Sustainability Assessment Module

1. Key Benefits of the Sustainability Assessment Module
2. Calculation Method
3. Cases when a sustainability report cannot be generated

The Sustainability Assessment Module seamlessly integrates emission and waste calculation into Validaide’s Lane Risk Assessments, empowering Pharmaceutical and Packaging Manufacturers as well as Freight Forwarders to make informed decisions that balance risk, cost, and sustainability.

This standardized approach ensures comparability across suppliers and lanes, alignment with sustainability goals without disrupting operational efficiency.

1. Key Benefits of the Sustainability Assessment Module

Who benefits from the Sustainability Assessment Module?

The Sustainability Assessment Module provides tailored value to key stakeholders across the pharmaceutical supply chain. Here's how each group benefits:

• Pharmaceutical Manufacturers

1. Gain standardized, comparable emissions insights for supplier and lane selection.
2. Ensure accurate emissions overview by including volumetric weight of packaging and reverse logistics.
3. Evaluate lane risk and emissions side-by-side within a single platform for improved decision-making.

• Freight Forwarders

1. Demonstrate industry leadership by offering cost, risk and emissions comparisons across lanes.
2. Support pharmaceutical manufacturers in meeting sustainability objectives and reduce CO₂ emissions.
3. Quickly calculate CO₂ emissions with a few clicks – eliminating manual tracking or complex comparisons.

• Packaging Manufacturers

1. Easily calculate emissions for various packaging types using standardized and known methodologies.
2. Demonstrate industry leadership by providing verified emissions data.
3. Increase your chances of becoming a preferred partner by sharing your packaging’s CO₂ emissions.

Note: The Sustainability Module is available only to Pharmaceutical Manufacturers with a Premium plan. The Basic plan does not include this functionality. For Freight Forwarders, Air Carriers, Ocean Carriers, and Packaging Manufacturers, the module is available and visible in lanes shared with them.

2. Calculation Method

Validaide calculates the CO2 emissions and waste for the transport of one packaging type on a lane by using the MIT methodology (MIT study). To ensure comparability between small and large packaging types, Validaide also calculates the emissions and waste per cubic meter of pharma products. 

To accurately do that, Validaide calculates the emissions of the following sub-steps: 

• Transport, including all specified legs.
• Production and end of life of packaging types.
• Reverse logistics for multi-use packaging.
• Waste.

Note: Pre-conditioning, which is the step of preparing temperature-controlled packaging, is excluded, as it typically accounts for less than 1% of total emissions. 

For more details on the calculation specification, please contact us at support@validaide.com.

Sustainability Module Emission Calculations

Validaide calculates the emissions for four different transport modes: 

• Road
• Air
• Sea
• Train 

Leveraging data from the Capabilities Platform and integrated sources, Pharma Manufacturers and Freight Forwarders can effortlessly generate a Sustainability Assessment for each lane in parallel with their Lane Risk Assessment. However, in certain cases, additional data is required to complete the Sustainability Assessment - these cases are outlined below. Until recently, Freight Forwarders only linked general packaging types in the lane, but for the sustainability assessment to work, defined packaging must be linked in the lane.

Steps to Generate a Sustainability Assessment:

1. Go to the Sustainability tab on a lane page.
2. Select defined packaging (manual packaging selection is not supported).  

Once selected, a message will appear: “Sustainability data being calculated”. 

Note: No notification is sent once the data is ready. Users should refresh or revisit the tab after 10 seconds to 5 minutes.

After processing the sustainability data, a detailed CO2 distribution will be shown, breaking down emissions across: 

• Packaging (Production & End of Life)
• Transport
• Reverse logistics. 

Emissions will also be broken down per lane step, and a new “Sustainability Summary” card will appear in the Lane Overview tab. The Sustainability Summary widget provides a high-level overview of the total emissions and waste production for the respective lane. The emissions are also broken down by transport mode. 

3. Cases when a sustainability report cannot be generated

1. No transit steps in the lane:
   • The Sustainability tab will not have data and will not be clickable.
2. Packaging with only external volume defined, but no internal volume defined
   • Even if the lane has transit steps, calculations can’t proceed without internal volume. The system will show the message: “Cubic meter should be between 0.001 and 50 inclusive.” This is a likely scenario post-release, as many existing packaging entries may not have internal volume defined (as this field was previously not a mandatory field for Packaging Manufacturers).  

Find more information on the Sustainability Module Assessment Specification in the following document: