Water for injection, or WFI, is an essential utility in pharmaceutical manufacturing. Yet WFI is also, along with HVAC, responsible for the largest share of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by the pharma industry. This is because WFI continues to be generated predominantly via the energy-intensive process of distillation, which is powered by plant steam. And plant steam, in turn, is generated by burning natural gas. Although a much more energy-efficient membrane-based generation alternative to distillation has been accepted by regulatory agencies around the world, adoption of this innovation has been painfully slow. This presentation will describe membrane-based WFI generation and show how GHG emissions factor into the true total cost of ownership (TCO) of WFI generation and distribution in pharmaceutical manufacturing. If it is the economic and not the moral imperative that ultimately spurs action on sustainability in pharma, so be it.