Environment, Health and Safety

As a Company that discovers important new medicines and vaccines to protect human health, Merck considers environmental, health and safety (EHS) practices to be of fundamental importance to the way we operate. Merck's environmental, occupational health and safety corporate policies articulate our EHS mission and values. These include protecting the health and well-being of our employees and the public, protecting and preserving the environment, and ensuring the safety of our employees and those who live in the vicinity of our facilities. Our EHS values are expressed through our focus on compliance, leadership, performance management, global standards, minimization of our environmental impact, communication, education and training.

We strive to be a leader in environmental and safety performance by incorporating best practices and instituting mechanisms to drive continuous improvement, including systems to measure and benchmark our progress. As a member of the American Chemistry Council (ACC), Merck is committed to the guiding principles of Responsible Care®, a voluntary program dedicated to improvements in environmental, health and safety performance.

We have improved our manufacturing safety performance through programs that reduce workplace accidents and exposure to hazardous chemicals. We also have implemented a global Motor Vehicle Safety program designed to protect Merck employees, who drove more than 482 million miles in 2006 on Company-related business. We have undertaken initiatives to manage resources, minimize energy use, conserve water and reduce waste generation. Merck also devotes extensive financial and human resources to ensuring the progress and success of our environmental, safety and health programs.

Climate change and greenhouse gas management are issues of global concern. As a member of the Business Roundtable (BRT) and signatory to BRT's Climate RESOLVE program, Merck supports the goal of enhanced voluntary company actions to control Green House Gas (GHG) Emissions. In 2006, Merck joined the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Climate Leaders Program. Climate Leaders is an EPA industry partnership that works with companies to develop long-term comprehensive climate change strategies. As part of the Climate Leaders commitment, Merck has announced a plan to reduce GHG emissions from the Company's global operations by 12 percent by the end of 2012, using 2004 as its base year. Merck's energy reduction goals are achieved through the efforts of the Company's Global Energy Team (GET) that facilitates the efficient use of energy, resulting in environmental and cost-savings benefits. In addition, Merck has eliminated the use of coal-fired boilers at Merck facilities throughout the world.

Since April 2005, Merck has participated in a pharmaceutical industry working group that culminated in September of 2006 with a set of Pharmaceutical Industry Principles for Responsible Supply Chain Management, http://www.pharmaceuticalsupplychain.org/about/. These principles are designed to ensure that suppliers meet industry expectations across several areas of corporate responsibility, including labor and employment practices, health and safety, ethics, environmental protection and related management systems. We believe that through this effort we will help assure a high level of compliance with basic principles of corporate responsibility on the part of companies worldwide that supply Merck with research compounds, active pharmaceutical ingredients and finished pharmaceutical products. The principles outline standards to help ensure that working conditions in the pharmaceutical supply chain are safe, that workers are treated with respect and dignity, and that manufacturing processes are safe and environmentally responsible. Merck has a procedure in place to implement the principles.

Recent Internal EHS Awards

The Merck Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Chairman's Awards for Sustainability, Community Partnership, and Leadership and Commitment were established in 2005 and 2006. These awards are the highest form of EHS recognition within Merck. In addition, Merck has had, for many years, a Chairman's Safety Performance Award that recognizes exceptional safety performance in fleet safety and lost-time injury. Recipients of recent Chairman's Awards are:

2006 EHS Sustainability Award - MSD Singapore for demonstrating a proactive and innovative culture through the implementation of a series of waste minimization projects that not only benefit Merck but improve long-term sustainability of the site.
2006 EHS Community Partnership Award – Merck Corporate Cell-Phone Recycling Hopeline® Partnership for providing a system for recycling cell phones at Merck sites in Rahway, NJ, West Point, PA, and Whitehouse Station, NJ, thereby helping to keep electronic waste out of landfills, while providing cell phones to victims of domestic violence in these communities.
2006 EHS Leadership and Commitment Award – Global Engineering Services for demonstrating a commitment to construction safety performance by promoting a culture of zero incidents.
2006 EHS Sustainability Award - MRL Process Research and Process Development groups were recognized for their leadership and excellence in Green Chemistry innovation that has created safer, more efficient and environmentally responsible science.
2006 Safety Performance Award – Merck manufacturing facilities in China, Korea and Singapore for achieving 5 million hours or five years without a lost-time accident.
2007 Safety Performance Award – Merck Research Laboratories in Wayne, PA, for achieving 5 million hours or five years without a lost-time accident.

Recent External EHS Awards

Merck was named an ENERGY STAR® Partner of the year in 2006 and in 2007 by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the Company’s programs to achieve effective energy management. Merck is the first pharmaceutical company to be named Partner of the Year two consecutive years.
In 2006, for the second consecutive year, Merck won the prestigious Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Merck received the “Green Synthetic Pathways Award” for the novel synthesis of the active ingredient in Merck’s innovative new medicine for type 2 diabetes. Over the lifetime of the product, Merck expects to eliminate the formation of at least 330 million pounds of waste.
In 2006, Merck was awarded the second place Chemistry Innovation Award by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) for innovation in applied catalysis and colloid science for our process to make JANUVIA™ (sitagliptin) for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
The American Chemistry Council (ACC) awarded Merck the 2006 "Energy Efficiency Program" award in the category of Non-Manufacturing Energy Efficiency Improvement for the installation of natural gas micro-turbines to replace a diesel fuel generator. The award is given to companies with broad programs to achieve energy efficiency improvements.
In 2005, Merck received a Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in the "Alternative Synthetic Pathways" category for redesigning the synthesis of the active ingredient in one of our medicines. Merck chemists worked to develop a significantly greener, less-wasteful process to produce the medicine. This streamlined, environmentally friendly process cut the number of steps in half while doubling yield and significantly reducing environmental impact.
In September 2005, Merck was awarded the prestigious 2005 AstraZeneca Award for Excellence in Green Chemistry and Engineering by the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE). The prize was awarded to Merck to recognize the efficient and environmentally responsible route to JANUVIA™ (sitagliptin). The new production process incorporates two innovations that shortened the difficult and lengthy synthesis, saved money by maximizing yield in the step involving a chiral catalyst, reduced waste by 80 percent, and eliminated waste aqueous streams completely.

Recent Accomplishments

In December 2005, the Company installed its first large-scale solar energy system, which is also one of New Jersey’s largest roof-mounted solar installations. The 500-kilowatt system includes more than 1,500 solar panels that cover the roofs of two buildings on Merck's Rahway/Linden, NJ, campus; one of which already houses a 200-kilowatt hydrogen fuel cell that was installed in 2002. With the addition of the photovoltaic panel system to a building that already houses a fuel cell, Merck has created a unique clean energy building prototype. The building is nearly self-sufficient in producing the electricity it needs, with virtually no greenhouse gas emissions.
Recycling eWaste in the U.S.: Merck & Verizon Wireless Hopeline® Partnership — Formally established in 2006, the Merck Corporate Cell-Phone Recycling Program provides employees an easy way to ensure that business and personal cell phones do not end up as electronic waste in landfills. The wireless handsets and accessories, collected year round, are either recycled or refurbished and sold, with proceeds going to fund non-profit agencies and to purchase phones and airtime for victims of domestic violence through the Verizon Wireless Hopeline® Program. The Corporate recycling program directly supports women and families affected by domestic violence in the communities in which we operate. In recognition of the successful Partnership, Verizon Wireless recently donated $2,500 to Montgomery County, PA-based Laurel House, a domestic violence shelter located in the community where our West Point, PA, facility is located.

EHS challenges include improving our safety record and our fleet safety performance, continuing improvement in global energy management, improving water conservation and reducing waste from our manufacturing operations. The data reported for our EHS performance represents the status of each performance indicator at the end of the reporting calendar year.

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