Prioritizing biodiversity in sustainability conversations
As operations expand, there is increased pressure on the surrounding ecosystem. As natural resources originate from these ecosystems, biopharma can only operate as effectively as the resources they access, and these resources are only as reliable as the health of the environment they come from.
Protecting nature is not only an environmental responsibility, it is essential to securing the ecosystems, resources, and operational stability that underpin the future of biotechnology. When sustainability is discussed in biopharma, conversations often focus on carbon emissions, energy efficiency, waste reduction, and circularity. These priorities remain critical, but another issue is rapidly rising in importance: biodiversity.
As regulatory expectations evolve and organizations look to build more resilient operations, biodiversity is becoming increasingly recognized as a foundational business consideration. The health of ecosystems influences everything from water quality and raw material availability to supply chain stability and site resilience. For an industry that depends on consistency, precision, and long-term security of supply, understanding and protecting nature is no longer optional, it's strategic.
Biodiversity: the missing dimension of sustainability
Biodiversity refers to the variety of living beings on Earth, including animals, plants, fungi, and microorganisms, and the ecosystems they collectively support. While often viewed through a conservation lens, biodiversity has direct relevance for industrial operations and global supply chains. Daily business operations like production and transportation require sharing space inhabited by other species, and the practices of these operations always affect shared environments.
Reducing environmental pollution, conserving water, and using more recyclable or biodegradable packaging are all examples of how biodiversity and industry operation and are impacted by one another. These actions are intertwined with circularity, an increasingly important sustainability strategy reinforced with emerging regulations, such as the European Union’s upcoming Circular Economy Act.
Circularity focuses less on reducing material consumption and more on keeping resources in use for longer. This approach reduces dependence on finite natural resources and motivates efforts to extend the functional lifespan of materials currently in use. Future solutions to meet circularity goals will rely on renewable biological materials and other elements of a bioeconomy. Biopharma has been aware of the importance of biodiversity, but they now need a push to quantify their current impact and implement effective sustainability strategies.
For biopharma, healthy ecosystems provide essential services that businesses rely on every day. They help maintain water quality, support soil health, regulate natural cycles, and contribute to the resilience of the environments in which facilities operate. These same ecosystems are also responsible for producing the raw materials our industry depends upon, such as crates and packaging. As biodiversity declines globally, these natural systems become less stable, increasing risks to businesses that depend upon them.
Historically, biodiversity has been more difficult to measure than carbon emissions, and therefore less prominent in sustainability programs. However, growing scientific understanding, improved measurement approaches, and emerging reporting frameworks are beginning to change that. Regulations such as the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) are indicative of increasing expectations for organizations to better understand and communicate dependencies, risks, and impacts on the natural world. Organizations now have an opportunity to move biodiversity from an abstract environmental issue to a tangible business consideration.
Why biodiversity matters to biopharma
Biopharma manufacturing depends on reliable, high-quality natural resources. Fresh water is a critical input across research, development, and production; the less available it is, the more problems arise in these areas. Raw materials originate from complex supply networks that are themselves dependent on functioning ecosystems. Facilities require stable environmental conditions to operate efficiently and consistently.
When ecosystems are healthy, they are better able to recover from disruptions and adapt to changing environmental conditions. Every species contributes to the health of the ecosystem, and when the ecosystems are degraded, organizations face increasing exposure to operational risks.
As the industry shifts to biobased material, biodiversity comes to the forefront of a bioeconomy. The use of biobased materials will continue to increase as dependence on fossil fuel alternatives increases. A bioeconomy is a vehicle to meet net zero goals, and it requires a healthy natural world for aspects like processing agricultural waste to support the gap left by decreasing fossil fuel use. Improving biodiversity consequently improves soil health and fertility, crop output and resilience, and resource efficiency.
On a broader scope, the chemical sector is advocating for an urgent transition from fossil fuels and oil to a bioeconomy to ensure the process is started in time to avoid irreversible climate impacts and meet net zero goals. Biodiversity is intrinsically linked to manufacturing emissions, underscoring the urgency not just to act, but also to gain a deeper understanding of how biodiversity is essential to biopharma’s sustainability goals.
The connection between sustainable manufacturing and biodiversity is becoming particularly important as the industry continues to expand capacity to support advanced therapeutics, biologics, and next-generation medicines. Ensuring long-term access to the natural resources required for innovation will be critical to maintaining both productivity and resilience. Regulatory expectations are increasingly emphasizing circularity, waste reduction, water conservation, and sustainable materials management. Wastewater treatment regulation, the EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR), and other initiatives help create the framework for organizations to understand and manage their environmental impact.
From environmental issue to business resilience strategy
Biopharma leaders now have an opportunity to broaden sustainability strategies beyond carbon reduction alone. A site's relationship with its surrounding environment can influence water availability, ecosystem health, community relationships, and future operational agility. Integrating biodiversity considerations into site planning and sourcing decisions can help organizations build resilience while strengthening environmental performance.
Biodiversity is an evolving field we are working to influence. Aligning our work with evolving standards and resources will continue to decrease our environmental footprint in ways unattainable with decarbonization alone. Biodiversity metrics are currently less developed than climate and decarbonization metrics, but organizations such as the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) support businesses to assess, understand, and communicate nature-related risks and opportunities while informing broader industry discussions around biodiversity.
The bottom line is that all operations depend on maintaining a natural equilibrium in the environment, and it’s critical to treat biodiversity with the same urgency as other sustainability priorities, like decarbonization. Access to natural resources is becoming ever more strategic, and as more threats are posed to biodiversity, countries are recognizing destruction to the natural world as a threat to national security.
Turning understanding into strategy and action
At Cytiva, local efforts help define what making a positive impact on biodiversity looks like in practice. The Portsmouth Harbourgate site has undertaken initiatives to support native species. Since 2024, the site has assessed local habitats, planted native plants, and continued to adapt its operations to be less burdensome to the surrounding environment. Initiatives like this are foundational for modeling how biodiversity support can be integrated into operational sites.
Our Westborough site spearheaded a project to reduce its water use by identifying leaks and opportunities to optimize use, while gathering site-specific data that quantifies environmental impact. Monitoring water use not only helps reduce the overall footprint of the site, but also supports water availability for local species, strengthening the health of the surrounding ecosystem. Initiatives like this empower sites to take an active role in conserving local natural resources and advancing biodiversity stewardship.
Additional areas which cannot be overlooked include the sustainable sourcing of raw materials and packaging that help reduce strain on ecosystems across the value chain. These efforts complement our site-based initiatives by proactively and strategically mitigating risks to biodiversity before they happen.
We also completed the Biodiversity Project Starter Guide in cooperation with other biopharma companies through the Nature Steward Alliance. This guide details corporate biodiversity frameworks that can be used to log concerns for nature-related risks, design and implement projects, and access additional resources that support biodiversity projects.
Recognizing nature as a category distinct from climate within sustainability initiatives allows it to be handled with the attention it requires. Small actions like beach cleanups, picking up neighborhood litter, and native tree planting are ways we can pay more attention to the earth we build upon. We will continue to lead more site-specific projects, develop programs that are informed by new data, and begin to quantify impacts to guide the next steps.
We are charting a course to make a meaningful difference in this evolving realm of sustainability. Nature has long supported the development and delivery of life-changing medicines. The next step is ensuring that the industry actively supports nature in return.