External Standards

Some of Millipore’s sustainability programs have been underway at the company’s manufacturing facilities for years due to our voluntary commitments to external standards. For instance, our largest manufacturing facilities have all been certified to ISO 14001, the leading international environmental standard. At these sites, we have seen great successes in reducing our environmental impacts, as well as improving health and safety.

External Certification

Our three largest manufacturing sites – Molsheim, France; Cork, Ireland; and Jaffrey, New Hampshire, United States – have implemented comprehensive environmental management systems and have received ISO 14001 certification. ISO 14001 is the widely recognized standard for certifying an organization’s environmental management system, which is a tool for managing and minimizing one’s environmental impacts. Our Cork site has also received OHSAS 18001 certification, a best practice management system aimed at achieving health and safety objectives by reducing risks to employees. In order to maintain their certification status, each site must undergo considerable internal audits and reviews by a verified third-party certification body.

Implementing comprehensive EHS management systems has led to sizable cost savings and environmental, health and safety benefits across the three sites. More recently, the sites are integrating their sustainability efforts and metrics into their management systems to capitalize on employee enthusiasm over sustainability issues and to maximize efficiencies.

Individual sites are proactive when determining whether to pursue ISO 14001 or OHSAS 18001 certification. This is to encourage the local staff to get directly involved in the EHS management and pollution prevention activities at the site. Some of our sites have also been proactive in adopting site-specific EHS policies. These site-specific EHS policies not only build on our company-wide EHS policy, but also address particular environmental issues that are specific to their operations.

Performance Improvement through Auditing

In addition to the verified third-party certification audits, Millipore has implemented an ongoing audit program throughout all operations to continually validate the company’s management system and compliance status. Highly trained internal and external subject matter experts perform these audits and are responsible for reporting the results and sharing best practices across the organization. Sites also conduct targeted compliance audits in areas such as hazardous waste, process safety and biosafety.

This auditing process enables our facilities to continually improve their EHS performance, without reinventing programs or duplicating efforts.

Process Excellence

Millipore’s EHS management systems are tightly connected to the company’s Process Excellence Initiative. Process Excellence uses the concept of lean manufacturing, or commonly known as “more value less work,” to help reduce waste and non-value added activities within our processes. We also utilize Six Sigma, which is a data-driven approach, to improve our processes. These two combined have led to significant environmental, health and safety benefits. For more information on our programs and projects, please see the sections under Our Approach.

Metrics

Sustainability Highlights

News

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