In the challenging, research-based pharmaceutical industry, Lilly is committed to making high-quality medicines responsibly. We aim to achieve world-class performance by operating safely, minimizing our natural resource use, and lessening our impact on the environment.
Consistent with the Lilly brand and with our company’s value of respect for people, that responsibility includes creating a culture of accountability that places a strong emphasis on employee safety. Our employees are our greatest asset and we want our workplace to be injury free.
Under the leadership of John Lechleiter, our chairman, president, and chief executive officer, aggressive targets for injury prevention were established in 2008. Our companywide goal is to reduce injury rates by 50 percent by 2013. All senior executives who report to Lechleiter have injury prevention performance objectives included in their annual performance plans.
New injury prevention programs are already being implemented throughout the company to ensure continued progress. In fact, our motor vehicle safety program has been expanded from 10 to 33 sales and marketing organizations. In addition to emphasizing motor vehicle safety, we will also focus on ergonomics – areas where injuries most frequently occur at Lilly. While addressing these issues we will maintain our strong programs in process safety and industrial hygiene.
Injury prevention programs are being implemented companywide to ensure continued progress. For example, we have been expanding hseDIRECTIONS, our global marketing and sales organization’s strategy for injury reduction, as well as environmental improvement. Additionally, ergonomics and slips, trips, and falls – two common causes of injuries at Lilly – are becoming an even greater point of focus globally. At the same time, we are maintaining strong programs in process safety and industrial hygiene.
We achieved a reduction in our global Occupational Health and Safety (OSHA) recordable injury rate in 2008, with continued improvements in 2009. Our focus for injury prevention does not stop with our own employees; it is also a focus area for the contractors we hire.
A thorough review of contractor company safety rates occurs before a firm is hired, and we only hire those that meet our standards. Once hired, we expect the contractor to maintain the same rigorous safety standards that we maintain for our own employees. As a result, the global contractor injury rate is routinely below the national average in countries where we operate.
Strengthening our commitment to injury prevention will improve productivity and will allow us to continue to focus on delivering improved outcomes for our patients and customers.
In addition, Lilly has made considerable progress in lessening our impact on the environment. Over a five-year period, from 2004 to 2008, we have:
- Cut hazardous materials purchases in half;
- Improved our energy intensity (in energy used per dollar of sales) by more than 35 percent, and reduced absolute energy use by 5.8 percent;
- Cut our absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 4.4 percent; and
- Cut emissions of volatile organic compounds from manufacturing facilities by 40 percent.
To drive further improvements, we adopted a new set of goals for energy and water use and waste disposal aimed at achieving best-in-class performance improvement within our industry.
For more information about our HSE programs, issues, goals, and performance, click on the links below.
