Chiesi Pledges Commitment to Planet and Patients

Pharmaceutical manufacturing has long carried a hidden environmental cost — one that healthcare systems are only now beginning to reckon with. Chiesi Group, an international biopharmaceutical company, has positioned itself at the front of that reckoning with a formal Net Zero commitment: eliminating greenhouse gas emissions across its entire value chain by 2035, fifteen years ahead of the European Union’s broader 2050 climate target.

Net Zero matters in healthcare because the industry that exists to protect human health is also a meaningful contributor to the climate pressures driving disease. Pharmaceutical manufacturing, distribution, and product use generate emissions at nearly every stage — from raw material sourcing to the propellant gases inside a metered-dose inhaler. For patients, healthcare systems, and society, a credible decarbonization strategy from a major pharmaceutical company offers a template for reducing environmental harm without compromising the reliability of essential medicines. This article breaks down what Chiesi’s Net Zero commitment actually involves, how it fits into the wider conversation about ESG in pharmaceuticals, and what it could mean for the future of sustainable healthcare.

What Is Chiesi’s Net Zero Commitment?

Chiesi’s Net Zero pledge targets full decarbonization of its value chain by 2035. To understand what that means in practice, it helps to understand how corporate emissions are typically categorized:

Scope 1 emissions: Direct emissions from sources a company owns or controls, such as fuel burned at manufacturing sites or company vehicles.
Scope 2 emissions: Indirect emissions from the electricity, steam, heating, or cooling a company purchases to run its operations.
Scope 3 emissions: All other indirect emissions across the value chain — from raw material suppliers to the disposal of a product after patient use. For pharmaceutical companies, Scope 3 typically represents the largest share of total emissions, since it includes everything from ingredient sourcing to inhaler propellant gases released during patient use.

Chiesi’s roadmap covers all three scopes, which is a notably ambitious scope compared with sustainability pledges that address only direct operational emissions. The commitment has been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), an organization that independently verifies whether a company’s emissions-reduction targets are consistent with the level of decarbonization required to limit global warming in line with the Paris Agreement. That validation matters because it distinguishes a genuine, third-party-audited climate strategy from a general sustainability statement — a distinction increasingly important as regulators and investors scrutinize corporate climate resilience claims.

About Chiesi

Chiesi Group is an international, family-controlled biopharmaceutical company operating across dozens of countries. Its core therapeutic areas include respiratory care, where it develops treatments for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD); rare diseases, addressing conditions with limited treatment options and small patient populations; and specialty care, covering areas such as neonatology and transplant medicine. Chiesi has structured itself as a certified B Corporation, a designation that requires companies to meet verified standards of social and environmental performance alongside financial results — a structural choice that reinforces the credibility of its sustainability commitments rather than treating them as a marketing layer separate from core business strategy.

Why Sustainability Matters in Healthcare

The relationship between climate change and public health is direct and increasingly well documented. Rising temperatures, worsening air quality, and more frequent extreme weather events all place additional strain on respiratory and cardiovascular health in particular. Chiesi has made this connection central to its public messaging through its “Action Over Words” campaign, which highlights how air pollution and extreme weather contribute to conditions such as asthma and COPD.

The campaign’s message — “Let’s clear the air!” — frames environmental protection and patient safety as interconnected rather than competing priorities. This framing matters for healthcare emissions policy broadly: a hospital system, pharmaceutical manufacturer, or healthcare supplier that reduces its own carbon footprint is also, indirectly, reducing the environmental drivers of the diseases it treats. Building genuinely sustainable healthcare systems requires this kind of dual accountability — treating patients today while reducing the environmental conditions that generate more patients tomorrow.

Chiesi’s ESG Strategy

Chiesi’s approach to sustainability sits within a broader ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) framework that extends beyond emissions targets alone:

Environmental initiatives: Net Zero emissions targets, renewable energy adoption, and low-carbon product development.
Social responsibility: Community health investment, patient access programs, and workforce welfare standards.
Governance: Transparent reporting structures and B Corp accountability standards that require independent verification of ESG claims.
Ethical pharmaceutical manufacturing: Ensuring sustainability efforts do not compromise product safety, quality, or patient access to essential medicines.

Carbon Reduction Initiatives

Reaching Net Zero requires action across multiple operational layers, not a single fix. Chiesi’s carbon reduction programs generally fall into several categories common to credible decarbonization strategies in the pharmaceutical industry:

Renewable electricity: Transitioning manufacturing and office facilities toward renewable power sources to cut Scope 2 emissions.
Green manufacturing: Investing in more energy-efficient production processes and facility upgrades.
Sustainable logistics: Reducing emissions associated with the transport and distribution of pharmaceutical products.
Low-carbon operations: Auditing energy use across facilities to identify and eliminate inefficiencies.
Supplier engagement: Working with suppliers to reduce Scope 3 emissions, since raw material sourcing often represents a significant share of a pharmaceutical company’s total carbon footprint.

Green Manufacturing and Supply Chain

A significant share of pharmaceutical emissions originates not in the boardroom but on the factory floor and throughout the supply chain. Chiesi’s manufacturing strategy reflects growing industry recognition that supply chain decarbonization is where the largest, and often most difficult, emissions reductions must happen. This includes working with raw material suppliers on lower-carbon sourcing, optimizing distribution routes to reduce transport emissions, and investing directly in facility-level efficiency upgrades.

One of the clearest examples of this strategy in action is Chiesi’s approach to inhaler technology. Recognizing that traditional metered-dose inhalers contribute significantly to pharmaceutical carbon emissions due to their propellant gases, Chiesi committed €350 million to develop a carbon-minimal inhaler platform for asthma and COPD patients. Research indicates that switching to low global-warming-potential (low-GWP) propellants can reduce the carbon footprint of these devices by as much as 90%. This builds on Chiesi’s earlier history of environmental innovation, including its early transition to CFC-free inhalers well before regulations required the shift.

Key figure: Chiesi’s €350 million investment in low-GWP inhaler technology could cut the carbon footprint of individual devices by up to 90%, without requiring patients to change how they use their medication.

Innovation for Patients

Green pharmaceutical technology only succeeds if it maintains clinical reliability. Chiesi’s eco-design approach to inhalers illustrates a broader principle in sustainable pharmaceutical manufacturing: environmental improvements must be layered onto existing products without disrupting the treatment experience patients depend on. The Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) has reported that air pollution and heat exposure raise all-cause mortality among COPD patients — reinforcing why inhaler innovation needs to address both the emissions from the device itself and the environmental conditions worsening the underlying disease.

Beyond inhalers, packaging improvements and circular economy principles — reusing and recycling materials rather than treating them as single-use waste — represent additional areas where pharmaceutical innovation and environmental design increasingly overlap. Clinical guidelines continue to stress correct inhaler technique and patient education alongside these technological shifts, since the environmental benefit of a lower-carbon device depends on patients using it correctly and consistently.

Global Healthcare Impact

Chiesi’s Net Zero strategy extends beyond its own operations into public health advocacy, aiming to influence healthcare decision-makers toward prioritizing cleaner air policy alongside clinical treatment guidelines. This positions the strategy as more than an internal initiative — it’s an attempt to shape how the wider healthcare system understands the link between climate action and patient outcomes.

Global health bodies increasingly echo this framing. The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified climate change as one of the most significant threats to global public health, while the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) coordinates the international commitments that corporate Net Zero pledges are designed to support.

Related reading: The EU’s Respiratory Health Plan Explained

Challenges Toward Net Zero

Reaching full value-chain decarbonization by 2035 is ambitious, and Chiesi’s path is not without obstacles. Scope 3 emissions — the hardest category to control, since they depend on suppliers, distributors, and how patients use products — remain the most significant hurdle. The €350 million inhaler investment shows the scale of capital required for meaningful progress, and it’s an open question how quickly competitors will match that investment.

There’s also the challenge of balancing environmental innovation against the non-negotiable requirement that medicines stay safe, effective, and accessible. Green manufacturing cannot come at the cost of supply reliability, particularly for essential respiratory and rare disease treatments. If Chiesi’s inhaler platform proves cost-effective and clinically equivalent to legacy products, it could accelerate industry-wide adoption of similar low-carbon technologies — though that outcome isn’t guaranteed.

Future Roadmap

Chiesi’s stated pathway to 2035 includes continued investment in low-carbon product design, expanded renewable energy use, and deeper supplier engagement on Scope 3 emissions. Industry collaboration is expected to play a growing role, since sector-wide decarbonization will likely require shared infrastructure and coordinated research rather than isolated corporate action. Continued SBTi validation will remain a key marker of whether Chiesi’s targets stay aligned with evolving climate science.

Traditional vs. Sustainable Pharmaceutical Manufacturing

The table below outlines how sustainable pharmaceutical manufacturing approaches, like those Chiesi is pursuing, generally compare with traditional industry practices.

Category	Traditional Pharmaceutical Manufacturing	Sustainable Pharmaceutical Manufacturing
Carbon Emissions	High reliance on fossil-fuel-based energy and high-GWP propellants	Renewable energy adoption and low-GWP propellant technologies
Energy Consumption	Often unaudited or inefficient facility energy use	Facility-level efficiency audits and continuous optimization
Supply Chain	Limited visibility into supplier emissions (Scope 3)	Active supplier engagement and Scope 3 emissions tracking
Manufacturing Efficiency	Legacy production lines with higher waste levels	Modernized, resource-optimized production processes
Environmental Impact	Significant contribution to greenhouse gas emissions	Measurable, science-based emissions reduction targets
Patient Value	Clinical efficacy prioritized independently of environmental cost	Clinical efficacy maintained alongside reduced environmental footprint

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Net Zero mean?

Net Zero means reducing greenhouse gas emissions as close to zero as possible and balancing any remaining emissions through equivalent removal, such as carbon capture or verified offset programs. For companies like Chiesi, it means addressing emissions across Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 categories rather than a single part of operations.

Why is Chiesi pursuing Net Zero?

Chiesi is pursuing Net Zero because pharmaceutical manufacturing and product use contribute meaningfully to greenhouse gas emissions, and the company has linked environmental protection directly to its mission of protecting respiratory and public health. The 2035 target also positions Chiesi ahead of broader EU climate deadlines.

What are Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions?

Scope 1 covers direct emissions from company-owned sources. Scope 2 covers indirect emissions from purchased electricity and energy. Scope 3 covers all other indirect emissions across the value chain, including suppliers and product use — typically the largest and hardest-to-control category for pharmaceutical companies.

What is ESG?

ESG stands for Environmental, Social, and Governance — a framework used to evaluate a company’s sustainability and ethical impact beyond financial performance. Chiesi’s ESG strategy includes emissions targets, social responsibility programs, and governance structures reinforced by its certified B Corporation status.

How does sustainability benefit patients?

Sustainable healthcare practices can reduce environmental drivers of disease, such as air pollution linked to respiratory conditions, while maintaining or improving treatment reliability. Lower-carbon inhalers, for example, aim to reduce environmental impact without changing how patients use their medication.

How does Chiesi reduce emissions?

Chiesi reduces emissions through renewable electricity adoption, green manufacturing upgrades, sustainable logistics, supplier engagement on Scope 3 emissions, and significant investment in low-carbon product technology, including its €350 million low-GWP inhaler platform.

What role does renewable energy play?

Renewable energy adoption directly reduces Scope 2 emissions from purchased electricity, heating, and cooling. It is a foundational component of most credible corporate Net Zero strategies, including Chiesi’s approach to decarbonizing its manufacturing facilities.

Why is sustainable pharmaceutical manufacturing important?

Sustainable pharmaceutical manufacturing matters because the industry has a direct role in both causing and mitigating the health impacts of climate change. Reducing emissions across manufacturing and supply chains supports long-term healthcare system resilience while maintaining the reliable production of essential medicines.

Conclusion

Chiesi’s Net Zero commitment reflects a broader shift underway across the pharmaceutical industry: sustainability is no longer treated as separate from patient care, but as a component of it. Through SBTi-validated targets, significant investment in low-carbon inhaler technology, and public advocacy connecting climate change to respiratory health, Chiesi has built a decarbonization strategy that touches nearly every part of its value chain. Whether the company reaches full Net Zero by its 2035 target will depend heavily on how effectively it manages the hardest category of emissions — Scope 3 — and how much of the broader pharmaceutical industry follows its lead.

Reviewed By

This article was reviewed by a Healthcare Sustainability Specialist for accuracy regarding ESG frameworks, emissions scope definitions, and pharmaceutical sustainability practices.

Editorial Process

Healthy Waukesha’s editorial team researches and fact-checks healthcare sustainability content using trusted pharmaceutical sustainability reports, corporate ESG disclosures, and scientific references. Articles are reviewed for technical accuracy before publication and updated as new information becomes available.