Sustainability Practices: An Empirical Study of Indian Pharmaceutical Industry

Abstract

In today's scenario it is demand of time to ensure the strategic balance between economic growth, environmental safety and social well-being. Till now a large number of research papers have been published with an understanding about environmental impact of different industries at global level to achieve sustainability. Needless to say, that planning to achieve sustainability without addressing environmental issues in any organization is meaningless. Among oil, chemical, bulk chemical and pharmaceutical industry, manufacturing of pharmaceutical industry are complex in nature and associated with high waste generation i.e. high E-factor in the range of 25-100 Kg/Kg product.  Though the products from pharmaceutical industry in India have significant contribution for social well-being and hold an important place in economic development. This paper explores what Indian pharmaceutical organizations consider about sustainability and related practices thus highlights an immediate need to address environmental implications of pharmaceutical manufacturing in context to India to achieve overall sustainability.

 Keywords: Sustainability, Triple Bottom Line (TBL), Sustainability practices, Sustainability indicators, Indian Pharmaceutical Industry.