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Social responsibility
In common with people throughout the world, Amersham and its staff
were affected by the tragic events of 11 September. Most impact
was felt by employees at our New Jersey and other US facilities,
many of whom had family, friends and neighbours directly involved
in the events that caused such shock and dismay. Those feelings
were soon replaced by a desire to help and firm resolve to continue
running our business with the minimum disruption to our staff and
those in need of our products. Our company responded immediately
by establishing, on 12 September, the Amersham Manhattan Disaster
Fund. By 31 December, this fund had distributed $530,000 to 118
families in need of immediate financial support in the communities
around our New Jersey sites. The tragedy reinforced what we already
knew, that successful businesses must be integrated with the society
and communities in which they operate and that our work in this
area has never been more important.
Even before 11 September, 2001 was a year in which ethical and
social issues of business performance were under close scrutiny.
The London Stock Exchange introduced a new index, FTSE4Good, which
favours companies that can demonstrate sound environmental and socially
acceptable performance. Amersham was proud to be listed in the index
and we also maintained our membership of The PerCent Club – the
UK’s benchmark for businesses’ community and charitable involvement.
Sir William Castell continued as Chairman of The Prince’s Trust
charity foundation, and also donated 13,000 Amersham shares from
his own personal holding to help alleviate the Foot and Mouth Disease
crisis in rural Britain. UK legislation calling for pension fund
trustees to take environmental and social issues into account in
their investment decisions raised investor interest in the company’s
performance in this area.
In May, the European Commission published proposals outlining possible
future measures for the introduction of Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR) standards in businesses in the European Union. CSR is already
well developed in the UK although both government and business favour
a voluntary rather than legislative approach. Amersham seems well
placed to comply with many of the requirements of CSR, already having
in place well developed Corporate Governance and risk management
procedures as well as appropriate Human Resources and Health, Safety
and Environment policies. The company will work during 2002 to evaluate
areas where its policies may require strengthening to incorporate
CSR and will also publish an Environment and Social Report in June,
reviewing the progress made in these areas during the period 2000-2001.
Social and community programmes continued to be developed in 2001
throughout the company. Our sponsorship of the Genes, Medicine and
Society lecture series at the prestigious Royal Institution in London
explored the moral, ethical and scientific aspects of harnessing
the knowledge being made available from mapping the human genome.
The success of the series led to a similar programme of lectures
at Norway’s National Hospital in Oslo that will continue in 2002.
In the arts, the company developed its support of world-renowned
medieval choral singers, The Sixteen, with sponsorship of concerts
in America. An interactive computer generated artwork, Imagene,
which illustrates the company’s products and the science behind
them through the conceptual illustrations of artist Ivan Riches,
was completed and will be used in education. Amersham Biosciences
again supported Science magazine’s annual prize for young scientists
and the grand prize winner was Song-Hai Shi for his work on memory
and learning.
At the local level, several sites have extended their community
programmes focused primarily in education and healthcare. In the
UK, staff raised over £30,000 for the National Society for Epilepsy.
In Germany, staff assisted by local physicians planted 5,000 trees
supplied by the company as they continued to support reforestation
schemes in the Bavarian Alps. Amersham Health’s plant in Cork, Ireland
received a Good Neighbour Award from the National Health and Safety
Authority. Amersham Biosciences in Piscataway, New Jersey has become
involved in numerous community events including clean ups, blood
drives and education. Similar community involvement was evident
in San Francisco where Amersham Biosciences staff supported appeals
for food for the homeless, toys for children in need and donated
$25,000 of used science equipment to schools, colleges and for use
in developing nations. In Cardiff, the company has expanded its
support to schools and in Amersham, the SET to Help school scheme
now has more than 30 primary schools participating. In Norway, major
donations were made to the nationally televised AIDS appeal and
to the Heart and Lung Association, in addition to local initiatives
in Oslo and Lindesnes.
Health, Safety and Environment
For the second year we participated in Business in the Environment’s
Annual Index of Corporate Environmental Performance, improving on
our position in 2000. Work on developing our 2002 Environment and
Social Report also commenced and this will provide more details
of our standards and performance in these areas. During 2001 there
were no HS&E prosecutions of the company and there were many areas
where improvements were made. Ongoing allegations of health effects
from our research and manufacturing operations in Cardiff were subject
to independent investigation by the relevant Health Authority which
concluded that there was no credible evidence to suggest any harm
to health from the plant. Under our policy of continuous improvement,
we continue to pursue the development of new recovery and recycling
technology that will reduce the emissions of radioactivity into
the environment to well below the current limits that are already
set at safe levels.
Many of our sites concentrated on waste reduction initiatives during
the year. Highlights include recycling almost 10,000 tonnes of ethanol
and fructose at Staffanstorp, Sweden and over 13,000 tonnes of solvent
for reuse at Lindesnes, Norway. Recycling rates improved at many
locations including Oslo, which also reduced waste generated despite
a substantial increase in production. Implementation of new techniques
and emission reduction initiatives led to a substantial reduction
in the release of solvents to atmosphere at Uppsala, Sweden. In
the UK, the programme to reduce the volume of radioactive waste
has paid dividends. As well as reducing volumes of waste for disposal
through the use of more sophisticated repackaging and decay techniques,
generation at source is also being tackled. For example, at Cardiff
a drive to prevent unnecessary materials being taken into active
areas of the plant (and thereby having to be disposed of as low
level waste) resulted in over three tonnes of unwanted mail being
returned to sender!
Our joint venture in Japan, Nihon Medi-Physics, obtained ISO 14001
Environmental Management certification as did our sales and marketing
organisation in Sweden. Other sites are continuing to make progress
towards certification although it is still too early to assess whether
the certification brings significant extra benefits over and above
the company’s own management system already in place. Our manufacturing
facility in Shanghai passed its Occupational Health and Safety evaluation
and was designated an “Advanced Company of Safety Performance” by
the Chinese authorities. During the national Chinese Safety Week
employees at the plant competed in a ‘safety knowledge’ competition
and distributed material to all employees. In the UK a comprehensive
training programme to raise the awareness of the dangers of stress,
alcohol and drug abuse was undertaken. As part of the programme,
all managers have been trained to identify possible problems at
an early stage and act to ensure that employees obtain appropriate
counselling and support, helping to ensure the health of our employees
and safety of their colleagues.
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