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Our employees:
a priority social
responsibility
Protecting our
employees’ health
and safety has always
been a major thrust
of the Group’s social
commitment.
Efforts continue to bring our
accident prevention and reduction
figures into line with the best in our
industry, with a 2008 objective of
a Group-wide accident frequency
of 1.5 per million hours, including
both Solvay employees and
subcontractors working on our
sites. We have still some way to
go to get there.
Accident frequency rate *
More eco-efficient
products, responding
to new regulations
REACh: The European
regulations on chemicals, adopted
at the end of 2006, come into effect
in 2007. The first objective is for
products covered by the REACh
Regulation in Europe to be preregistered
by the end of 2008.
The Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) in the USA cited Solvay
Pharmaceuticals “for its exceptional
performance in implementing its
portal for the electronic
submission of regulatory
information to the FDA
by internet.” Back in 2004,
All Subcontractor Solvay
personnel personnel personnel
2003 4.4 7.2 3.3
2004 3.4 6.5 2.3
2005 3.2 4.4 2.7
2006 2.7 4.7 2.1
2007 2.4 3.2 2.1
* Number of accidents leading to a work stoppage of over 24 hours, by million hours worked.
Solvay was one of the first
companies to shift to electronic
reporting of pharmacovigilance
data to the regulatory bodies in the
United States and to the European
Medicines Agency (EMEA).
The 2007 Innovation
Trophies were the occasion for
SolVin to honour five remarkable
projects developed with customers
to meet the challenges of
Sustainable Development.
Solvay Pharmaceuticals
at Olst (Netherlands) in
2007 received a Silver Medal for
the new packaging of the
INFLUVAC ® flu vaccine.
This smaller size packaging, entirely
in recyclable cardboard, saves
space and energy and reduces
the CO 2
emissions associated with
transportation and storage.
Solvay remains a
driving force behiind the
“Vinyl 2010” voluntary
commitment of all players
in the European PVC industry,
aimed at integrated control of the
complete product life cycle.
Responsible
production based
on more sustainable
energy resources
The commissioning of the
new boiler at Devnya
(Bulgaria), and heat
production from recycled
fuels or biomass, which
is being introduced or is under
consideration at various European
sites, are contributing to this effort.
A major reduction in
greenhouse gases
from the Solvay Indupa
(Mercosur) PVC plant at
Santo Andre (Brazil) has
been made possible by shifting from
fuel oil to natural gas as an energy
source.
Solvay Global Annual Report 2007