.
Support Tools to Enable Global Adoption
To encourage rapid uptake, the PharmaLCA Consortium is developing three key resources:
- Technical Implementation Guidance – practical recommendations and examples for applying PAS 2090.
- A PAS 2090-Compliant LCI Database – built with ecoinvent and Boehringer Ingelheim, with 180+ datasetsexpected by Q4 2025.
- A PAS 2090-Compliant LCA Tool – planned for release in November 2026 to make LCA more accessible for smaller companies and healthcare providers. These tools will help embed life cycle thinking into medicines development, procurement, and regulatory processes globally.
A Turning Point for Sustainable Medicine
As healthcare systems around the world confront rising environmental impacts, PAS 2090 provides the first consistent, globally applicable foundation for measuring — and ultimately reducing — the footprint of pharmaceutical products.
**To download the standard, visit: https://www.bsigroup.com/en-GB/insights-and-media/media-centre/press-releases/2025/december/first-global-standard-for-measuring-the-environmental-impact-of-pharmaceuticals-published/ **