AstraZeneca picks up environmental award

AstraZeneca has been recognised at the Chemical Industry Awards Ceremony held in York earlier this week, with the company picking up the Energy Award at the ceremony run by the Chemical Industries Association.

Sponsored by British Energy, the prize acknowledges the efforts of the firm in Macclesfield in improving its energy management and reducing its carbon emissions across the entirety of its supply chain.

The Chemical Industries Association reports that the award recognises the ability of the firm to develop an innovative energy policy before implementing it at all levels, with the reduction of carbon emissions and energy savings quantified for all projects conducted by the company.

It noted that the firm had also properly engaged its staff across its business with the energy issue.

Steve Elliott, chief executive of the association, said: “For environmental and economic reasons, the chemical industry strives for efficiency when designing manufacturing processes to minimise energy use.”

He added that the efforts of AstraZeneca at its Macclesfield site had set a target for all other firms in the industry to follow.

In April 2007, then secretary of state for trade and industry Alistair Darling described AstraZeneca as a “power-house” of the north-western economy.