As established by the French Climate and Resilience Law, from August 21, 2026, all public procurement in France must include environmental evaluation criteria; according to public procurement guidelines, these will account for between 10% and 20% of the final score. To meet this requirement in public tenders, the French Government has created a methodology to assess the carbon footprint of a medicine throughout its entire life cycle. It has been named score carbone médicament, which in English would be equivalent to “medicine carbon score”.

This is a pioneering methodology, as it represents a first step toward integrating product carbon data into purchasing decision-making. It is expected that healthcare systems in European Union countries will follow similar steps, and the UK healthcare system will do so in 2028.

Characteristics of the medicine carbon score

The medicine carbon score is a product carbon footprint calculation methodology aligned with ISO standards, Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), and the GHG Protocol. It includes:

• – Definition of goal and scope (cradle to grave, with several prescribed functional units).
• – Data hierarchy and selection of emission factors.
• – Mandatory data quality assessment.
• – Supplier documentation and accreditation.
• – Standardized evaluation matrix for reporting.

The score is expressed in kg CO₂eq and is higher when data is incomplete or of low quality. Therefore, pharmaceutical companies that will be at a competitive disadvantage in public procurement are those unable to provide the carbon score of their products or that present high values. Conversely, those with lower carbon scores will be more competitive.

Factors influencing the score

The availability of information, as well as data quality and robustness, can significantly influence the medicine carbon score. The main reasons are:

• – Uncertainty and data quality. Product carbon footprints include an uncertainty assessment based on data quality: when primary data is available for both production and suppliers, uncertainty is significantly reduced. Footprints with uncertainty above 45% will be considered non-compliant. Lack of data and/or poor data quality penalizes the final score.
• – Economic factors. Emission factors based on economic data are limited to 25% of the footprint associated with ingredients and packaging. Excessive reliance on spend-based data increases the risk of non-compliance.

What should a pharmaceutical company do?

The company must apply a product carbon footprint calculation methodology aligned with the French Government methodology and capable of scaling. In this context, the standard is aligned with ISO 14067 for carbon footprint calculation, widely used by laboratories for product assessment. The standard goes further by proposing a detailed methodology for the different stages of the product.

Additionally, it is essential to establish a structured system to collect internal and supplier data, as well as to ensure traceability. This will enable the company to have complete information and guarantee the quality and robustness of the available data.

Main methodological and operational requirements:

How can inèdit help you?

We will apply the methodology required by the French government and calculate the product carbon footprint of your products so that it is aligned with the carbon score. In addition, we provide our environmental quantification tool, èdit, which can be integrated with your organization’s ERP systems via API, streamlining data collection and processing. The tool includes different user profiles, facilitating decentralized, more complete, and more robust data collection.

1. Calculation model design
   We define the product carbon footprint calculation framework in accordance with the French government methodology, integrating production, economic, and supply chain data to obtain robust results ready for tenders.
2. Data preparation and quality
   We review and structure internal data, identify gaps, and adapt information to uncertainty and quality requirements to reduce non-compliance risks.
3. Supplier engagement and primary data
   We design the supplier engagement model to obtain reliable and verifiable data, incorporating control and validation mechanisms. This process can be supported by the èdit tool to transform data into carbon information consistent with the requirements.
4. Governance and model sustainability
   We establish the internal model to ensure long-term compliance by assigning roles and responsibilities, defining control and traceability processes, audit systems, and team training.

With this approach, we will help you build a robust product carbon footprint calculation capability aligned with the medicine carbon score, compliant with French regulations and ready for both audits and competition in public procurement, with a scalable model across all your products.