GSK Annual Report 2002

26 GlaxoSmithKline Description of business
The business and the community
Corporate and social responsibility
This year GlaxoSmithKline has again produced a separate report on
social and environmental issues. This covers the issues that are of
primary concern to stakeholders. These include medicines for the
developing world, community investment, R&D, the environment
and health and safety. While metrics for environmental
performance have been reported for many years, during 2002 the
Group developed indicators for other issues that will enable it to
show progress in addressing these. The report is available from the
Secretariat and on the website at www.gsk.com.
Responsibility for Environment, Health and Safety
Environment Health and Safety (EHS) is a key issue for the Group
and has a high priority. Responsibility for EHS is at the highest
level. There is a corporate group reporting to the General Counsel
that has overall responsibility for providing governance and services
on EHS issues. Within the operations, line managers are
responsible for EHS and are supported by EHS and medical
professionals.
Environment, Health and Safety management
GlaxoSmithKline takes a systematic approach to managing EHS
risks and impacts. A framework of information and programmes
based on a set of universal EHS Standards guides management of
these issues throughout the organisation.
Environment, Health and Safety audits
As part of its governance responsibility, GlaxoSmithKline conducts
EHS audits of its sites, contract manufacturers and key suppliers.
The audit protocols developed and introduced during 2002 were
derived from the EHS Standards. A new scoring system was tested
during the year and will be fully implemented in 2003.
A pilot process has begun, with Global Manufacturing and Supply,
to investigate obtaining Group wide certification to the
international standards on EHS. This involves review by a third
party registrar of GlaxoSmithKline’s EHS Standards and auditing
procedures and completion of a number of certification audits of
Group sites. The aim is for the registrar to gain confidence in the
corporate auditing process as well as in the performance of
representative sites against the international standards to proceed
with a full certification based on a sample of sites. The remaining
sites will be subject to audits by the third party registrar as part of
obtaining certification.
In 2002, 21 sites were audited and seven follow-up reviews were
performed. As part of the continuous improvement process,
progress was monitored on actions arising from issues raised on
audits. A web based tool to assist this process was developed and
will be launched in 2003.
As part of the commitment to corporate social responsibility and
the pro-active management of the GlaxoSmithKline manufacturing
and supply base, 16 of the key contract manufacturers and
suppliers were also assessed. This process evaluated the
management of EHS risks and impacts based on the Group’s EHS
requirements for contract manufacturers. Good performance was
identified and recommendations were made where improvements
were needed.
Objectives and targets
Objectives for 2002 focused on progressing toward full
implementation of EHS management systems. These systems are
meant to ensure on-going compliance with legislation and
regulations as well as internal standards. Sites analysed how well
their programmes met the requirements of the EHS Standards and
then developed plans to achieve any requirements that are not
currently met in full. Assistance from the corporate EHS group is
provided in the form of information materials, an intranet system
to support EHS programmes and an awards programme to
encourage innovative solutions.
Targets for EHS improvements were set in 2001 that are to be
accomplished over five years. The health and safety target is a
reduction in lost time injury and illness rate by 15 per cent per year.
Environmental targets include reductions in energy usage and
associated greenhouse gas emissions, reductions in waste and
wastewater disposed and increase in waste recycled.
Performance improvement measures
GlaxoSmithKline measures its impact on the health and safety of
people who work at our sites and its impact on the environment.
The measure of impact on people is the lost time injury and illness
rate. This is the number of injuries and illnesses serious enough to
result in lost time per 100,000 hours worked. The impacts on air,
water and land are measured as metric tonnes of material emitted,
waste disposed and the impact on natural resources is measured as
cubic metres of water used and gigajoules of energy consumed.
GlaxoSmithKline selects its measures of performance improvement
based on the risk. Risks are determined, in part, through evaluation
of impacts. The impacts considered were those with the potential
for adverse impact on people or the environment, business
continuity or business reputation. Most of the measures selected
are similar to those reported by other companies and are
recommended by the Global Reporting Initiative, a long-term,
multi-stakeholder, international undertaking to develop and
disseminate globally applicable sustainability reporting guidelines.
Product stewardship
GlaxoSmithKline has a global standard for product stewardship
that establishes requirements for responsible and ethical
management of EHS aspects of products throughout their
life-cycles. Product stewardship provides a systematic way to
identify product or process risks early, so that they may be
mitigated and managed. Integrating product stewardship into
business activities protects people and the environment, enhances
compliance with local regulatory requirements and avoids
interruption of product supply.
Environmental sustainability
The concept of sustainable development is central to the Group’s
environmental programmes. Work has started towards eventual
environmental sustainability by mitigating environmental impacts
and looking at ways to improve production efficiency. The use of
renewable raw materials and the overall balance of the
consumption of resources with the generation of waste will be
investigated in the future. The Group has a standard on sustainable
development that defines the approach from discovery through
manufacturing to sales. Environmental sustainability starts with
R&D. As part of the support for R&D, a toolkit has been developed
to assist in the selection of “green” chemistries and processes.