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EHS excellence awards

The Chief executive officer’s EHS excellence awards recognise and reward GSK sites for innovation in EHS Community Partnership, Green Chemistry/Technology, and EHS Initiative (one for environment, one for health and safety). Each winner receives a trophy and selects a charity to receive a donation from GSK.

The Vanguard Award was introduced in 2005. It is given at the discretion of the CEO to honour recurring, lasting and far reaching accomplishments in EHS.

In 2005 – the fourth year of the Awards – there were 120 entries from 26 countries, the same as in 2004. There were applications from all GSK’s business sectors: R&D, Manufacturing and Commercial, and for the first time entries from Facilities Management teams.

The winners were chosen by a panel that included experts from academia, government and NGOs. In 2005, 12 projects representing sites in Europe, North America, and Asia received top honours. The winning projects covered areas as diverse as safe driving programmes and new product processes that use less energy and reduce waste.

The 2005 award winners were:

Vanguard Award
Rajahmundry, India received the first ever Vanguard Award for recurring, lasting and far reaching accomplishments in EHS

Rajahmundry, where Horlicks and related products are made, has an outstanding record in the EHS Excellence Awards. In 2003, they received two First Place awards and one Second Place, and were awarded a Special Commendation in 2004. This year they received another First Place in the EHS Initiative category. Their first rate 2005 EHS Community Partnership entry demonstrated a continuing passion for building good relationships between GSK and the local community though imaginative environment, health and safety partnerships. Also, in 2005 they became the first GSK site to achieve accreditation to the international standard for Social Accountability, SA-8000, following ISO 14001 and OHSAS 18001 accreditation for Environment and Health & Safety.

Community partnership
First Place: Aranda, Spain for: Supporting implementation of ‘Agenda 21’ in schools

Agenda 21 emerged from the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992 as a plan for sustainable development. Aranda has contributed to its introduction at eight schools in the local community, promoting environmental education.

Second Place: Nabha, India for “Ignited minds – Building awareness of road safety”

The project aimed to raise children’s awareness of safe driving and road safety in five government schools in Nabha, reaching a total of 7,000 children.

Green chemistry/technology
First Place: Tonbridge, United Kingdom for: Development of a green process for GW873140A

This new manufacturing process for the antiretroviral drug GW873140A has significant environmental benefits as well as cost savings. It produces no solid waste to be sent to landfill, reduces liquid waste by 37%, and the uses 16% less energy.

Second Place: Research Triangle Park, United States of America for: Development of the Manufacture Route for GW677954X

A new manufacturing process for this diabetes drug has reduced the number of stages required for its synthesis, increasing yields by 39%, reducing waste by 70% and avoiding the use of some hazardous materials

Third Place: Tonbridge, United Kingdom for: Development of an Environmentally Friendly Process for Manufacture of GW274150F

Tonbridge developed a new process for synthesising this potential asthma drug, using cheap and readily available materials which reduce health and safety concerns and the amount of solvent required in manufacturing.

EHS initiative – Environment
First Place: Rajahmundry, India for: Use methane

A Waste management review revealed that most of the methane generated at the Rajahmundry’s effluent treatment plant was burnt through a flare stack. The EHS team diverted the methane to use as fuel in the site canteen instead of liquefied petroleum gas

Second Place: Rixensart and Wavre, Belgium for: Management of Green Spaces

The Rixensart and Wavre sites in Belgium have teams to develop and manage green spaces. They have developed a number of short and medium term projects to protect the natural environment and improve biodiversity in and around the sites.

Third Place: Thane, India for: Water conservation

The site carried out a water conservation project that included raising employee awareness and focused on three initiatives: harvesting rainwater for reuse, introducing water saving and recovery measures in the site’s heating and cooling systems, and recycling treated effluent water for gardening.

See case studies for fuller details. See the CEO’s EHS excellence awards for more about the awards programme and winners from previous years.

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