The Champions for the Environment program was established in 1994 to recognize Earth Day. The program continues to attract the interest of our employees and community, in part due to the demonstrable impacts.

To apply for grants, employees work with local organizations to prepare and submit proposals to the Champions for the Environment Review Committee. Programs approved by that committee are either funded by The Merck Company Foundation or Merck's Office of Corporate Philanthropy. Most funding recipients are schools, local government agencies with conservation responsibilities, and environmental and youth organizations. Overall, projects are divided almost equally between Merck sites in the United States and our international sites. Grants for each project average $7,500.

Through our Champions for the Environment program, Merck supports employee volunteer-led local environmental projects. Here are examples:

UNITED STATES:

Durham, North Carolina

Triangle Land Conservancy (TLC) is the local non-profit land trust for the Triangle region of North Carolina. TLC's mission is to protect important open space — stream corridors, forests, wildlife habitat, farmland and natural areas. In 2008, Merck's Champions for the Environment grant helped TLC conduct biological inventories, create management plans, and perform other duties as part of TLC's mission to care for the natural areas of the region. Merck employee volunteers from our Durham facility were stewards of the properties by cleaning up litter, establishing boundaries and access barriers, and posting signage.

West Point, Pennsylvania

In 2008, employees at Merck's West Point, PA site partnered with the Pennypack Farm & Education Center to create a self-guided trail with thirty interpretive signs that inform visitors about the ecological issues involved in the way food is produced and highlight organic farming methods. Merck volunteers were engaged in the trail planning process, installed the interpretive signs, and assembled backpack kits containing hands-on investigative science kits aimed at engaging children in relevant and interesting ways.

Whitehouse Station, New Jersey

In 2007, Merck partnered with Hunterdon County, New Jersey, and the New Jersey Association of Hazardous Waste Coordinators to demonstrate how, by applying Lean Thinking concepts, one could improve the efficiency of the county's Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program. Merck volunteers were Merck Sigma trained green belts, black belts, and master black belts. Prior to the initiative, residents in Hunterdon County often waited in line for up to two hours to drop off hazardous waste. Long waits discouraged participation, increasing the risk of improper disposal of hazardous materials — placing both the environment and the sanitation workers at risk. The project demonstrated that improved efficiency could be achieved by the Hazardous Waste Cleanup Program by changing the configuration of how cars enter and exit the unloading area which was shown to significantly reduce wait times. The project also provided Lean Thinking training materials and references for the county household hazardous waste coordinators.

LATIN AMERICA:

Costa Rica

In 2008, a team of Merck volunteers helped the Tropical Sierra Foundation turn the area of Monte de la Cruz, San Rafael de Heredia Costa Rica into an outdoor environmental education center designed to teach children from 40 different high schools how to protect and conserve the area's lush natural habitat. The center hosted educational workshops and volunteers were involved in activities such as building footpaths, establishing a medicinal garden, planting trees, and putting up interpretive signage featuring local flora and fauna.

Mexico

In Mexico, it is estimated that in the past seven years, 36,000 tons of waste batteries were generated. In 2007, our employees at our facility in Mexico worked with community volunteers and local regulators to establish battery collection and recycling programs to reduce the environmental impact of batteries ending up in landfills. Merck employees worked together with the local program "Responsible Battery Management" to promote the battery collection program and to collect batteries from containers that were located around Coyoacan Delegation. Collected batteries were then sent to a dedicated vendor for recycling.

EUROPE:

Hoddesdon, United Kingdom

In 2008, volunteers from Merck's site in Hoddesdon, United Kingdom, worked with Countryside Management Service and local community volunteers on two conservation management projects within the woodland areas near Merck's site. In Bencroft Wood — ancient woodland designated as a National Nature Reserve — volunteers coppiced ancient Hornbeam stools as part of the management of this centuries-old wood. The wood from the coppiced trees was used to create "deer baskets" – a protective device crucial for preventing deer browsing damage to new shoots that result from the coppicing activity.

In 2008, volunteers in Cheshunt Park worked to enhance the historic park by clearing shrubs and vegetation, installing sleeper edges, sowing wildflower seeds and planting a new hedgerow.

ASIA PACIFIC:

New Zealand

In April 2008, 62 MSD New Zealand employees traveled to Great Barrier Island to undertake five days of environmental work in partnership with two non-profit organizations — Sir Edmund Hillary Outdoor Pursuits Centre of New Zealand (OPC) and the Glenfern Sanctuary Charitable Trust. Employee volunteers assisted Glenfern Sanctuary by clearing invasive vegetation, constructing a native plant nursery, and planting native plants. Employees also designed and created a "confidence-building low ropes course" for the educational needs of students.

China

In 2008, employees at Merck's Hangzhou, China facility helped "Green Zhejiang", a youth volunteer group, select and implement proposals for creating environmentally-friendly communities in the city. The project was inspired by China's "Green Olympics" campaign to integrate environmentally-friendly concepts into the venues for the 2008 Olympics.

The content on this page was last modified on September 15, 2009.

Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA, and Schering-Plough Corporation, Kenilworth, NJ, USA, are now one company. We have combined our global operations under the name Merck & Co., Inc. We are working to update our corporate responsibility Web site to reflect our new, combined, global organization.