Natural Health Care
Vitamins, Minerals & Royal Jelly
Herbal Products
Beauty
Environmental commitment
As a pharmaceutical laboratory for drugs and food supplements based on natural raw materials, we are committed to producing all of our products, respecting the environment, health and safety at work. We therefore wish to preserve water resources, recover waste, reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and help populations identify recyclable products.
Our environmental impact
Our Safety and Environment commitment
Aware of the responsibility of our pharmaceutical industry towards the outside world, our Safety & Environment commitment constitutes a factor of internal progress and an asset in our relations with our partners.
The general policy of the Arkopharma group in terms of safety and the environment incorporates the principles of risk reduction, pollution prevention and management of activities in a responsible corporate spirit with regard to employees and nature.
This commitment is reflected in all of the company's activities. Thus, a reflection on our product promotion means allowed us to reduce our paper consumption by 50% in 2015,, that is to say 100 tonnes less of paper.
Protecting the environment at the heart of production
The company excels through product development activities and manufacturing processes, thanks to the existence of a synergy between the concepts of safety, environment, production and quality.
The Group's management is the guarantor of this approach and all of the company's departments are involved in the approach on a daily basis. They are supported by the Safety & Environment department, which provides them with its expertise, with the support of the CHSCT and the occupational physician.
Our environmental challenges
Preserving water resources
While the amount of fresh water available on Earth remains constant, the world’s population and the demand for water continue to grow. It is therefore urgent to act to protect this essential resource for life on earth.
A significant portion of the water consumed at the Carros production site is intended for cleaning production equipment and packaging lines in order to comply with very rigorous hygiene standards.
At the same time, as in any industrial activity, the processes (cleaning, utilities, etc.) used generate liquid effluents that are not acceptable as they are in the collective sanitation network, both from a regulatory and technical point of view.
Thus, for several years, we have been applying a water conservation program that has significantly reduced total water consumption and increased our eco-efficiency. In addition, the organizational arrangements and technical arrangements contribute to a significant reduction in the pollutant load emitted by production sites. Between 2012 and 2015, organic matter concentrations were reduced by 10 to 15%.
Manage and recover waste
The waste from our activities is very diverse. Ongoing work to identify and classify this waste is therefore carried out by our Safety & Environment department in order to find suitable treatment channels and optimize the costs associated with their management.
In recent years, we have accentuated the modernization of waste management by aiming to increase its recovery. Depending on their physicochemical nature, these are sent to recovery, recycling or elimination channels in approved treatment centres1.
Thanks to the actions implemented, we are now able to process and redirect almost all waste to recycling, recovery and composting.From 2013, the volume of waste has fallen by an average of 14% per year. More than 50% of our waste is recycled.
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) emissions
Conscious of our environmental footprint, we are implementing actions, throughout the logistics chain, from the purchase of raw materials to the distribution of products, to reduce pollution, preserve resources and better control greenhouse gas emissions.
For us, the objective is to assess the GHG emissions generated by our activity and to prioritise the weight of these emissions according to the positions. Energy saving research was re-specified on the occasion of the carbon evaluation at the end of 2014.
Several lines of work in different sectors of our activity have been defined.
- Implementation of an internal improvement and innovation process;
- Anticipation and control of energy consumption;
- Reduce emissions as much as possible;
- Compliance with legal obligations;
- Meeting the expectations of stakeholders, customers, shareholders, NGOs, etc.
What to do with the garbage?
Medicines and food supplements must not be thrown down the drain or thrown out with household waste. To recycle our products, ask your pharmacist to find out the right approach to take. These measures will help protect the environment.
If you do not want to go to a pharmacy, you can use the web tool quefairedemesdéchets.fr which will help you sort waste. All you have to do is enter the name of the object you want to get rid of, the tool then indicates the best way to sort it and, if applicable, in which nearby collection point to return it. It also provides information on what happens to the waste once sorted and how to avoid producing it.
Conceived by the Ministry for Sustainable Development and ADEME, quefairedemesdéchets.fr currently lists more than 850 types of waste and more than 50,000 collection points. Its database is regularly enriched and updated.
- To sort your empty packaging, also find all the sorting instructions and collection points near you: www.consignesdetri.fr
1 The recovery process allows for the transformation of a waste product for a specific purpose such as recycling, composting or energy conversion.
