Goals and performance

Orion takes environmental impacts into consideration at every stage of product development and manufacture. At Orion, environmental matters are an important focus area in the company’s safety policy, which emphasises consideration of the environmental impacts in the management, control and development of operations and requires that the environmental impacts of decisions and solutions are identified and that operations are developed to preserve the diversity of nature and that procedures for managing accident situations are established. 

Laws, decrees and regulations set the minimum level for the management of environmental responsibility. However, objectives set at these minimum levels are usually not satisfactory for Orion. A higher target level can often prove more meaningful than the minimum level, also financially. 

Orion’s environmental activities encompass the following areas:

-         Air protection

-         Waste water

-         Soil protection

-         Waste management

-         Recycling

As a general principle, Orion considers the long-term environmental impacts when planning its operations, preparing for investments and at every stage of product development and manufacture. Orion expects good standards of managing environmental affairs also from its contract manufacturers, vendors and other partners.

Reduced production of waste in all forms is an important objective when minimising environmental impacts. Orion's objectives are aligned with the priority targets specified in the EU-level waste strategy, which will be included in the new waste act that is expected to enter into force towards the end of 2010. These priorities include avoiding the production of waste by all means possible and recycling the produced waste materials. If waste is not re-usable as material, it must be used in some other way whenever possible, such as an energy source. The amount of landfill waste is to be minimised.

The operations of Orion’s facilities, which manufacture pharmaceutical preparations and active pharmaceutical ingredients, require environmental permissions as specified in the Environmental Protection Decree of Finland. The environmental regulations and permissions are regional.

The primary objectives of pharmaceutical research for developing both new drugs and generics include not only efficacious and safe drugs, but also quality and reliability. The methods applied in pharmaceutical R&D are mainly directed by the regulations of drug and health authorities. Their main purpose in turn is first and foremost to ensure that the applied research method yields as reliable a result as possible. Whenever possible, the most environmentally friendly option is selected.

Procedures

Focus areas in the management of environmental affairs at Orion include chemicals used in production and laboratories, consumption of energy and water, waste produced by operations and the environmental load caused by the company’s products over their life-cycle.

Orion monitors the environmental impacts of its operations by, for example, measuring and calculating the volumes of chemicals, solvents and other substances, water and energy consumed and emissions to water and air as well as keeping track of waste and recording waste statistics.

The manufacturing processes of pharmaceutical products, active pharmaceutical ingredients and diagnostics products differ very much from each other, and accordingly, they also generate emissions and waste differently both in terms of amounts and type. Hazardous waste is produced especially from active pharmaceutical ingredients (API) processes, but also to some extent from the manufacture of pharmaceutical products. Fermion, which produces APIs by means of synthetic methods of organic chemistry, typically uses some 97% of the total solvents used by Orion, and the emissions of their volatile organic compounds (VOC) attribute to some 75% of Orion’s total emissions to air. Fermion also produces the relatively largest amount of hazardous waste in the Group. The plants manufacturing pharmaceutical and diagnostics products in Espoo, Turku and Kuopio in turn produce non-hazardous recyclable materials and landfill waste.

Organisational responsibility

The management responsibilities of environmental affairs are allocated according to the operational structure of the Group. This means that the managers of each business division and line function are responsible for the management of their respective environmental affairs. The focus areas and practices are mainly determined by the nature of operation of each division and function, relevant authority regulations and legislation and environmental risks related to the operation in question.

Business divisions and line functions are responsible for identifying the main environmental impacts of their operation and to develop their operations and activities in an environmentally friendly manner. They also draft division and location specific procedures for environmental damage and accidents, document the main tasks and activities that have an impact on environmental safety and issue guidelines for them as well as draft and maintain operating procedures for the collecting, processing and archiving of information related to environmental safety.

Each Orion employee is responsible for operating according to environmental principles in their daily work.

Training and awareness

Orion organises training to maintain and develop the personnel’s awareness of environmental affairs and to encourage the personnel's commitment to Orion’s environmental objectives. Aspects of environmental protection are included in training programs when appropriate and possible.

Supervisors have a special responsibility of ensuring that the personnel and new employees receive sufficient training on the safety procedures and environmental matters of the department and division.