EarthwardsTM label for buprenorfine

Earthwards™ is a program specific to Johnson & Johnson (J&J) for the development and marketing of greener products through life cycle considerations. J&J aims to have no less than 60 products by 2015 with the Earthwards™ label, 10 of which within the pharmaceutical division.
Any product with the Earthwards™ label should show an improvement of at least 10% in at least 3 of the 7 target areas:
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less raw materials;
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less packaging;
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less energy;
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less waste;
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less water;
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positive social impact or advantage;
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product innovation.
Learn more at:p://www.jnj.com/responsibility/environment/product-stewardship/earthwards.

Buprenorfine
Buprenorfine is the seventh pharmaceutical product to receive this label. It is a narcotic painkiller which is used both for acute and chronic pain control and for the treatment of narcotic drug addiction. The multi-disciplinary team which developed and implemented the third generation process was able to drastically reduce the consumption of raw materials, water and energy by eliminating a number of isolation and drying steps in the production process. This caused a significant reduction of the amount of waste.
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Materials: 42% reduction of Process Mass Intensity, 64% raw material reduction during cleaning;
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Water consumption: 71% reduction;
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Waste: 28% reduction of hazardous waste;
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Energy: 85% reduction (by eliminating 3 drying steps).