CSL Limited Annual Report 2022/23 52 8 Environment The case of the ethanol recovery by distillation program at CSL Behring, Broadmeadows, Australia, is a sustainability win on various fronts. It’s a compelling example of: • collaboration to leverage expertise and lessons learned among CSL manufacturing sites across the globe – Australia, China, Switzerland and the United States – to achieve the successful deployment of a replicable solution; • improving economic efficiencies; and • achieving significant waste reduction. It reveals how global collaboration can make difficult problems much easier to tackle and solve. It also showcases CSL’s commitment to identifying and directly addressing and reducing environmental impacts through a reduction of natural resource usage and of emissions from truck deliveries. Engineers at CSL Behring Broadmeadows, Australia, collaborated with sites in Switzerland and the United States and built upon their collective design and operational experience because these sites already performed ethanol recovery. Ethanol is a critical agent used in the plasma fractionation process. After separation of proteins from the blood plasma, a waste solution containing large amounts of ethanol remains. The distillation process uses a column, reboiler and condenser to recover ethanol from the waste solution. The recycling of recovered ethanol also reduces consumption of rawmaterials required for ethanol production. It has also led to a significant increase in economic efficiencies and a reduction in emissions from transportation deliveries. Overall, ethanol recovery at rates ≥ 90% help achieve the following benefits: • reduction of trucks traveling to the site: eliminated more than 270 truck movements to/from site per year; • reduction in waste (~9,500 t. of liquid industrial waste per year); and • a reduction of over 140,000 kms of truck movements on roads per year. Ethanol recovery by distillation Over the reporting period, CSL has also commenced the integration of physical risks into existing operational risk management practices in accordance with the Enterprise Risk Management Framework, so that the facilities can monitor and manage risks as applicable to their location and operations. For transitional risks, rather than managing these at the local level, we have taken an enterprise view as these risks generally span the network of facilities directly owned by CSL. This year CSL also published an updated Climate Change Statement, reaffirming our aim to reduce emissions to limit global warming to 1.5ºC in line with the Paris Agreement. You can find more information on the approach, including scenario analysis undertaken in 2022, on CSL.com (Sustainability > Environment > Climate resilience). Waste and packaging CSL’s objective is to reduce the amount of waste that is generated throughout the production and use of all products; to reuse and recycle waste as far as possible; and to dispose of the residual waste responsibly. The amount of waste produced and how it is handled varies between CSL’s different facilities according to production processes and available disposal options. Compared with the prior year, our waste recycling rate increased by 6% to 44% of total waste. A large part of the waste stream is made up of glass, plastics, cardboard, wooden pallets and other types of packaging, which is necessary for ensuring product safety of pharmaceuticals. Disposal of packaging presents particular challenges for pharmaceutical companies because packaging such as single-use plastics, glass syringes and vials that must be disposed of in a safe manner. CSL’s operations in Europe dispose of almost all waste by recycling or incineration. In Australia, CSL is a signatory to the Australian Packaging Covenant and reports regularly on plans and progress to minimise waste. There is also a wide variety of waste recycling programs at our United States facilities. However, more can be done to reduce waste to landfill across our Australian and United States operations and this remains a focus area for CSL in the near-term. CSL is continuing to identify and implement methods to reduce the amount of materials used for the packaging and distribution of its products as detailed following. • The new function, Packaging Innovation, is dedicated to evaluating and planning the introduction of sustainable materials. • The use of sustainable materials in packaging development is prescribed in our procedures. • Size reduction of current packaging is also taken into consideration when current packs are adapted. • Paper patient information leaflets have now been completely removed for our Behring products on the Japanese market. The leaflet removal will now continue for other markets and products from the whole of the CSL organisation.
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