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Une charte environnementale afin de s’engager sur la route du « Green Deal » et montrer les initiatives de l’industrie pharmaceutique.

Een milieucharter om de weg naar de "Green Deal" in te slaan en de initiatieven van de farmaceutische industrie onder de aandacht te brengen.

Best Practice Paper on Green and Sustainable Pharmacy in Europe

In order to limit the travel of our personnel to the workplace, we decided to double the number of homeworking days for everyone. In addition, we reviewed our mobility policy to make it greener by providing e-bikes, hybrid or electric cars instead of diesel/gasoline cars.

We reviewed our car policy and decided to replace the current company cars with hybrid cars. The expected impact on the CO2 level should be a decrease of around 65% (based on an average vehicle).

To encourage the use of alternative low carbon means of transport, we totally reviewed our mo-bility policy: our car park has become greener, we encourage car sharing and have now a bike & train policy. We benefit from a financial support and provide on site all the extensive facilities such as showers, locker rooms, repair equipment and shuttle services.

We decided to provide our personnel with lower CO2 emissions cars and installed electric charging points on our parking.

Our company car purchasing policy states that the CO2 emission rate must be less than 100g. Our employees have the choice, in descending order of preference, between CNG (Compressed Nat-ural Gas), gasoline and LPG hybrid car, electric car or gasoline hybrid car. Moreover, we strongly encourage carpooling and homeworking as much as possible.

Within our company, employees are encouraged to share a car to come to work or to go to a common external meeting.

We analysed the routes taken by our existing transporters from the warehouse and optimized their trips to avoid unnecessary journeys.

In an effort to use less paper, we have decided to reduce our paper leaflets in packs and go for QR codes instead, whenever possible. There is no combination of materials in our assets, we use PEFC or FSC cardboard for our packaging (sustainable sourcing) and minimize the use of plastics as much as possible.

In order to optimize the use of our packaging materials, we decided to run a packaging audit and developed a new eco-friendly packaging using recycled carboard. By doing so, we also reduced the packaging weight.

Historically, our final products were presented in PVC blisters in the final packaging. In a project launched in 2017, these PVC blisters have to date been replaced by APET (an environmentally less critical polymer) blisters for all but one market. For this last market, replacement is currently ongoing.

Some of our printers have committed themselves to a process that has resulted in the award of an eco-label in the printing sector (imprim'vert). They also have obtained a certification from the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC), which guarantees the sustainable sourcing of our packaging materials. Moreover, we use renewable "kraft" paper to wrap up parcels instead of plastic bubble wrap.

For medicines, samples are regulated therefore the smallest marketed packaging should be used. For other segments such as food supplements and medical devices, there is no specific regulation. In order to limit waste resulting from our packaging, we have decided to use the smallest possible packaging for all our samples.

Our buildings meet the highest standards regarding sustainability. We make use of rainwater for sanitary purposes and for our garden, we use solar energy, we have adaptable LED lighting,… Thanks to these green facilities, our Diegem office has been elected most sustainable office building of the year.

Since 2017, we have an energy reduction program included in the CAPEX investment through-out operations, site management, quality and R&D. Thanks to this program, we have achieved great energy savings: 35 GWh in 2019 and 24 GWh in 2020. The commitment has recently been prolonged until 2023. We have made improvements to facilities, infrastructure, in manufacturing and in utilities (specifically HVAC systems). Moreover, solar panels are installed on the roofs of administration and shared buildings.

Our offices are located in an almost new, energy neutral building (BENO-construction) providing high insulation. Solar panels are installed to capture solar energy.

312 solar panels have been installed on site as well as a 20.000 litre rainwater tank to collect water for sanitary purposes. The lights are switched on/off thanks to a presence detector within our buildings, which allows us to save electricity.

Since 2017, our offices are located in a new low energy building. Our electricity has become 100% green and we do not use any fossil fuel. We have photovoltaic panels covering 25-30% of our needs as well as a heat recovery system. Our utilities were optimized in order to control energy losses (warm water, compressed air, heating and cooling systems, etc.)

Our objective is to become 100% carbon neutral by 2030. The core principles of our sustainability requirements are established in the Bayer’s Supplier Code of Conduct. Our suppliers are evaluated and audited on a regular basis to guarantee we reach our objective.

Since 2020, where feasible, we have implemented internal material re-use cycles with respect to good manufacturing practices. For instance, we re-use plastic items for internal transport of syringes in the manufacturing process. These green practices have enabled us to significantly reduce our plastic footprint (multiple 10 tonnes per year) by keeping materials in the system and closing the loop internally. Moreover, thanks to a strong operational excellence culture and the systematic roll-out of the GSK production system in all operations since 2020, efficiency increases in production (less down time, less waste, etc.) and our environmental impact per output has been reduced.

We carefully monitor the following environmental indicators through the whole manufacturing process: fossil fuels, renewable energy, water use, CO2 emission rate, wastes, paper use. Improving these indicators is an important part of our constant environmental progress.

Wishing to adopt a sustainable approach, we decided to limit the use of disposable plastic bags and replaced them with hard reusable containers. We also suppressed disposable cleaning towels for reusable, washable ones. Moreover, our heating and cooling systems were finetuned and optimized for the manufacturing processes.

In order to promote recycling and inform consumers about the life cycle of our products, recycling logos will be added on our packaging within the next 2 years. Moreover, Bayer takes part in a program with farmers to take back and recycle used cans.

Internally, we sort waste carefully. Cartridges and plastics are disposed of in special bins for recycling.

GSK Belgium has established more than 35 individual waste streams which allow us to get 42% of our waste materials recycled in material-specific recycling technologies. The remainder of the waste goes to energy-recovery incineration (depending on the applied definition also regarded as recycling) or to anaerobic digestion with biogas production. Moreover, GSK received an award form 'Label vélo-actif' in Belgium for its outstanding bike policy.

In our new buildings, we can collect rainwater and reuse it. By doing so, we have a direct positive impact on the environment.

Besides waste sorting, we encourage staff members to use recycled paper and to print as much as possible in black and white.

Working towards reducing our environmental footprint, we pay a special attention to recycling and waste sorting. Our cardboard and plastic foils are recycled.

We implemented an internal ecological plan and are now sorting all kinds of waste at warehouse level. It enables us to manage and optimise our recycling process.

Bayer is actively involved in a process and strategy to prevent the water-polluting effects of certain chemicals, including active pharmaceutical ingredients. We also participate in the initiative "Plant a tree" to compensate the impact of our POS materials.
For staff members, we organized a team activity (clean the waste on the beach, in the forest, …) giving them the opportunity to take part in a green action. We also introduced daily veggie meals in our cafeteria. Moreover, our HR department has set up a paperless project: no paper letters anymore for our different communications and no paper 'meal vouchers' & 'End Year vouchers' anymore (only by card). Finally, to encourage everyone to adopt a green and sustainable attitude, our bonus system will include sustainability criteria as of 2021.

Our staff members receive eco-vouchers as we want to encourage them to act in favor of the environment. These vouchers can indeed only be used for the purchase of environmentally friendly products/services. Moreover, all our invoices/credit notes for customers/suppliers are sent by e-mail. By opting for paperless processes, we contribute to reduce our carbon footprint.

Since 2017, we have replaced all Single use plastics (SUPs) in domestic use (food services) by renewable-based materials (paper, bagasse and PLA) which are separately collected and go into anaerobic digestion. By doing so, we have reduced our carbon footprint by 40% compared to the system previously in place. Since 2018, GSK digitizes its documentation processes, which enables us to reduce the consumption of paper and to create less paper waste.
For some of our products, there is no paper leaflet anymore: they include a QR code to a digital leaflet on their packaging (for instance, it is the case of 'Fluarix' but more product vaccines will follow soon). As a result, we have reduced our paper consumption, the leaflet production as well as waste at the consumer end.

In order to reduce our plastic consumption and encourage our personnel to adopt a sustainable approach, we decided to switch to glass bottles in our cafeteria.

We are using FSC paper (Forest Stewardship Council) and are therefore implementing green printing. By complying with the ISO 14001 standard, Tilman manages its environmental respon-sibilities in a way that contributes to sustainable development.

Since 2012, a CSR committee has been established internally. Members of this committee ensure our social, environmental and economic activities are aligned with each other.

Moreover, fruits coming from local market gardeners are at the disposal of our employees. This healthy snack gives them energy/vitamins and enables us to consume seasonal products as well as to support our local producers.

Within our company, we created an EcoTeam whose goal is to identify where and how new ini-tiatives can be taken in order to avoid waste and enhance an eco-friendly mindset.