Assessing the scale of adoption of sustainability practices by community pharmacies in Spain in the time of COVID-19

Belén Derqui; Viachaslau Filimonau; Jorge Matute

doi:10.1016/j.spc.2021.03.034

Assessing the scale of adoption of sustainability practices by community pharmacies in Spain in the time of COVID-19

Sustain Prod Consum. 2021 Jul:27:1626-1636. doi: 10.1016/j.spc.2021.03.034. Epub 2021 Apr 2.

Authors

Belén Derqui¹, Viachaslau Filimonau², Jorge Matute¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Business Management, IQS School of Management, Universitat Ramon Llull.
² Faculty of Management, Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus, UK.

Abstract

Community pharmacies play a critical societal role and are well placed to enable the progress of national health systems towards sustainability. Nevertheless, there is a dearth of research which has been set up to understand sustainability practices adopted by community pharmacies and evaluate the drivers behind their adoption. This study undertook an exploratory analysis of 95 community pharmacies in Spain, measured their engagement with sustainability practices and assessed these practices in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The results demonstrated the room for improvement in the adoption of green procurement practices in pharmacies and in their engagement with the community. Moreover, the study showcased that, during the COVID-19 crisis, the pharmacies with the largest extent of adoption of sustainability practices implemented preventative measures against the pandemic in a more diverse number during the first weeks of the lockdown, compared to their less sustainable counterparts. This indicates that, to build resilience to future (health) crises, the implementation of sustainable practices in community pharmacies should be encouraged by both policy makers and pharmaceutical firms.

Keywords: COVID-19 preventative measures; Green Pharmacy; Healthcare provision; Sustainable Community pharmacies; Sustainable Production and Consumption; Sustainable Supply Chain.