SHE governance

How committed are we?    Policy standards and guidelines   What are we doing?   Corporate SHE objectives   Whats your role?   Local implementation   How do we check?   Corporate auditing   What have we achieved?   Reporting system   Is it satisfactory?   Management review   Who needs to know?   Communications

The Board of Directors of AstraZeneca PLC is responsible for setting the direction for SHE management within the Company and for ensuring that a SHE Policy is established and integral to our business activities. The Chief Executive Officer is responsible to the Board for the management and performance of the Company’s business within the framework of the SHE Policy. On at least an annual basis, the Board and Senior Executive Team (chaired by the CEO), formally review, and provide direction on the Company’s SHE performance and compliance status. Primary responsibility for managing the Company’s SHE performance is cascaded through line management. Local legal requirements also place specific accountabilities on Marketing Company Presidents and local managers. Our SHE Management
System and its individual components are designed to reinforce and confirm that SHE accountabilities and responsibilities exist within the line.

SHE support
SHE support to the organisation is provided through SHE professionals who work locally and within a central SHE organisation. In late 2007, AstraZeneca combined its corporate-level, UK and Sweden-based SHE organisations to form a single “AZ SHE” function. The new organisation includes four sections: Technical Support, delivering local, largely facility-based SHE services; Business Partnering, with staff working to align services and resources with business needs and risks; Product Support, supporting the SHE aspects of the discovery and development of medicines, including ecotoxicology research; and Governance & Strategy, a group responsible for implementing our compliance assurance programs, anticipating emerging legislative and policy developments, monitoring the company’s SHE risk profile and, in coordination with senior leadership, shaping the company’s strategy for delivering responsible, and continuously-improving SHE performance. The organisation reports to the Executive Vice President Operations, who has executive responsibility for SHE performance across the AZ organisation.

SHE management
AstraZeneca is currently guided by a Group SHE Policy and eight Management Standards. These are currently under review to ensure proper alignment with ongoing initiatives to revise the Company’s Code of Conduct and Policy framework. The Policy and Standards are mandatory and apply throughout the organisation. The Company’s SHE Management System has both a global and a local dimension as illustrated in the diagram below. Each site is required to maintain a local SHE Management system that includes the five elements shown in the diagram below.

Our SHE management system is compatible with ISO14001 and, although not a requirement, facilities have the option of seeking certification. Currently our R&D facility in Mölndal, Sweden alongside our manufacturing sites in Porriño, Spain and Bangalore, India are ISO certified.

SHE assurance
The company’s performance against our Policy, Standards, Objectives and, of course, external requirements, is regularly monitored and managed through a collection of assurance programs that include: The Integrated Audit Programme, the SHE Reporting system; the annual Management Review; and the Continuous Assurance system.

The Integrated Facility audit programme reviews the performance of individual facilities against our SHE and Security Policies. Teams of trained auditors drawn from across the organisation perform the audits based on a schedule established at the beginning of each year. This schedule reflects the individual risk profile of particular facilities, management changes, timing and other considerations. Audit findings are reported to the facility and senior management and specific actions plans are established to resolve any findings in a timely manner. Progress against action plans is tracked and reviewed on a quarterly basis. The Audit Programme is designed to both evaluate performance against internal and external requirements and to share learning in a way that fosters continuous improvement across the organization.

AstraZeneca has a specifically designed global SHE reporting system. This system enables us to get an overview of our SHE performance and report this to internal and external interested parties. We also benchmark our performance with other companies. Facilities use the Reporting System to communicate specific events (ie accidents) when they occur and to report on local performance against the global performance metrics maintained by AstraZeneca. Significant matters are also reported into AstraZeneca’s global Continuous Assurance system that is used by senior management to identify, manage and resolve breaches of AstraZeneca Policy.

Self-assessment
The annual Management Review provides each facility and operating function with the opportunity to review SHE performance against the Policy, Standard and external requirements. The Site Managers or regional Presidents conduct this review with the assistance of local SHE professionals using a template provided by AZ SHE. The results are used to identify assurance gaps and opportunities for continuously improving SHE performance. Collectively, the Audit Programme findings; the data reported into the SHE Reporting System; the information collected through the Continuous Assurance system and the results of the Management Review form the basis for an annual assessment of SHE performance conducted by the Senior Executive Team and Board of Directors.

The content of this page was externally assured by Bureau Veritas, February 2008