Enabling Greener Life Science SMEs

Published August 9, 2023 by

Medicon Village

Before breaking for the summer, we organised a highly impactful workshop that focused on how SMEs can be better supported in integrating sustainability into business strategies, as part of a seed money project supported by the EU Interreg South Baltic Programme. Bringing together stakeholders from Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Lithuania, and Estonia, we had the privilege of hearing from esteemed speakers such as Majbritt Skov from Deloitte (Denmark), Alice Larsson from Almi (Sweden), and Jens Gustafsson from Baxter (Sweden), who addressed the business impact of implementing sustainability in life science from various perspectives, and their presentations were complemented by representatives from Pharmista (Sweden), Noom Nordic (Denmark) and HiProMine (Poland) who shared the practical opportunities and challenges as SMEs in working with sustainability.

Some key takeaways from the workshop:

Sustainability can be a potential unique selling point and differentiator for life science SMEs, but its successful implementation requires dedicated resources and competences.
The acceptance of costs associated with sustainability practices by investors and customers is pivotal for sustainable business growth and success.
Life science SMEs can be supported in more systematically integrating sustainability into its business strategies and operations with initiatives that help to reduce the complexity and costs as well as increasing knowledge and competences on implementing sustainability. These can include showcasing best practices and blueprints that are easy to adopt and implement, facilitate cooperations with other companies to benefit from economies of scale associated with, for example, recycling and waste handling, and making available tools that enable the calculation and measurement of sustainability activities and their business impact and value.

Overall, the workshop served as an insightful platform for diverse stakeholders to come together, exchange ideas, and collectively explore avenues for advancing sustainability in business strategies.

To find out more about the workshop and how we at Medicon Village Innovation work with strategic collaborations and EU-financed projects, you’re welcome to reach out to Sarah Lidé, Deputy CEO (sarah.lide@mediconvillage.se).