A focus on sustainable development

Satish Reddy, Managing Director and COO,Dr Reddy's Laboratories shares some details from the company's third Sustainability Report, with Sachin Jagdale.

What is your organisation's Strategic Environmental Management Policy?

At Dr Reddy's our Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) philosophy is derived from a broader commitment to the principles of sustainable development. We believe that a serious commitment to SHE warrants an appropriate reporting structure. In view of this, the SHE head of each plant, within a manufacturing location, reports to the unit head and the corporate SHE head, who provides the overall direction and reports to the COO.

We believe that the environment and economy are twin partners in the pursuit of quality existence. It is also our experience that initiatives taken to improve the environmental impact of a given process, has a positive impact, most of the time, on the cost economics of the given process. In view of this, we continuously review our manufacturing processes to make them environmentally as harmless as possible and cost-effective

In 2005-06

• We have commissioned three effluent recycle plants in the API units based on membrane technology
• We achieved 17 percent reduction in fresh water consumption per unit sales
• We have commissioned wastewater recycling facilities at our API units to reduce Absolute wastewater discharge
• Reduction in energy consumption through process developments led to a savings of Rs 7.1 million
• We take considerable precautions in the management of hazardous and non-hazardous wastes generated by us.46% waste generated is recycled to authorised third parties

What is the level of environmental training given to the concerned employees?

In 2005-06, 4016 person-days were invested in training - classroom and field - related to SHE covering 788 sessions. The company reinforced the positive management of SHE through the three level safety promotion schemes and celebration of the National Safety Day on 4 March and the World Environment Day on 5 June.

What are the certifications obtained by your facilities?

In order to strengthen our SHE governance systems, we obtained OHSAS 18001 and ISO 14001 certification for our Generics SBU and FTO II respectively

What is the percentage of money spent on environment management?

The total operating expenses for the year 2005-06 was Rs 108.84 million. We are among the very few Indian companies and the only Indian pharma company to publish a sustainability report.

sachin.jagdale@expressindia.com