Op-ed by Dr Tara Garraty, Tunley Environmental and Benedicta A. Bakpa, Bespak.
The pharmaceutical industry is intrinsically linked to biodiversity. According to the WHO, over 60% of pharmaceuticals originate from natural compounds, including plant alkaloids, microbial metabolites, and marine organisms. These biological resources underpin pharmaceutical innovation and therapeutic development.
Despite this dependence, the industry’s operations, characterised by large-scale resource extraction, intensive monocultures, and energy intensive synthesis, can cause significant harm to biodiversity. Activities such as deforestation to grow medicinal crops, water depletion for manufacturing, and pollution from pharmaceutical effluents all contribute to ecosystem degradation.
This ecological toll is often geographically distant from consumers but disproportionately impacts biodiversity hotspots in tropical and subtropical regions.
According to the Intergovernmental Science Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) over one million species are at risk of extinction, many within decades, primarily due to anthropogenic pressures. These losses are not only morally and ecologically troubling but also economically and operationally dangerous for the pharmaceutical sector.
Biodiversity loss can disrupt research pipelines, reduce the availability of critical compounds, and increase supply chain volatility.
To safeguard future innovation and supply chain continuity, businesses must move from reactive environmental compliance to a more proactive, systems-based governance model. Supply Chain Biodiversity Footprinting (SCBF) provides a structured, science-based mechanism for assessing, quantifying, and addressing biodiversity related risks across complex value chains.
The importance of environmental compliance and transparency
As environmental pressures mount, global regulatory expectations are rising. Key applicable regulations and frameworks now demanding action and disclosure include the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), particularly Target 15 on corporate disclosure; the UK Environment Act, which mandates biodiversity net gain; the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), including Article E4 on ecosystem impact; and the EU Biodiversity Strategy Plan for 2030.
Non-compliance with regulations can lead to regulatory fines whilst non-compliance with key frameworks may lead to restricted market access, and investor withdrawal. Conversely, transparency fosters resilience through enhanced stakeholder trust and reputational strength, stronger integration of ESG principles into business operations and early identification of nature-related risk and strategic opportunities.
Disclosure encourages cross-department collaboration, strategic foresight, and informed planning, making it a core business capability rather than a peripheral reporting task. For instance, leading pharmaceutical businesses that have embedded biodiversity into ESG reporting have been able to pre-empt regulatory shifts and secure long-term procurement contracts.
Public disclosure also strengthens access to green finance opportunities and nature-aligned investment vehicles. As sustainability-linked loans and nature performance bonds gain traction, transparent and science-based reporting on biodiversity footprints can provide a strategic edge in competitive capital markets.
Aligning with global frameworks
Supply Chain Biodiversity Footprinting (SCBF) plays a critical role in enabling businesses to meet their obligations under an evolving landscape of biodiversity-related frameworks.
As both voluntary and mandatory disclosure expectations continue to rise, SCBF offers a structured, science-based approach to align with key initiatives and provide credible data to support regulatory compliance, investor expectations, and strategic foresight.
By linking operational impacts to global goals, SCBF provides businesses with the tools to integrate biodiversity considerations into their corporate strategies. This not only facilitates regulatory compliance and reduces legal and reputational risk but also unlocks new opportunities, such as improved access to green finance, enhanced supply chain resilience, and competitive positioning in environmentally conscious markets.
Next steps and call to action
To embed biodiversity into business resilience and regulatory compliance, pharmaceutical businesses should take a structured and proactive approach to managing their biodiversity impacts.
By integrating these steps into business operations, pharmaceutical businesses can move beyond regulatory compliance to play an active role in ecosystem protection. The SCBF methodology empowers businesses to quantify, disclose, and mitigate their impacts in a science-based manner.
This is an abridged version of a white paper entitled The implementation of biodiversity footprinting – examining supply chains, which can be found here.
