Learnings to Kick-Start 2025: Climate Resilience and Environmental Sustainability

Published January 21, 2025

Trinity recently presented a poster on climate resilience and environmental sustainability at ISPOR EU, titled “Attitudes and Perceptions on Environmental Sustainability Efforts in the Life Sciences Industry: A Cross-Sectional Survey from HEOR and Industry Professionals.” The poster discussed results from a recent survey conducted by our CREST (Climate Resilience and Environmental Sustainability at Trinity) team, which identified perceptions regarding life sciences industry efforts to tackle sustainability, particularly within HEOR, evidence generation and value communication strategy. We also published our new advisory brief, “Unlocking Environmental Sustainability Opportunities in the Life Sciences,” which outlines strategic focus areas for life sciences in this space.

Over the past few years, sustainability has become an increasingly important topic in healthcare and the life sciences. The ISPOR EU conference had several sessions dedicated to exploring sustainability in HEOR and included 13+ posters and several panel discussions on the topic.

The sessions explored practical approaches to quantifying environmental impact from a health economics/HEOR lens and emphasized the need for action from the life sciences industry. One example was a presentation of a model for projecting the future environmental impact, clinical outcomes, healthcare resource utilization, economic impact and societal impact of chronic Kidney Disease in Switzerland. While there is momentum to confront these needs, there is still a lack of consensus on how exactly to quantify, and on what the remit of the HEOR professional should be in this area. Some conference participants suggested that the current diversity of initiatives may be a good thing, as thinking evolves, while others felt that it may be inhibiting action due to lack of focus. What is clear, however, is that innovative work is being done and there is widespread interest amongst the ISPOR community in developing and refining new methods for quantification.

Another key takeaway was that sustainability (in some form) will likely be part of health technology assessments (HTA) in the future. However, there is still much to be determined about how it will be incorporated into the process. Manufacturers need to start preparing now to ensure that they are ready when sustainability becomes a more prominent consideration in HTA.

There was also discussion on what health economists can learn from environmental economists’ modeling methodologies. While incorporating climate considerations into HTA could incentivize the development of more climate-friendly treatments and incorporate long-term health outcomes, there are also potential drawbacks, such as disincentivizing the development of new health technologies for unmet medical needs if the new technology has a potential deleterious impact on the environment.

Another promising development that was discussed at the conference was the potential formation of a special interest group with Trinity leadership at ISPOR specifically focused on environmental sustainability. This group would provide a forum for researchers, health economists and industry professionals to discuss the latest developments in this area and share best practices.

Overall, the conference highlighted the need for continued progress and collaboration in incorporating sustainability into health economics and outcomes research, which aligned with the findings from Trinity’s survey. While life sciences stakeholders are interested in environmental sustainability, many believe that most organizations are not adequately incorporating climate resilience into their overall strategic planning, including evidence generation. As a leader in HEOR, Trinity is excited by these developments and is actively investing in helping our clients navigate this new frontier, finding strategic yet tactical ways to use existing and new methodologies to take on the challenge of a greener industry.

Authors: Matt O’Hara, Liz Hamilton and Abby Silber