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Ozone depleting substances (ODSs), as defined by the Montreal
Protocol and its Amendments, have been measured from their sources
at GSK manufacturing operations and R&D facilities. Ozone depleting
substances are released to the atmosphere from production operations
(primarily production of metered dose inhalers), ancillary cooling
systems and fire suppressant systems at GSK facilities. GSK reports
ozone depletion potential in CFC-11 equivalents as defined by the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Ozone Secretariat.
In 2001, GSK set two targets related to ozone depletion potential
to be achieved by 2005; 50% reduction in CFC-11 equivalent emissions
related to production processes and 100% reduction in CFC-11 equivalent
emissions related to refrigeration and other ancillary processes.
For refrigeration and other ancillary releases of halocarbons we
reported 0.0078 million kilograms of ozone depletion potential (CFC-11
equivalents) in 2001. During the reporting process this year, sites
took the opportunity to revisit the reported values for 2001 to
ensure consistency in reporting and some made revisions. In addition,
we corrected some of the factors that were used to calculate the
ODP values, applied them more consistently for both 2001 and 2002
and applied more specific factors to individual ODSs rather than
general factors to groups of ODSs. Because of these corrections
the 2001 baseline was revised to 0.00500 million kilograms. For
2002, the ODP from ancillary releases is 0.00738 million kilograms
representing a 48% increase in CFC-11 equivalent releases. This
increase is due in part to better reporting but primarily to one-time
facility maintenance activities occurring at one of our major manufacturing
sites. This facility alone accounted for nearly 30% of the GSK total
for ancillary ODP release in 2002. However, while there has been
a significant percentage increase from 2001 to 2002, the actual
amount is small. We did not make progress toward our target for
eliminating CFC-11 equivalent emissions related to refrigeration
and other ancillary processes so the small number of sites that
contribute to this parameter will need to work to meet the target.
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Production process-related CFC-11 equivalent emissions have
decreased from 0.18 million kilograms to 0.12 million kilograms,
representing a 33% reduction. The decrease is primarily due
to changes at our main inhaler manufacturing facilities from
production of CFC inhalers to CFC free and dry powder inhalers.
In addition to the ozone depletion potential from production
and ancillary releases, the ozone depletion potential from
propellant released when patients used our products in 2002
is 1.5 million kilograms.
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