Scope 3 emissions reporting is becoming a priority in the pharma supply chain because regulatory pressure, investor scrutiny, and corporate sustainability commitments are all converging at once. For pharmaceutical companies, upstream and downstream activities — including the transport of temperature-sensitive goods — represent the largest share of their total carbon footprint. This article unpacks what Scope 3 means for pharma, why it is harder to measure than in other sectors, and what practical steps companies can take to reduce their impact.
What counts as Scope 3 emissions in a pharmaceutical supply chain?
Scope 3 emissions in a pharmaceutical supply chain are all indirect greenhouse gas emissions that occur outside a company’s own operations — both upstream and downstream. This includes the production of raw materials, packaging, transportation of goods, waste disposal, and the activities of third-party logistics providers. In pharma, these indirect emissions typically account for the vast majority of a company’s total carbon output.
In practical terms, the Scope 3 categories most relevant to pharma cold chains include:
- Transportation and distribution: Road, air, sea, and rail shipments of medicines, biologics, and clinical trial materials
- Purchased goods and services: Raw materials, active pharmaceutical ingredients, and packaging materials sourced from suppliers
- Waste generated in operations: Disposable monitoring equipment, packaging, and single-use materials discarded after each shipment
- End-of-life treatment of sold products: How products and their associated packaging are disposed of after use
Cold chain logistics sits squarely within these categories. Every refrigerated truck journey, every flight carrying temperature-sensitive cargo, and every piece of single-use monitoring equipment discarded after a shipment contributes to a pharma company’s Scope 3 footprint. Because these activities are distributed across global networks of suppliers and logistics partners, the emissions add up quickly and are difficult to track.
Why is Scope 3 reporting harder for pharma than other industries?
Scope 3 reporting is harder for pharma companies because their supply chains are exceptionally complex, globally distributed, and heavily reliant on specialized third parties whose data is difficult to access. Unlike manufacturing industries with relatively linear supply chains, pharma involves multiple tiers of suppliers, contract research organizations, cold chain logistics providers, and distributors — each generating emissions that the pharma company must account for.
Several factors make this particularly challenging:
- Data fragmentation: Emissions data must be collected from dozens or hundreds of external partners who may use different reporting standards or no standards at all
- Cold chain dependency: Temperature-sensitive shipments often travel by air freight, which carries a significantly higher carbon intensity than sea or road transport, inflating Scope 3 figures considerably
- Waste from monitoring equipment: Pharmaceutical shipments require temperature monitoring at every stage, and the widespread use of single-use electronic data loggers generates substantial e-waste that must be factored into Scope 3 calculations
- Lack of standardized methods: There is no single agreed methodology for calculating cold chain emissions across all transport modes and product types, making comparisons and audits inconsistent
The e-waste dimension is often underestimated. Globally, an estimated 80 million single-use plastic electronic data loggers are discarded every year across industries including pharma. Each one contains lithium batteries and electronic components that require specialist e-waste disposal. When multiplied across thousands of shipments, this represents a meaningful and measurable component of a pharma company’s Scope 3 waste emissions — one that is increasingly difficult to ignore as sustainability reporting becomes more rigorous.
Which regulations are pushing pharma companies to report Scope 3?
Pharmaceutical companies are being pushed to report Scope 3 emissions primarily by a combination of investor-driven frameworks, voluntary disclosure platforms, and emerging mandatory reporting requirements in major markets. While the specific rules vary by region, the overall direction is clear: Scope 3 transparency is moving from optional to expected.
The most influential drivers include:
- The EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD): Requires large companies operating in Europe to report on material Scope 3 categories, with phased implementation already underway for large listed companies
- CDP (formerly Carbon Disclosure Project): Many pharma companies disclose through CDP under pressure from institutional investors, and CDP scoring increasingly weighs Scope 3 data quality
- Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi): Pharma companies setting SBTi-aligned net-zero targets must include Scope 3 in their reduction commitments, as it typically represents more than 90% of total emissions
- SEC climate disclosure rules (US): Proposed rules in the United States would require public companies to disclose material Scope 3 emissions, creating additional pressure for pharma multinationals
Beyond formal requirements, large pharmaceutical companies are also facing pressure from their own customers, procurement teams, and boards. ESG performance is now a factor in supplier selection, partnership decisions, and public reputation — which means that even companies not yet subject to mandatory reporting have strong commercial reasons to get their Scope 3 data in order.
How can pharma companies reduce Scope 3 emissions from cold chain monitoring?
Pharma companies can reduce Scope 3 emissions from cold chain monitoring by switching from single-use electronic data loggers to lower-impact alternatives, improving data collection to identify the highest-emission shipment routes, and working with logistics partners to shift transport modes where feasible. The monitoring equipment itself is a practical and immediate place to start.
Electronic data loggers — the plastic, battery-powered devices used to track temperature during pharmaceutical shipments — are a direct source of Scope 3 waste emissions. Because they contain lithium batteries and circuit boards, they cannot go into standard recycling. They require specialist e-waste disposal, and in practice many end up in landfill or incineration. The lithium-free battery design used in paper-based alternatives is also worth noting: lithium extraction and processing carries its own significant carbon footprint, so eliminating lithium from monitoring equipment reduces embedded emissions at the point of manufacture, not just at end of life.
Other practical steps pharma companies can take include:
- Mapping which shipment lanes generate the most emissions and prioritizing those for modal shift or optimization
- Requiring logistics partners to provide emissions data as part of supplier contracts
- Reducing air freight dependency where cold chain integrity can be maintained by sea or road
- Replacing single-use plastic monitoring equipment with recyclable alternatives to reduce waste-related Scope 3 emissions
- Using cloud-connected monitoring tools to improve shipment visibility and reduce spoilage, which itself represents wasted embedded carbon
How Tapp helps reduce Scope 3 emissions in pharma cold chains
As the only provider of paper-based data loggers, Tapp has developed a direct solution to one of the most overlooked sources of Scope 3 emissions in pharmaceutical logistics: single-use monitoring equipment. Here is what makes the difference:
- Lithium-free design: Tapp’s paper-based data loggers use no lithium battery, eliminating the embedded carbon and extraction impact associated with lithium mining — an advantage that electronic loggers, whether single-use or reusable, cannot match
- Recyclable through standard paper waste streams: Unlike electronic data loggers that require specialist e-waste disposal, paper-based loggers can be recycled globally through ordinary paper recycling — no special handling needed
- Up to 90% less e-waste: Replacing plastic electronic loggers with paper-based alternatives reduces electronic waste by up to 90%, providing a concrete and measurable contribution to Scope 3 waste reduction
- NFC smartphone tap — no app required: Any NFC-enabled smartphone can read the logger instantly, meaning no dedicated hardware infrastructure is needed at the receiving end
- Automatic cloud upload: Data is automatically uploaded to the TappOS dashboard the moment a label is read, giving both sender and receiver full visibility of the temperature record without USB cables or manual downloads
For pharma quality managers and sustainability teams looking to make their Scope 3 reporting more credible and their cold chain more sustainable, switching monitoring equipment is one of the most immediate actions available. Get in touch with Tapp to find out how paper-based data loggers can fit into your pharmaceutical cold chain.
