According to a recent industry analysis, the environmental monitoring market is poised to grow at a healthy compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7 percent from 2021 to hit $25.95 billion by 2028. The market players offer an array of environmental monitoring services and solutions to many different organizations, primarily in highly regulated industries, including healthcare, food and beverage, medical device, pharmaceutical, transportation, 3PL, aerospace, and more.
The surge in demand and market value doesn’t come as a big surprise to people who are conversant with the environmental monitoring industry. In business environments with ever-evolving policies, regulations, guidelines, and industry best practices, environmental monitoring services and solutions will continue its healthy growth into the foreseeable future.
This article spotlights the environmental monitoring market and analyzes why it’s so large and continuing to grow.
Spotlight on the Environmental Monitoring Market
Environmental monitoring is a broad practice that involves observing, collecting, and documenting environmental variables that range from temperature and humidity to voltage and CO2 levels. These and other variables are typically measured and logged at predetermined intervals and for prolonged periods of time.
The primary goal of environmental monitoring is to ensure that critical environmental conditions always remain within a desired range. Environmental monitoring solutions can also serve as alert systems, warning organizations as certain conditions might deviate from their selected range. This enables the appropriate people to take corrective actions to ensure that valuable assets are not compromised by unanticipated or unacceptable changes in environmental conditions.
These monitoring systems play a vital role in quality control management and regulatory compliance. For instance, pharmaceutical companies deploy environmental monitoring systems across their supply chains to ensure drug safety and effectiveness and to comply with FDA regulations.
The recent market analysis refers to environmental monitoring as areas deployed with intelligent data loggers and sensor interfaces that measure, record, inform about, monitor, and offer granular control of critical environmental parameters in real-time and remotely. It further segments the environmental monitoring market based on:
Product Parameters
i) Product Type
When studying environmental monitoring products, investigators looked at two broad categories:
● Analog environmental monitoring sensors: These devices read environmental variables in situ, and the data is often retrieved manually.
● Digital environmental monitoring sensors: Part of the Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructure, digital sensors have evolved to replace analog loggers, offering new remote monitoring capabilities and real-time data access.
ii) Product Function
The report assessed the following functions of environmental monitoring solutions:
● Chemical detection
● Temperature sensing and monitoring
● Pressure monitoring
● Noise and particulate detection (for environmental pollution monitoring)
● Moisture/humidity detection and monitoring
iii) Environmental Monitoring Software
In addition to examining Environmental Data Management Software Systems (EDMS), the report explored environmental monitoring software available in today’s market for onsite management, remote monitoring, smart predictive analytics, cloud-based environmental monitoring, and much more.
iv) Other Environmental Monitoring Products
Environmental monitoring solutions can either be portable (meaning they’re used to monitor products in transit) or fixed (think sensors affixed to the warehouse). Other types of environmental monitoring products taken into consideration include data loggers, probes, samples, meters, detectors, analyzers, and spectrophotometers, to mention a few. These products are classified into temperature loggers, pressure loggers, CO2 loggers, or chemical sensors based on environmental variables being measured and monitored by the devices.
Segmenting Environmental Monitoring Market by Application (Industry Examples)
Healthcare Environmental Monitoring
Today’s hospitals and the overall healthcare system are heavily digitized, quickly evolving, and increasingly consumer-centric. The industry itself is fast-paced and driven by increasing demands for cost-cutting and transparency. Everyone, from auditors to patients, calls for high levels of transparency and visibility to the healthcare information they care about.
That’s why hospitals and healthcare systems turn to environmental monitoring solutions to best meet their needs. More importantly, robust environmental monitoring systems can help them ensure patient safety and regulatory compliance while protecting assets in labs, operating rooms, blood banks, and more.
Application areas include:
● Labs – Environmental monitoring systems monitor storage conditions of samples, reagents, and chemicals, so that lab staff can proactively respond to excursions and protect patients.
● Pharmacies – Hospital pharmacies use monitoring solutions to track temperature, humidity, and other parameters while compounding, storing, and administering medicines. Doing so can help them keep drugs safe and comply with USP 797 and USP 795.
● Hospitals – Environmental monitoring systems help to monitor hospital conditions, helping improve patient care
● Clinics – Medicines such as vaccines are susceptible to environmental changes. Environmental monitoring systems help clinics protect their assets, store their medicines properly and offer patient care with complete confidence.
● Vaccine administration – Most Covid-19 vaccines, including Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, must be stored and shipped in cold boxes at ultra-cold temperatures. For instance, the Moderna vaccine must be kept in medical refrigerators at 2° to 8°C, where it remains stable and effective for up to a month.
Food and Beverage Environmental Monitoring
The food and beverage industry represents another major area where environmental monitoring is mandatory. Application areas include:
● Food production
● Transportation
● Storage
● Grocery and retail
● Commercial kitchens
The FDA requires all organizations that handle certain food items to verify that temperature controls are put in place and monitored.
Pharmaceutical and Medical Device Monitoring
According to Dickson, pharmaceutical organizations lose well over $35 billion annually due to poor environmental controls. That’s why monitoring essential environmental data can help those in the pharmaceutical and medical device industries protect their customers, assets, and financials. The most common application areas include:
● Pharmaceutical laboratories
● Pharmaceutical manufacturing
● Pharmaceutical transport and storage
● Medical device implants
● Medical device sterilization
● Clean rooms
● Medical device diagnostics
Both of these industries fall under the regulatory jurisdiction of the FDA. They must, therefore, leverage environmental monitoring solutions to guarantee consistent quality and meet FDA requirements.
Pollution Monitoring
Chemical sensors, noise sensors, temperature sensors, and other sensors can be placed in soil, air, and water to monitor environmental pollution levels. Some segments of the pollution monitoring sector include:
● Water pollution monitoring
● Soil pollution monitoring
● Air pollution monitoring
Air pollution monitoring is the segment that’s projected to experience the most significant jump in compound annual growth rate between 2021 and 2028. This growth will be driven predominantly by the increased number of environmental monitoring stations, as government policies and regulations on air pollution become stricter.
Aerospace Environmental Monitoring
The manufacturing and maintenance of aircraft and components are closely controlled and regulated. Environmental monitoring systems are critical to keeping them at a consistent quality that meets regulatory scrutiny. Environmental monitoring applications include aerospace manufacturing, storage, and transportation.
Conclusion
The environmental monitoring market is enormous and is expected to grow steadily at a CAGR of 7% between 2021 and 2028. That’s partly due to an expanding list of application areas that range from healthcare and pharmaceutical to aerospace and pollution monitoring. Others include 3PL, manufacturing and production, and agriculture.
