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EHS excellence award

Our Chief Executive Officer’s Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) Excellence Awards Programme - run for the third year in 2004 - recognises and rewards GSK sites for innovation in EHS. The winners are chosen by a panel that includes experts from academia, government and NGOs.

There are three categories of awards - Community Partnership, Green Chemistry/Green Technology, and the EHS Initiative Award (including separate awards for environment and safety). Each winner receives a trophy and selects a charity to receive a donation.

In 2004, there were 120 entries from 64 GSK sites in 32 countries - 27% more entries than the previous year. The 2004 awards recognise achievements in the calendar year 2003. The winners were:

EHS community partnership

1st place: Evreux, France for "EHS school challenge"
GSK business division - Global Manufacturing and Supply, New Product and Global Supply
The EHS School Challenge aims to raise awareness of EHS issues among local school children. In 2003, over fourteen schools took part in the initiative. See case study.

2nd place: Xochimilco, Mexico for "working with our neighbours"
GSK business division - Pharmaceuticals International and Global Manufacturing and Supply, Regional Pharma Supply
The site supports a range of projects to help Mixteca ethnic communities. Examples include: training for over four thousand “health promoters”, supporting a clinic for cervical-uterine cancer and assisting local women to establish a chicken farm for food and income.

3rd place: Sonepat, India for "project Pragati"
GSK business division - Global Manufacturing and Supply, Consumer healthcare Supply
Project Pragati (pragati means development) provides support to local communities, including an eye clinic (to address the high incidence of eye problems in the area), training of village women as seamstresses, traffic and pedestrian safety education sessions and helping to fund a fire engine.

Green chemistry/technology

1st place: Verona, Italy for "environmentally friendly synthesis of GW597599B"
GSK business division - Research & development
Novel techniques have been used to remove several hazardous substances, including triphosgene, from the production process of GW597599B (which is being tested to prevent chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting). See case study.

2nd place: Cork, Eire for "GW572016 solvent usage reduction project"
GSK business division - Global Manufacturing and Supply, Primary Supply and Antibiotics and Research & development
A 35% reduction in solvent use and energy savings have been achieved by re-designing the process for making GW572016 (used to treat solid tumours).

3rd place: Stevenage, United Kingdom, for "development of GW273629 Route of Manufacture"
GSK business division - Research & development
A new process has been developed to produce GW273629 (used in the treatment of migraines). This avoids the use of dioxane, a carcinogenic chemical, and eliminates the use of DMF, a solvent listed as a reproductive hazard under the Solvent Emissions Directive. It also saves energy and reduces waste. Overall, improvements to the process have reduced costs by £1,000 per kg, an annual saving of £30 million based on projected peak production of 30 tonnes per year.

EHS initiative - environment

1st place: Bogotá, Colombia for "pharmaceutical waste bioremediation"
GSK business division - Global Manufacturing and Supply, Consumer healthcare Supply
The pioneering use of reed bed technology for the treatment of pharmaceutical waste in Colombia has led to a 60% reduction in the cost of final waste treatment. See case study.

2nd place: Cairo, Egypt for "waste re-use and reduced resource consumption"
GSK business division - Global Manufacturing and Supply, Regional Pharma Supply
A new process was designed to re-use waste gelatine in the encapsulation process - reducing waste and resource consumption.

3rd place: Barnard Castle, United Kingdom for "increased mass conversion Efficiency of Cephalosporin Oral Products"

GSK business division - Global Manufacturing and Supply, New Product and Global Supply
Improvements to the process of producing cephalosporin (an antibiotic) have significantly reduced the amount of waste - helping to divert over 1 tonne per year of active pharmaceutical ingredient from incineration.

EHS Initiative - Safety

1st place: Barnard Castle, United Kingdom for "ergonomic improvements"
GSK business division - Global Manufacturing and Supply, New Product and Global Supply
The site has successfully raised employee awareness of ergonomic risks. Teams have identified and completed 59 ergonomic improvement projects and ergonomic experts are consulted on the design of new equipment. See case study.

2nd place: Nabha, India for "EHS strategy and mechanical scraping machine"

GSK business division - Global Manufacturing and Supply, Consumer healthcare Supply
The site, which produces malted food, implemented a new EHS Strategy. This resulted in the development of a new mechanised scraping machine (used in the tray drying process) which has reduced workers’ exposure to moving parts and the risk of repetitive strain injury.

3rd place: Mayenne, France for "control of driving risks"

GSK business division - Global Manufacturing and Supply, Primary Supply and Antibiotics
The site has organised driving safety courses for employees for five years. Each year about 50 employees complete a one-day training session, including classroom presentations and practical workshops where drivers learn to control their cars in emergencies.

See CEO’s EHS Excellence Award for more about the awards programme and winners from previous years.

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