Product Carbon Footprint for Plant Manufacturers in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Carbon accounting is no longer just a question of sites or vehicle fleets. Customers, banks and regulators increasingly ask: how much CO2 is in a single product? – and expect clear, verifiable answers.
Especially in pharma, where regulatory requirements meet complex supply chains, the carbon footprint per machine is becoming a strategic factor. The so-called Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) shows how much climate impact a product has from manufacturing to delivery – and is becoming the new standard in industry.

Some machine builders in the pharma sector have recognised this and are already acting. The plant manufacturer Bausch+Ströbel, for example, is currently systematically calculating the climate impact of its machines.
What is behind this trend – and why should others follow quickly?

1. From the corporate footprint to product responsibility

For a long time, the Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) was the central climate metric: how much CO2 is generated at a company site through energy consumption, business travel or company vehicles?

But requirements are shifting. The new EU sustainability reporting (CSRD), green bond guidelines, ESG ratings and pressure from large customers make it clear:
only those who know the carbon footprint of individual products remain future-proof.

In mechanical engineering, this particularly affects companies whose products become part of the value chains of large, internationally active customers. Anyone supplying equipment to pharmaceutical companies, for example, quickly becomes part of their Scope 3 balance – and has to disclose the CO2 data of the machines supplied in tenders or supplier assessments.

2. What exactly does a Product Carbon Footprint measure?

The Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) quantifies the greenhouse gas emissions generated over the life of a product, usually expressed in CO2 equivalents (CO₂e). It considers all relevant emissions from raw materials, manufacturing, transport, packaging and, where applicable, use. In mechanical engineering, the so-called cradle-to-gate logic has become established: from the cradle (raw material extraction) to the manufacturer’s factory gate.

The methodology is standardised by, among others:

• ISO 14067 (carbon footprint of products)
• Greenhouse Gas Protocol – Product Life Cycle Accounting and Reporting Standard

A key difference from the company-wide carbon footprint: the PCF is product-specific. It answers the question: how much climate impact does exactly this machine have? And it opens up new possibilities: from comparing different design options to marketing a product as “climate-friendly”.

3. Why the pharmaceutical industry is setting the pace

The pharmaceutical industry is under double pressure:
on the one hand from strict regulatory requirements, on the other from stakeholder and market requirements in the context of sustainability. Large corporations such as Bayer, Novartis or Pfizer have long been obliged to record and disclose Scope 3 emissions – including the emissions caused by purchased machines and equipment.

For machine builders whose customers are players in the pharmaceutical industry, this means:

• Those who cannot provide product-specific CO2 data make sustainability reporting harder for their customers
• Suppliers who make PCF data per machine transparent are increasingly winning tenders
• The PCF is becoming a soft exclusion criterion – comparable to GMP certifications or life cycle documentation

At the same time, the potential is enormous: unlike consumer goods, pharmaceutical equipment is often used for decades – its carbon footprint thus becomes part of its customers’ sustainability story.

4. Bausch+Ströbel shows how CO2 transparency can work in mechanical engineering

One company that is already leading the way is Bausch+Ströbel – a leading manufacturer of special machines for the pharmaceutical industry. The company’s machines clean, sterilise, fill and label primary pharmaceutical packaging such as ampoules, vials or syringes – in close alignment with the industry’s strict requirements.

Bausch+Ströbel has been publishing its Corporate Carbon Footprint (CCF) for years. But with the growing need for product-related emission data – from customers as well as from a regulatory perspective – the Product Carbon Footprint (PCF) of individual machines was now to be determined. The starting point was not unusual: the machines are complex and configured to customer specifications, the bills of materials partly incomplete, data sources fragmented. At the same time, the internal resources to get to grips with the calculation logic according to ISO 14067 or the GHG Protocol were lacking.

Despite these challenges, the company did not want to wait any longer – and decided to work with TELUSIO.

The carbon footprint of a complex machine in six weeks

The pragmatic approach: TELUSIO received a raw data export from the ERP system – and took over the structured analysis from there. Within just six weeks, the complete PCF of an exemplary machine was available – transparent methodology included, calculated activity-based on the basis of the GHG Protocol Product Standard.

Quote from Marcus Michl, Head of Quality Management & Qualification:

“We only sent TELUSIO an unprocessed data export. Within 6 weeks, we had a Product Carbon Footprint for our complex machine.”

The results were not only revealing internally, but now also offer tangible benefits for customers: transparency at assembly and material level, reliable evidence for sustainability tenders, and the opportunity to systematically develop products further according to CO2 criteria in future.

The digitalisation approach was particularly convincing: TELUSIO showed how the PCF can be determined automatically at the push of a button in future – without additional resources in day-to-day business.

Quote from Dr. Hagen Gehringer, Member of the Executive Board:

“The transparent and clear path to automating PCF determination for all our machines is very convincing.”

Bausch+Ströbel thus exemplifies a trend that will take hold of the entire pharmaceutical machine-building sector: those who start creating CO2 transparency at product level today are building a strategic lead for tomorrow.

Here you can find the success story in detail.

5. Strategic lessons for pharmaceutical machine building

The Product Carbon Footprint is more than a technical metric – it is becoming a strategic steering variable. Those who know it can:

• compare product designs – for example aluminium vs. stainless steel or welded assembly vs. casting
• communicate sustainability credibly – and thus meet ESG requirements
• stand out in tenders – against suppliers without CO2 transparency
• secure future-proof financing – for example through green bonds or ESG-linked credit lines

The prerequisite: start early. Building data quality, supplier involvement and internal processes takes time. Anyone who only acts when the first customer demands CO₂e values is too late.

Conclusion: carbon knowledge is future knowledge

The Product Carbon Footprint is becoming the new standard – not only in consumer goods, but also in industrial plant engineering. Pharmaceutical companies are already systematically recording their Scope 3 emissions – and expect the necessary data from their suppliers.

Bausch+Ströbel shows how a machine builder proactively takes responsibility and derives strategic advantages from it.

For everyone else:
now is the right time to calculate the carbon footprint of your own products. Those who start today gain not only credibility – but also a real lead in the competition for sustainable customer relationships.