Standards and Transparency Services

Our policy

As set out in our Safety and Sustainability Policy, our commitment to environmental and social sustainability has five streams:

• Regulatory compliance and integrity
• Vision Zero
• Our people
• Our environment
• Value for society

We actively manage Environment, Health, Safety and Sustainability (EHS&S) as an integral part of our businesses, operations and practices. We require global and local management to comply with the applicable laws and the internal and external EHS&S requirements. Security measures are integrated into the management systems and must meet defined minimal standards.

EHS&S, process safety and sustainability

Whereas the Safety and Sustainability policy defines high-level principles, our corporate EHS&S management system and our detailed guidelines support their implementation. The process safety team - part of the corporate EHS&S group – is working closely with the sites in the implementation of rules and standards for safe processes. The EHS&S group also oversees our company-wide sustainability efforts. The continuous-improvement tools driving improved safety and environmental performance are also applied to making sustainable use of natural resources, reducing our carbon footprint, minimizing hazardous waste and managing remediation activities responsibly. Since March 2010 Lonza`s sites are covered by a Global Certification Scheme, with a single ISO 9001 Certificate for all certified sites. Selected sites have additional certificates (ISO 14001, ISO 45000, ISO 13485, HACCP). We maintain an EHS&S Management System which has been adapted to the actual ISO 14001 and 45001 standards, and detailed guidelines for people safety. This program applies to all locations and all employees.

Health and safety

We care for our workforce. Any accident is one too many. We are convinced that all accidents are avoidable and we fully commit to work in this direction.

Every employee is obliged to take on the fundamental and personal responsibility for safety and health at work as a condition of employment.

Our Vision Zero – zero injuries, zero process incidents, and zero environmental incidents – underlines our commitment to safe and healthy workplaces.

At each site a safety committee drives the implementation of safety-at-work programs. Corporate EHS&S guidelines describe the management systems, and the implementation at manufacturing sites and R&D centers is compulsory. Corporate EHS audits sites for EHS&S performance on the basis of these guidelines. 

Compliance auditing

EHS&S performance audits are carried out at regular intervals, typically three years, at all production sites, warehouses and R&D sites. They cover all aspects of safety, health and environmental protection and serve to monitor whether compliance with internal and external standards is achieved. These audits are conducted by internal independent experts by means of interviews and site inspections and are based on a comprehensive inspection plan. Audit results` implementation is monitored. Compliance audits review the company`s status according to the local applicable laws and regulations in the countries where we operate. They are important tools for site management, which is responsible for legal compliance of operations.

Loss prevention visits

Technical experts from insurers visit our manufacturing and R&D to identify, assess and evaluate any property risks and business interruptions, and are working with us to identify cost effective risk mitigation strategies. Our internal experts within the Corporate EHS&S team support these audits. We do have a great interest in this service in order to stay abreast of the safety of operation of our plants.

Transparency and reporting

We report environmental, social, governance and performance indicators under various frameworks. As part of our overall sustainability commitment, we foster transparency and reporting in line with the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Standards, which represent the industry practice for tracking performance on a range of economic, environmental and social indicators. 

Since 2007, Lonza Group reports under the Carbon Disclosure scheme CDP. We also maintain two widely used customer-supplier, web-hosted platforms to exchange sustainability profiles and emissions data (Ecovadis and Ecodesk)

Lonza Group Ltd joined the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) in March 2009 and reports on indicators like:

• human rights
• labor
• environment
• anti-corruption

UNGC Lonza Communication of Progress (CoP) reportResponsible sourcing

Suppliers to Lonza must adhere to the requirements of our Supplier Code of Conduct. This code defines standards of business ethics, as well as labor, health, environmental and safety practices. We routinely conduct audits of suppliers to monitor adherence to this code. Strict ethical requirements are most important when sourcing compliant materials for medicines and therapies.

Along with the businesses, our procurement team develops responsible sourcing strategies for spend categories, raw materials and services. Our risk analysis process enables us to identify high-risk materials and geographies and take adequate mitigation actions.

The Pharmaceutical Supply Chain Initiative (PSCI) is a non-profit business membership organization established in 2006, which Lonza joined in February 2019. The PSCI is a group of pharmaceutical and healthcare companies who share a vision of better, social, environmental and economic outcomes in the communities we serve. This includes:

• Fair and safe work conditions and practices
• Responsible business practices
• Environmental sustainability and efficient use of resources

The purpose of the initiative is to bring together the pharmaceutical industry to define, implement, and champion responsible supply chain practices. It has developed a set of principles that set the guidelines for a more sustainable supply chain. We have embedded these principles in our Lonza Supplier Code of Conduct and encourage our suppliers to follow them.