International IVF Initiative Podcast

Beyond the Webinar - How Green is your IVF?

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Episode notes

We're going behind the scenes once again with I3, to hear more about the highly popular topic, How Green is your IVF, discussing the common practice of single use products, products and the overuse of packaging. Speakers: Dani Smale, Roisin O’Raghallaigh, Rikard Ledin da Rosa - Vitrolife, Chip Calcagni

What was discussed:

Discussion about choices of products used and how companies look at how they can become more sustainable and holding the manufacturers to task to come up with innovations
How clinics can make sustainable choices but unless they can use better tools and products the issue is never going to end.
Taking the issue to the larger companies before the clinics - will that cause a huge delay?
Importance of having this conversation with the big companies as they all have a green agenda.
How shareholders are demanding objectives are met.
The waste from plastic items used and unnecessary packaging that is used to keep things sterile. Can this be reduced?
Paperwork that comes with products - could extra material be reduced.
Vitrolife - talking about what sustainability means.
How to bring consciousness of sustainability up in the decision-making matrix?
Could putting pressure on the suppliers help?
How the sustainability specialist at Vitro Life position came about - how Rikard’s role is to speak with top management to make these decisions.

To watch the full session go here

In this second part of our chat we invited Rikard Ledin da Rosa from Vitrolife to join us again in a different timezone and Anna Gorbunova who Giles met on Linked In and invited her to the webinar.

What was discussed:

Whether there is a deadline for when clinics need to improve their sustainability
Movements within the investor markets - who needs reports about issues such as CO2
Sustainability reports expected
Interactions that could be done at home - to reduce clinic visits
How Clinical aspects from egg retrieval to monitoring of follicular stimulation needs to be discussed further.
Could there be more AI involvement, remote ultrasounds?

Watch session 2 here