WASTEWATER SOLUTIONS

A New Direction for Water Waste

We are taught at a young age to respect our body and its composition, to fuel it with clean nutrients and, more importantly, hydrate with eight glasses of water a day. Our bodies are composed of 60% of water - a close similarity to the 71% of water that makes up the Earth’s surface - yet our approach to care for both is vastly different.

As a life science company, we look at how we use water and how we treat our wastewater in order to determine the environmental impact to our business operations and our communities. In 2016, we launched a wastewater initiative, with the goal to ensure the smooth running of our research and manufacturing of medicine for patients, as well as to identify potential cost savings. We took this opportunity to clearly define a roadmap to address water supply and wastewater opportunities in order to better evaluate changing requirements and identify improvements to the systems.

“It’s important to reduce our water use and effectively treat our wastewater because we live in a world where we have limited water resources,” says Linda Caramichael, Head of the Environmental Center of Excellence. “We need to look with intention at where we get our water. We work in settings with water stress, and we are mindful of the stresses as well as the impact to the business and our communities.”

In order to achieve this goal, we performed a systematic and thorough evaluation of the water source and wastewater opportunities at our key facilities. By engaging groups across our company, the Global Environmental, Health, Safety and Sustainability (EHSS) team was able to develop recommendations to address priority items.

With a four-year time frame, we began to observe water and wastewater systems at the designated facilities and met with colleagues to learn more about the water systems and associated challenges. Since 2017, we completed 12 site visits for the risk assessment and identified strategic and operational opportunities. These lessons will help the EHSS team with future water use mapping to be the best possible stewards of our natural resources.

OUR BUSINESS OPERATIONS ARE ALWAYS CHANGING, AND WE NEED TO ENSURE THAT WE HAVE A PROCESS IN PLACE TO ALLEVIATE ANY ENVIRONMENTAL RISKS TO THOSE OPERATIONS

Linda Caramichael, Head of the Environmental Center of Excellence