Product Carbon Footprint: Enabling Product-Level Decarbonization In Biopharma

By Jimin Han, Director of ESG

Scope 1 and Scope 2 reductions are largely behind the pharmaceutical industry. Scope 3 is where the real complexity lies, and where conventional accounting methods fall short. Facility averages and spend-based proxies obscure the carbon variability that batch size, yield, process configuration, and resource utilization introduce across a multiproduct manufacturing environment. Two products made in the same facility can carry meaningfully different footprints; blended averages cannot surface that distinction.

This whitepaper, authored by Jimin Han, Director of ESG at Samsung Biologics, examines how a product carbon footprint framework built on life-cycle-based, batch-level measurement changes what organizations can see and act on. The paper covers how PCF boundaries are defined, how emissions are allocated across complex value chains, and why data maturity across the supplier base remains the most persistent constraint on accuracy. It also addresses how PCF data move beyond disclosure into manufacturing strategy, from site selection and tech transfer decisions to process optimization and logistics evaluation.

For biopharma teams working toward audit-ready Scope 3 disclosures or more targeted reduction strategies, the analysis offers a grounded perspective on where product-level carbon accounting stands today and where it is headed. Explore the full whitepaper to examine the methodology and its implications.