Merck published its first environmental report and publicly announced our first environmental improvement goals in 1990. We have reported on our progress and environmental footprint measures since 1993. We assess the environmental footprint of our operations across a broad set of measures including energy and water use, greenhouse gas and pollutant emissions to air and water, and waste generation and recycling rates. As the body of knowledge of the impact of business on the environment has grown, Merck has recognized that driving reductions in our environmental footprint is important to our business and to the world. We are committed to providing a transparent account of our efforts and our results in this area.
Merck's global operations cover a range of activities including: research laboratories; manufacturing and packaging facilities; warehouse and distribution centers; a field sales force; and business offices. Merck has traditionally manufactured the majority of our products from early intermediates through finished packaging. In recent years, we have begun moving toward a supply model that also leverages external manufacturers to augment our internal capabilities.
The data in this section focus primarily on the direct footprint from our internal activities which is primarily associated with our research and manufacturing operations. However, we are working to understand the environmental footprint of our business partners who are members of our upstream and downstream supply chains. For the past several years, we have included indirect footprint information on emissions of greenhouse gases associated with the generation of energy we purchase. During 2008, we began to evaluate our indirect environmental footprint related to employee travel. For information about the programs associated with the companies that supplement our product manufacturing capacity, click here.
Our direct environmental footprint is largely related to the resources and materials we use to do research and to manufacture our medicines and vaccines, as well as the wastes that are generated, treated, and disposed of as the result of those activities. Typically, pharmaceutical compounds are complex organic molecules. The processes used to synthesize them are generally intricate, multi-step, batch chemical operations often requiring multiple solvent changes between process steps and rigorous cleaning between batches. As a result, our direct environmental footprint is significantly impacted by solvent emissions and spent solvent wastes. Some of our newer products are being developed using biological processes that require significant amounts of very pure water. Consequently, water will be an emerging focus area for our efforts to understand and reduce our environmental impact.
None of our products contain or use ozone-depleting substances. Utilities, including the production of steam, are the largest sources of our CO2 emissions. Non-contact cooling water for our manufacturing processes is our primary use of water.
Although manufacturing represents the majority of our direct environmental footprint and is a significant focus area, our environmental initiatives also address other aspects of our operations, from how we operate our business offices through how we conduct our research and development to how we market our products. Specific footprint topics related to our global operations are discussed further in the following sections.
Our Key Footprint Topics
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.
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