Environment, Health and Safety Policy
Strategy and Principles
Responsibility for Environmental Protection, Health and Safety
are corporate goals of Merck and form part of its strategy.
Accordingly, all of our employees are obligated to support these
goals in a consistent and sustainable manner.
This responsibility is an integral component of our Mission
Statement and of our values, and it determines our business
processes, strategic plans and operational actions.
We are certain that our company can only continue its
entrepreneurial success in the future on the basis of sustainability and responsible behaviour.
We responsibly and continuously pursue improvements to our
business and production processes around the world in the areas
of Environmental Protection, Health and Safety in term of the
expanded Responsible Care® Global Charter. In doing so, we
make our lasting contribution to the solution of global
challenges.
In order to fulfil our responsibility and realize improvements, we
base our actions on clearly defined principles specified by
standards and procedures and set measurable goals for
ourselves. We communicate these principles and goals to all of
our employees, and require that they adhere to them. All of these
actions are taken in accordance with the applicable statutory
regulations. We have a dedicated risk management system and
make continuous improvements and adjustments based on the
most current information and findings without saying.
We utilize recognized, integrated management systems for
Quality and Environmental Management in at least all
production companies worldwide to achieve our goals and to
implement our guidelines at a consistently high level.
Innovations, improvements and activities are systematically
initiated, recorded and tracked across the Group using regular
internal environmental and safety audits.
Further, we have joined the United Nations “Global Compact”
and expressly committed ourselves to its ten principles of
responsible behaviour with the aim of making our processes
more sustainable.
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Environment, Health and Safety Policy
Strategy and Principles | February 2010
Principles
We meet our global responsibility in the area of Environmental
Protection, Health and Safety in the following ways:
MERCK GROUP
• W
e maintain a global network of employees, who we train
and inform, with the aim of representing our EHS-culture
and EHS-philosophy consistently across the world.
• We set and communicate EHS Group goals and we support
their achievement through the regular exchange of
experience and opinions within our global network.
• We support goals and improvements globally in the Group by
corporate programs and audits and strive to continuously
improve on what we have already achieved.
• We position the Merck Group as a sustainable and
responsible actor.
EMPLOYEES
• W
e consider the health and safety of our employees to be an
essential resource in our company that must be protected.
• We support the creativity and self-initiative of our employees
for implementing measures in the area of Environmental
Protection, Health and Safety.
• We motivate our employees to further enhance their skills,
and we strengthen our employees’ sense of responsibility for
acting in an environmentally friendly, safe and health-conscious way at the workplace by providing up-to-date
information, regular training and preventive measures.
• We call on our employees to take responsibility for acting in
a health-conscious way, and support them with regular
preventive occupational medical check-ups.
PRODUCTION and RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT
• W
e have defined transparent standards, procedures and
Good Practices for safe and environmentally friendly
operation at all of our sites, we require that all employees
comply with these rules, and we check their compliance on a
regular basis.
• We strive to prevent or at least sustainably reduce
environmental pollution and health hazards in the research,
development, production, storage, transport and usage of
our products.
• As part of our commitment to responsible behaviour
(Responsible Care®) and sustainable development, we are
responsible for monitoring our own facilities, emissions and
waste water, disposal, product quality and product safety,
and are economical in the use of raw materials, energy and
water. We report publicly about our activities and progress.
THE PUBLIC
• W
e build trust in our company’s behaviour through an open,
active, cooperative and respectful dialog with our customers,
employees, suppliers, shareholders, the government
authorities and the public at large.
• We provide objective, transparent information to our
employees, the government authorities and our neighbouring communities about our plans for investments and the
development of sites, potential dangers resulting from our
operations and measures to avoid them, as well as incidents
and operating failures that may affect our community.
CUSTOMERS and SUPPLIERS
• W
e continuously collect and communicate to our customers
the most recent environmental and safety information about
the characteristics of our products, their further treatment,
storage, correct usage and disposal.
• We build a cooperative relationship with our customers and
suppliers and maintain an open and continuous dialog with
them, especially as regards the potential health and
environmental hazards of our products. We select our
suppliers regarding their expertise and reliability in the area
of Environmental Protection, Health and Safety.
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