Pharmaceuticals in the environment have become a global concern, receiving growing attention in national, international and private sector processes. The global supply chains and how they can become more sustainable, for example by public procurement, are one of the key areas of interest. The UN-System’s inter-agency task team Sustainable Procurement in the Health Sector (SPHS) and the industry driven Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI) are two examples of this. With ongoing parallel processes of criteria development of Sustainable Public Procurement of Pharmaceuticals (SPPP) at local, national and global level the ambition is to increase the demand for sustainably produced pharmaceuticals and consequently incentivise decreased emissions.

Project results

However, there is a lack of coordination and synergies between different actors and initiatives. The aim of the seed money project GrePPP is to take the first steps to fill this synergy gap by developing a platform for sustainable procurement, where criteria that consider the aquatic environment and are applicable under relevant European regulation, are formulated and evaluated. Focus is on the Baltic Sea region and on a broad dialogue with relevant stakeholders, which will include the industry and other international actors to ensure long term results. Institute for Applied Ecology (Germany), Finnish Environment Institute and Baltic Environment Forum Lithuania. The project is a seed-money project funded by the European Union (European Regional Development Fund, Interreg Baltic Sea Region).