Go Green This New Year

As we get ready to head into the new year, chief executive and financial officers may be making their wish lists for 2008. Grow revenue. Increase pipeline. Establish new facility abroad. Acquire small-sized generics company. And so forth. But why not add something "green" to the list?Why not consider ways to help the environment while aiming for success?

Angie Drakulich

Several companies are already on board. Take Cardinal Health, which is expanding its Dublin, Ohio, headquarters to house the company's Healthcare Supply Chain Services sector. The new facility is up for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)certification—and if approved, will be the first in Dublin to receive the honor. A project of the USGreen Building Council, LEED provides nationally accepted benchmarks for high-performance green buildings. More than 1050buildings in the US, and 1120 worldwide, have been LEED certified, meaning they meet certain sustainable development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality standards.

On the processing side, Materia (Pasadena, CA) has licensed its metathesis platform to Merck (Whitehouse Station, NJ), Aileron Therapeutics (Cambridge, MA), and Eisai (Tokyo) during the past year. Materia's catalysts help to synthesize potential new drugs with fewer byproducts and less hazardous waste.

College students are also getting into the green game. With the help of USEnvironmental Protection Agency grants, New Jersey's Rowan University is working with Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) (New York) and Novartis (Basel, Switzerland) to develop green engineering designs and practices. The BMS group is specifically looking at a solvent pervaporation project that could reduce carbon dioxide emissions and cut costs.

So here's to becoming a follower and a leader at the same time. Add "go green"to your comany's list of New Year's resolutions.

Angie Drakulich is the managing editor of Pharmaceutical Technology, adrakulich@advanstar.com