Sustainability Report 2013 Lek d.d.

Wastewater Redirection from the Kopica stream to the Mura river The Lendava production site uses groundwater for the cooling of technological processes. Its rational use is achieved so that it is carried through cooling systems at several temperature levels. The generated waste cooling waters are not contami- nated; therefore we release them back to the environment after use taking into account that the maximum statutory released temperature is 30 °C. In 2013, after obtaining all permits, we started relocating the outlet of non-contaminated waste cooling waters from the Kopica stream into the Mura river. We assessed that the current outlet into the Kopica stream was not appropriate any longer due to the increased quantities of cooling waters. With this investment, we organized the discharge outlet into the Mura river through a pressure pipe and at the same time separated the discharge of precipitation waters from that of waste cooling waters. The latter are still discharged into the Kopica stream through oil-traps. For industrial wastewaters we have a special, independent, closed-loop sewage system. Industrial wastewaters are filter- ed at the wastewater treatment plant build in 2001 together with the municipality of Lendava. Only Lek’s sanitary waste- waters are discharged into the public sewage system. New cleaning technology With ozone to cleaner wastewaters By investing into a technically advanced wastewater treat- ment in Menge‰ we pursued Sandoz’ active environmen- tal policy, one of the pillars of our corporate responsibility. Once again we proved that we often do more to protect the environment than required by law. We started to investigate the impacts of pharmaceutical ingredients in wastewaters even before we were required to do so by national or Euro- pean legislation. As explained by Egidij Capuder, Head of API Production Menge‰, upon starting up a new wastewater treatment plant in December, our in-depth knowledge of chemical substances enabled us to investigate the effects of phar- maceutical ingredients that can come into wastewaters du- ring the production process. In doing so, we reviewed and evaluated ecotoxicity data for hundreds of substances that are produced at Lek, a Sandoz company. The new environmental acquisition at the Menge‰ site is a modern treatment plant for removing pharmaceutical substances from wastewaters using ozone. With a simple technology for treating wastewaters with ozone, pharmace- utical substances and other micro-pollutants are efficiently and permanently eliminated with a minimum impact on the environment. Ozone is namely one of the most powerful oxidants that proved to be, due to its properties, a highly efficient agent for wastewater treatment. This technology features a high degree of automation and flexibility. Its ad- ditional advantage is that it does not require the storing of harmful chemicals as ozone breaks back down into oxygen. No hazardous by-products are generated in the treatment process, and residual oxygen from the production of ozone can be used also in other production processes. Sustainability Report 2013 – Lek d.d. Environment 40 Redirection of cooling water discharge outlet into the Mura river Ozonizer in Menge‰. Production engineering and the project manager Gorazd Bergant, technical coordinator from Menge‰ Production, Marijan Resnik and JoÏe Stopar as a representative for ecology and HSE, played a key role in starting up the wastewater treatment plant. In the picture (from left): JoÏe Stopar, Ana ·arec (Head HSE Menge‰) and Marijan Resnik.