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Month: September 2023

Calling All Cool Chain Association Members: Your Input Drives Innovation

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The Cool Chain Association (CCA) has a proud history of making strides in the cold chain industry. Behind this is our members, who are the CCA’s greatest strength. We’re inviting you, our dedicated community of industry professionals, to be proactive in steering our initiatives towards

greater success.

Here’s a breakdown of how you can get involved and make a real impact:

1. Suggest New Trials and Initiatives

If you’ve got innovative ideas for trials or projects that could improve how we handle goods in the cool chain, we want to hear them. Whether it’s a new approach to temperature control, a better tracking system, or smart packaging solutions, your ideas can drive real change in our industry.

2. Share Your Industry Insights

You all bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to the table. Don’t keep it to yourself! Share your practical insights, best practices, and lessons learned. Your experiences can help others in the complex world of cold supply chains.

3. Collaborate with the CCA’s Technical Committee

Our Technical Committee plays a crucial role in many of our projects. They work hard to develop and implement new strategies, technologies, and best practices. But they can’t do it alone. Your active participation can provide valuable guidance.

4. Highlight Challenges and Opportunities

If you’ve faced challenges or spotted opportunities that you believe the CCA should address, reach out. Your input can shape our agenda and ensure we focus on the issues that matter most to you.

5. Embrace the Power of Community

Remember, the CCA isn’t just an organisation; it’s a community of professionals committed to excellence in cold supply chains. Together, we can achieve more than any one of us can on our own.

So, please get in touch with us, share your ideas, and let us know how we can support your projects. Your engagement and contributions are what make the CCA strong. Your involvement isn’t just welcome; it’s essential. Let’s continue pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in the cold supply chain industry, together.

Get in touch via cca@meantime.global.

Member Spotlight: SkyCell AG on Sustainable Pharma Transport

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Nicola Caristo, Senior Quality Manager and Secretary General of the Cool Chain Association, and Chiara Venuti, Global Head of Strategic Partnerships, both from SkyCell AG, recently shed light on the sustainable challenges facing the pharmaceutical supply chain and the innovative technologies that are helping to address these challenges in a presentation at Airfreight Pharma.

SkyCell serves pharmaceutical supply chains with temperature-controlled hybrid containers and advanced technological solutions which are designed to safeguard the integrity of medicines, as well as protect the environment.

Sustainability: A Top Priority for Pharma

Sustainability has taken a prominent place on the pharmaceutical industry’s strategic agenda as the sector acknowledges its role in contributing to environmental challenges. When it comes to transportation, the numbers are stark: a single pharmaceutical transport can be responsible for emitting up to 8 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), equivalent to the emissions from driving four cars for an entire year.

In their presentation ‘Packaging Solutions’, Caristo and Venuti emphasised several key strategies for optimising the sustainability of air-freight pharmaceutical transport:

Choose the Right Pharma Container: Selecting the appropriate container foryour pharmaceutical product and shipment size is crucial. SkyCell offers temperature-controlled hybrid containers that are not only efficient but also environmentally friendly.

Maximise Space: Make the most of the available space within your pharmaceutical container. This minimises the need for additional transports and reduces emissions.

Optimise Pallet Size: Align the pallet size with the pharma container size to eliminate wasted space and enhance efficiency.

Embrace Loose-Loading: Whenever possible, opt for loose-loading to maximise container space and reduce the need for additional shipments.

Forge Partnerships: Collaborate with partners and stakeholders to reduce empty transports, thereby cutting down on unnecessary emissions.

Consider Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF): Transitioning to SAF can result in an 80% reduction in emissions compared to traditional aviation fuels. By using SAF and implementing other sustainable practices, companies can work toward completely eliminating the remaining emissions from air-freight logistics.

A Sustainable Future for Pharma Transport:

Caristo and Venuti highlighted that the pharmaceutical industry’s journey toward sustainability is gaining momentum. By optimising air-freight pharmaceutical transport, choosing the right containers, and embracing sustainable practices like SAF, the industry can look forward to a future where pharmaceutical supply chains are both efficient and environmentally responsible.

Collaboration is key to an efficient cool chain

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During a joint interview held at the Airfreight Pharma Conference in Athens, Pharma.Aero and the Cool Chain Association (CCA) underscored the pressing need for increased collaboration within the industry. This spirit of cooperation was demonstrated by their co-hosted afternoon at Airfreight Pharma on Thursday, September 21st.

Power of the many

“Attempting to implement change in the cool chain as individual actors can seem, and often is, exceedingly difficult to achieve. The success of our industry is dependent on each actor working together effectively, and this same network should be used to improve the cool chain,” said Stavros Evangelakakis, Chairman, CCA, and Head of Global Healthcare, Cargolux.

“We believe that leveraging the collective knowledge of the industry is key to successfully enhancing the efficiency, productivity, and resilience of the cool chain.”

The CCA facilitates such collaboration through its Technical Committee. Most recently, CCA member PPECB worked with the committee to develop and run a series of trials tracking pain points across perishables shipments. Data from these trials has been used to create a training video to assist the air freight industry in understanding complex problems from farm to consumer.  

“By partnering with Pharma.Aero at Airfreight Pharma the CCA hopes to demonstrate that collaboration between associations is the next step in driving large-scale research trials with stakeholders across the supply chain.

“We look forward to working more closely with Pharma.Aero in the future,” said Evangelakakis.

Learnings from the pandemic

“The pandemic was one of the first global examples in recent decades that proved we can’t solve a crisis unless we start collaborating outside our company and nation borders,” said Frank Van Gelder, Secretary General, Pharma.Aero.

Post-COVID, boundaries between different industries have become increasingly blurred, contributing to cross-industry exchange of knowledge and experiences which increases growth, innovation, and sustainable success. This collaborative community facilitates access to specialised expertise and resources, contributing to the fast acceleration of innovation and fuelling a culture of creativity. 

Cross-industry collaboration

For Pharma.Aero fostering collaboration is not a new idea, it has been embedded in the association’s vision, mission, and strategy from the beginning.

“As a non-profit platform we have, over the years, brought several Pharmaceutical and Medtech manufacturers together with different airfreight stakeholders,” said Van Gelder.

“In 2021 we focused on inviting academics to help Pharma.Aero create a Pharma logistics ecosystem for both research and business that serves the industry by providing content through different projects.”

Both the CCA and Pharma.Aero are focused on working with academics and researchers to ensure their associations represent a wide range of professionals. These cross-industry partnerships create rich and truly neutral ecosystems that benefit the airfreight industry, and ultimately the end-to-end synchro-modal.

While cross-industry collaboration might seem easy, Van Gelder asserts that “over the years we have learned that it takes hard work to make it happen.”

Future-proofing the industry

“We at Pharma.Aero are convinced that you are as strong as your own limitations of thinking. Therefore, we embrace collaboration in order to approach different future challenges such as sustainability from different angles, as only then will we have a chance to succeed,” said Van Gelder.

“Sustainability has become a humanitarian problem and it is a confronting example that only by collaborating can we stand stronger.”

Airfreight Pharma

During this year’s Airfreight Pharma conference, the Cool Chain Association and Pharma.Aero co-presented a seminar on “Building pharmaceutical supply chain ecosystems: Challenge and opportunity.” They emphasised the value of partnerships between organisations like the CCA and Pharma.Aero in addressing shared supply chain challenges and expressed their intent to enhance their collaborative efforts moving forward.

Cool Chain Association releases perishables best practice video and launches new pharma trial

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The association presented findings from its raspberry and cut-flower field-to-market trials at Airfreight Pharma and announced a new pharmaceuticals trial with CCA member Lamprecht

Athens, Greece, Thursday 21st September 2023: The Cool Chain Association (CCA) launched a best practice video for perishables handling at Airfreight Pharma today (21st September), based on key findings from recent trials by CCA member Perishable Products Export Control Board (PPECB).

The educational video presents learnings from PPECB’s two perishables trials, which examined pain points in the transportation of raspberries and cut flowers from South Africa to the UK and Europe, and advises optimal handling procedures to protect product integrity and maximise shelf-life.

With these key objectives in mind, the video explores various stages of the perishables chain, highlighting good agricultural practices, requirements surrounding fresh air ventilation and taint, and recommendations for thermal protection of perishable products, including cartons, packaging, and labelling.

The guidance also covers optimal aircraft loading and transport procedures, and cold storage and pre-cooling of perishable products, offering advice on specific temperatures found to be optimal during trials.

“We have taken the results of our recent flower and raspberry trials and put them into a practical format to enable the entire industry to benefit from these learnings,” said Vijan Chetty, CCA Board Director and General Manager, PPECB at Airfreight Pharma.

“By adopting these optimal practices, the industry can hope to address the vast waste that occurs in the perishables supply chain.”

Following the success of its perishables trials and resulting best practice video, the CCA believes further research and trials are called for.

The CCA announced that it will partner with member Lamprecht Pharma Logistics AG (Lamprecht) to launch a new trial following pharmaceuticals shipments.

“Lamprecht Pharma Logistics will head up a pharmaceuticals trial with the CCA to track the most critical parts of the pharmaceutical supply chain, identifying pain points to further optimise performance,” said Felix Johannes, Commercial Representative Operations, Lamprecht.

The new trial will launch in the fourth quarter of 2023.

To view the best practise video, click here.

(Left to right) Stavros Evangelakakis, Chairman, CCA, and Global Product Manager, Cargolux Airlines; Felix Johannes, Commercial Representative Operations, Lamprecht; Vijan Chetty, CCA Board Director and General Manager, PPECB.

(Left to right) Vijan Chetty, CCA Board Director and General Manager, PPECB; Stavros Evangelakakis, Chairman, CCA and Global Product Manager, Cargolux Airlines; Fabrizio Iacobacci, CCA Board Director andChief of Innovation and Operations Officer, BCUBE Air Cargo Spa; Miguel Rodríguez Moreno, CCA Treasurer and Head of Cargo Products, Qatar Airways.

Working together to improve the temperature-sensitive supply chain to reduce food loss and waste in the perishables sector as well as benefiting the pharma community.

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