Alderley Park is home to some 5,000 people across a wide range
of pharmaceutical disciplines and supporting activities. The site
is where several of the world’s most important medicines have been
discovered. Research and Development at is critical for
AstraZeneca’s continued success in tackling various serious disease
areas. The Park is also a vital centre for the company’s
Operations, International Sales and Marketing and Product Strategy
and Licensing functions. In addition, there is large scale
construction activity taking place on site as business expands.
The Management System project began in September 2001. With
widespread collaboration across the site SHE team began focusing on
aligning existing AstraZeneca systems with ISO
requirements.
“We saw the certification process as an important step in achieving
consistency to SHE issues across a large and diverse site,” said
Nevil Hilton, Site Environmental Adviser. He continued; “We wanted
external validation of our SHE controls, and as we manage SHE in an
integrated manner, it made a lot of sense to seek certification to
both standards”.
AstraZeneca chose DNV Certification to be their certification
partner. “We wanted a certification body with a high degree of
technical competence that was prepared to constructively challenge
our systems,” said Nevil. “We were keen that the certification
process added value to our SHE processes”. DNV Certification had
already completed the certification of the environmental management
system to ISO 14001 at the AstraZeneca Charnwood site,
Loughborough, in November 2001 and was able to bring that
experience to the certification project.
The DNV Certification Process
The certification process involved an initial visit from DNV in
February 2003 and a week-long audit in July by a team of three DNV
assessors. They conducted over 50 interviews with the sites' SHE
officials and other members of staff, reviewed documentation and
toured departments such as AZ Engineering, Facilities Management
and Discovery to see the management system in action.
"Our policies and procedures were subjected to detailed scrutiny,"
said Nevil. "As well as looking at how we manage risks and
environmental impact in the science and technology areas, the
auditors also assessed how our systems apply to areas such as
restaurants and leisure centres. SHE management systems for
covering the considerable amount of construction work currently
taking place at Alderley Park were examined, and the OHSAS
certificate also covers the way we support our employees in terms
of their 'health and wellbeing'".
John Pepper of DNV, who led the audit and presented the
certificates, said: "This has been one of the largest and most
complex SHE certification projects that DNV has undertaken in the
UK. There can be few other sites where such a complex range of
activities are carried out. When we take into account the physical
size of the site, achievement of certification to both standards at
once is truly significant. Much good practice was noted and all
those involved are to be congratulated".
How certification benefited AstraZeneca
"External recognition of the quality and continuous improvement of
our SHE management systems is of considerable value to the
company," said Head of UK Business Services Will Spinks. "It
enhances our public image as well as raising SHE awareness amongst
our employees, and it reflects AstraZeneca's commitment to
Corporate Responsibility". AstraZeneca also believes that the
ongoing surveillance of the system will help push forward
improvements in SHE performance.
Nevil Hilton also expanded on some of the advantages of
implementing the system. “It improved awareness across the whole
site and placed aspects such as energy and waste firmly in the
agenda. For our more mature H&S Management System, it confirmed
that it was working well”.
In the certification world finding the right partner is
essential. If you would like to discuss how your organisation can
benefit from a similar approach please contact DNV through this
website or telephone on 020 7716 6543.
