National pioneer certificate
- In February 2016, Lek, a Sandoz company, was awarded the National Pioneer Certificate by the European Commission for its long-standing efforts in the field of environmental protection as one of the first and long-standing organizations of the EMAS scheme in Slovenia
- The EMAS scheme has been developed by the EU in order to achieve a sustainable environmental management of organizations.
- All four Lek sites are EMAS registered.
EMAS (Eco-Management and Audit Scheme) is a management tool that has been developed by the European Commission to enable companies and other organizations to assess, report on and improve their environmental impact. The scheme has upgraded the ISO 14001 standard with the demand for greater transparency, honesty and periodical publications of verified environmental information. It aims to promote continuous improvement in environmental performance of organizations and thus encourages organizations to establish and implement environmental management systems, systematically, objectively and periodically evaluate the performance of these systems, provide information on environmental performance, have an open dialogue with stakeholders, and actively include their employees in protecting the environment and provide them with appropriate training.
Lek has registered with the EMAS in November 2012 and became the sixth Slovenian company and the first Slovenian pharmaceutical company to do so.
In order to register with EMAS, an organization must undergo an environmental review of all environmental aspects, have an internal audit performed, and prepare an environmental statement. After that, a licensed environmental verifier assesses the appropriateness of the initial environmental review, environmental management system, the assessment procedure and its implementation, and confirms the environmental statement based on the results. Environmental performance in Slovenia is verified by the Slovenian Institute of Quality and Metrology. Organizations that successfully pass the evaluation are registered with EMAS for three years by the Slovenian Environment Agency. During that time, the organizations must provide an updated environmental statement validated by the environmental verifier.
Companies must separately register each site
In February 2016, Slovenia had 10 organizations and 16 sites registered with the EMAS. Lek, a Sandoz company, is registered with all four sites (Ljubljana, Lendava, Prevalje and Mengeš), since responsible management of environmental impacts is considered to be one of its most important objectives. It operates in accordance with ISO 14001, the occupational health and safety standard OHSAS 18001 and Responsible Care Program in the chemical industry for the responsible management of environment, health and safety.
Currently, 2,905 organizations with a total of 10,057 sites are EMAS registered in the EU. Most of them operate in the field of waste management, public administration and energy.