Environment
Fresenius Medical Care’s vision to innovate for a better life also extends to our daily efforts to preserve nature and its resources for the benefit of both present and future generations.
In our European facilities, we have combined and integrated the demands of the ISO 9001:2000 quality management system and the ISO 14001 environmental management system into our business process. This concept results in a stronger focus on environmental improvement opportunities and cost-saving potentials. Following this concept, we then incorporated the first dialysis clinic in Portugal into the so-called “Integrated Management System ”based on ISO 9001:2000 and ISO 14001.
By introducing an “eco-ranking” we can now disclose the costs per treatment with regard to energy, water and waste. Compared with the consumption data of the previous year, we have successfully lowered the level of resources processed in each treatment. The periodic revision of our cost-saving activities furthers both our economic and ecological impact goals.
Fresenius Medical Care proved its commitment to ecological conservation with immense savings in transportation. By optimizing the monitoring and controlling of our logistic activities, and through direct shipments, we succeeded in reducing transport between suppliers and our joint venture plants. Our Multi Box System, a system that recycles containers throughout our Company, has been extended and now includes disposables used in dialysis clinics in Germany. In addition, we have continued to build up our environmentally-friendly recycling system for packaging, infusion products and plastic bags.
We plan to achieve environmental certification for Fresenius Medical Care North America. With this in mind, we will continually intensify our waste minimization program efforts for solid, medical and hazardous waste. This will be accomplished by monitoring all medical waste costs in our dialysis clinics on a quarterly basis. This monitoring focuses on the generation of medical waste and its correct separation and disposal. Recycling programs for cardboard, plastics and metal waste generated at our production facility in North America have been initiated. We expect our suppliers to meet certain environmental requirements and avoid any adverse environmental impact on the community.
Animal Testing
It is Fresenius Medical Care’s general strategy to avoid animal trials as far as possible while pursuing methods to make animal trials obsolete.
Controversy exists about the use of animal models in medical research and development. It is current knowledge that many data cannot be transferred from the animal to the human. However, animal testing is a standard procedure for the evaluation of drugs and innovative medical devices. By legislation, they are needed to receive approval for its general application in nearly all countries of the world.
It is also current practice in academic nephrology to test hypotheses for new or innovative therapies through animal trials. Fresenius Medical Care is currently using animal models for approval purposes as far as it is required by law. These studies are exclusively performed by extramural research partners in approved animal laboratories and principally approved through an „ethical committee for animal trials“. Fresenius Medical Care is not performing inhouse animal trials.
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