Performance

Careful use of resources with minimal environmental impact is an important element in sustainable development. Reflecting its commitment to sustainability, Roche is continuously endeavouring to reduce its consumption of materials and energy and to cut the quantities of waste and emissions it generates.

We evaluate the Group SHE performance by annually collecting and aggregating the relevant data from the individual sites.

To ensure the quality of our internal reporting systems and enhance the credibility of our sustainability reporting, our SHE performance figures undergo an external verification since 1998.

Within the framework of a sustainable future, Roche has the responsibility to help safeguard social, environmental and economic development for generations to come. Roche has set-up sustainability-related programs which focus on the issues that matter most. They are relevant to, and meet the expectations of, our employees, patients, society, customers and shareholders and are paramount to business strategy and ultimate success. Such sustainable issues are termed ‘material’. How ‘material’ a sustainable issue is can be influenced by both external and internal factors. For example, external regulations and laws may affect strategy, as will reporting conventions within the industry and stakeholder expectations. Internally, an organization’s policies, strategies and goals determine the materiality of an issue. We have considered all of these factors when identifying the Safety, Health, Security and Environment (SHE) areas to be communicated.

Within the field of social development, people are material to our business, as is their health, integrity and wellbeing. Human rights and education / development form an important part of this material sustainable issue and are part of corporate responsibility.

The following key performance indicators are monitored and reported:

• occupational accidents;
• occupational illnesses;
• SHE education of our employees.

Environmental protection and the conservation of resources are very material to a sustainable future and form an important part of Roche policies.

The following key performance indicators are monitored and reported:

• energy consumption and use of sustainable energy;
• total eco-balance (ecological impact of our operations, composed of emissions into air, water and soil and use of resources) and total toxicity of our waste water.

Economic development and governance encompass material issues such as company assets and functional efficiency as well as business continuity and the cost of safety, health, security and environment. Compliance with external and internal regulations is equally important within this area of company sustainability.

The following key performance indicators are monitored and reported:

• •the closing of gaps identified during our internal SHE audits;
• •compliance with all SHE laws and regulations;
• •improvement of the SHE performance of our suppliers and service providers;
• •reduction of the total SHE risk load.

With regards to SHE, we have looked at each of the above material issues. We have considered potential future developments, analyzed the need and feasibility to act, defined performance indicators and set goals or targets.

A company's SHE-performance is assessed by means of indicators which are defined by international organisations, professional and industry associations and other interest groups. For the environmental dimension these indicators are referring to impacts on living and non living natural systems, land, air and water. Safety and health indicators describe occupational impacts on our employees such as accidents and diseases.

In terms of the selection of indicators, data collection and reporting, Roche follows the guidelines of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Reporting Guidelines of CEFIC, the umbrella organisation for European chemical industry associations.

Performance information is provided in terms of both absolute figures and normalised measures. Absolute figures provide a sense of scale or magnitude of impacts which allows the user to consider performance in the context of larger systems. Normalised figures illustrate the organisation’s efficiency and support comparison between organisations of different sizes.

Amendments of reporting guidelines and the constant state of flux in Roche's business environment (purchases or sales of business areas, changes of product ranges, etc.) mean that the values for individual parameters are not exactly comparable year on year. We nevertheless can demonstrate continuous improvement in our SHE performance.