(Photo: Tom Maday ©2005)

At Merck, leadership in environmental, safety and health practices is a fundamental part of our strategy for growth. As we discover important new medicines and vaccines through breakthrough research and demonstrate their value to key stakeholders - including patients, payors and providers - we must operate our business in a manner that protects human health, the environment, our employees and the communities in which we operate. While we care a great deal about the results we achieve - the number of new medicines we discover and how fast we grow - we also care about how we achieve those results.

One of Merck's highest business priorities is to ensure a safe, healthful and environmentally responsible workplace to protect employees, the community and company assets, while supporting continued growth and shareholder value. We have several programs in place to effectively manage our environmental and safety issues. We are particularly focused on working to improve resource utilization, minimize energy and water use, and generate less waste.

We strive to be a leader in environmental and safety performance. We will continue to move toward this goal by incorporating best practices, instituting mechanisms to drive continuous improvement and assessing our progress through both internal measurement and external benchmarking.

To learn more about Merck's commitment to the environment, click on the links below:

• Energy Policy
• Greenhouse Gas Emissions
• Green Chemistry at Merck
• Water Use
• Recent Environmental Performance