Our responsibility to protect the environment derives from the Merck Values and corporate strategy. The basis for steering environmental protection activities is the Corporate EHS Policy with its principles and strategies for the environment, health and safety. The EHS Policy is implemented through internal guidelines and instructions for compliant behavior, such as the Merck Group EHS, Security and Quality Manual. They describe how employees must take the EHS principles into account in their daily work at the sites. Our guidelines are oriented toward the key elements of the Responsible Care Global Charter developed in 2005 by national and international associations of the chemical industry.
We want to continually improve our performance and use energy, water and materials economically and efficiently. We are doing this to reduce our impact on the environment, but also to achieve cost savings derived from efficiency. We are currently focusing on climate protection: By 2020, we aim to reduce our total direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions by 20% – measured on the basis of 2006 levels. The Chairman of the Executive Board, Karl-Ludwig Kley, is responsible for the environment, health and safety at Merck. The Group function Environment, Health, Safety, Security, Quality (EQ) is responsible for managing all environmental protection measures worldwide. Operating units at all Merck sites attend to environmental protection matters. EQ conducts internal and external audits to ensure that regulatory requirements, standards and business requirements are adhered to and implemented. The Group-wide electronic data management system LION is used to record environment, health and safety data at the sites and transmit them to headquarters on a regular basis – a majority of the data annually, some semiannually, and some on a monthly basis. In 2009, 54 production sites were
certified for the first time in accordance with ISO 14001:2004, the international environmental management standard. At that time, these were all the production sites of the Merck Group. The Group certificate was confirmed in 2010 by the annual certification maintenance audit, which takes place each November. The audit covered eleven sites representative of the entire Group. The review by the certifiers showed that all requirements of the ISO 14001:2004 standard are being fully met.
One of our greatest challenges at this time is integration of the 15 new Millipore production sites into our Group-wide EHS organization. In 2011, we plan to include the former Millipore production sites into the Group certificate in accordance with ISO 14001:2004. For this purpose, we are currently working on harmonizing the structure and processes, as well as harmonizing reporting.
Our spending on environmental protection, health and safety totaled EUR 140 million in 2010. This figure includes depreciation of property, plant and equipment, as well as operating costs.
In January 2011, Millipore Corporation paid USD 526,500 in civil penalties to settle allegations by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to the EPA, Millipore Corporation, which was acquired by Merck in 2010, distributed and sold an unregistered pesticide and imported pesticides and pesticide devices without submitting the required forms to the EPA in the period from September 2005 to October 2008.
When Millipore first became aware of EPA’s concerns in 2008, it stopped importing the unregistered chlorine tablets and has since imported pesticide devices in compliance with the applicable regulations of FIFRA (U.S. Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act).
