Amgros has included environmental criteria in selected tendering procedures since 2021. Another tendering procedure with environmental criteria has just been announced. This time there are brand new criteria such as energy efficiency and a return scheme for devices.
The criteria have been partly developed on the basis of an analysis from the consultancy firm, Viegand Maagøe. And partly based on a subsequent dialogue with suppliers.
The analysis from Viegand Maagøe was prepared for morphine to gain an understanding of which steps in the life cycle of morphine have the largest climate footprint. Among other things, the life cycle analysis showed that, besides energy consumption in production, the packaging also has a large climate footprint.
In the dialogue with suppliers, Amgros invited them to answer a number of questions to see which environmental criteria they would be able to meet.
"We found out a lot from actively involving suppliers in our market research. Because they were very keen to contribute their knowledge and experience. Overall, this meant that we felt reasonably well prepared when it came to selecting the environmental criteria to include in our tendering procedure. Because even though we at Amgros have clear ambitions to make the supply of medicines more sustainable, we also still need to get the suppliers on board. We have a strong feeling that we've been able to do so," says Flemming Sonne, CEO of Amgros.
An important message from our dialogue with suppliers is also that they want us to apply international standards for environmental criteria.
We have taken this into account in some of the tendering procedures we have just published. These include our tendering procedure for antibiotics. In order to prevent antibiotic resistance, we have used the same criteria as we used in the joint Nordic tendering procedure earlier this year. The criteria are based on an international standard.
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Besides the environmental criteria, suppliers also have to meet stricter requirements for responsible business conduct. This means that they must identify, prevent, manage and account for adverse impacts on human rights and the environment.
Amgros publishes more than 150 EU tendering procedures every year. The introduction of environmental criteria taught us that an IT system is required before environmental criteria can be widely applied in our tendering procedures.
- We've found that it takes up to ten-times longer to evaluate tenders when we've included environmental criteria in the call. Therefore, we've been developing an IT system to support the work. We'll need to get this fully up and running before we can extend the use of environmental criteria to more of our tendering procedures, says Flemming Sonne.
The analysis from Viegand Maagøe was prepared in collaboration with Regionhovedstadens Apotek and Amgros.
Last autumn, we announced Amgros' ambition for a more sustainable supply of medicines, and in January the regions launched a joint strategy for green hospitals. Consumption of medicines in hospitals contributes 20-25% of the regions' total climate footprint and therefore we must make every effort to reach our common climate goals.
The environmental criteria in the tendering procedures we are currently publishing focus on more sustainable packaging, last-mile transport, HFC-free inhalation sprays, return schemes for devices, energy efficiency in sterile water production and resistance prevention.
The environmental criteria contribute to achieving the goal of a 50% reduction in carbon emissions from hospitals by 2035.
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Karen Torgny
Senior Specialist- Communication
I’m responsible for overall communication at Amgros, including PR. And I help to ensure that we communicate with the surrounding world in an open and engaging manner.