ECO' OPHTALMO: ACT TOGETHER TO REDUCE OUR ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT
THE GENESIS OF OUR INITIATIVE
CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) has played an important role in Horus Pharma's culture and DNA right from the Company’s founding in 2003. Over the years since then our increasing awareness of the impact our activities can have on the environment have led to numerous initiatives being launched by our employees.
Our major actions since the creation of the Laboratory:
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A therapeutic arsenal launched on the Belgian market: more economical and ecological 15ml multidose formats.
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Short manufacturing lines: 100% of our products are manufactured in Europe and 75% in France.
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The culture of preservative-free products for eye and eyelid health and cosmetics introduced. They have a harmful impact on flora and fauna due to the release of their chemical components into the environment.
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Various projects, such as waste collection, the selection of supplies made from recyclable materials, the dematerialization of documents, etc.
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A PROGRAMME DEDICATED TO REDUCING OUR ENVIRONMENTAL FOOTPRINT
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The creation of the Eco' Ophtalmo programme plus Horus Pharma's daily investment has anchored ecology in our culture and long-term strategic development.
The Laboratory management’s willingness and support means we are constantly investigating new solutions, innovations and partnerships that will enable us to respond to the current ecological challenge.
All these projects have had a significant direct impact on our environmental footprint. Our approach has been to review every component of the Laboratory's activities and seek solutions that will have a positive impact and reduce our footprint as much as possible.
The projects we have set up have been well received by ophthalmologists, many of whom have launched individual initiatives in their practices. Enthused by the idea of seeing our approach being more widely shared we decided to stimulate these actions of ophthalmologists by working more closely with them to raise their awareness and to support their actions to reduce their environmental footprint.
It is by pooling and sharing initiatives that we will generate ideas to bring your ecological practices to as many people as possible.
This is why the Eco' Ophtalmo programme was created to enable us to work and act together to reduce the environmental footprint and raise awareness among ophthalmologists in their medical practices.
ECO' OPHTALMO ACTIONS
Achieving Plastic Net Zero – an environmental and societal commitment
In September 2022 Horus Pharma partnered with Plastic Bank to make an environmental and social impact. Each year an estimated 10 million tons of plastic waste enters the ocean.
As a Plastic Bank partner the Group is helping reduce this while, at the same time, helping people living in coastal communities in developing countries earn a secure income, plus related social benefits such as health insurance by collecting plastic waste from their local beaches, riverbanks and neighbourhoods, cleaning it and taking it to an ethical plastic collection branch.
To date over 600 collection branches have been set up in SE Asia, Latin America and Africa and the number keeps increasing as more companies become involved.
The collected ocean-bound plastic is processed into Social Plastic® feedstock and entered into the global supply chain. By the autumn of 2022 Plastic Bank and their partners had prevented over 63,200 tons of plastic reaching the ocean.
For more information go to https://plasticbank.com.
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We are reaching Plastic Net Zero for more than a dozen products sold, an equivalent quantity of ocean-bound plastic is collected and recycled.
Horus Pharma produces around 200 tons of plastic bottles a year.
By the end of 2025, nearly 400 tons of plastic will be collected before it reaches the ocean (equivalent to nearly 20 million plastic bottles) which will neutralize the plastic related to our product ranges.
Recyclable packaging
The environmental impact of a packaging is taken into account throughout its entire life cycle: from raw material acquisition, through production and use to disposal and recycling.
Since September 2022 our product packaging has carried a hallmark that indicates it meets our high eco-responsibility standards. These include using cardboard1, low-impact vegetable-inks, and water-based adhesives and coatings. As an additional contribution towards reducing the use of plastic materials our eye drops are now available in a more economical and ecological 15ml multi-dose packaging².
Horus Pharma also contributes towards increasing production sustainability. All the packaging intended for household use carries the mandatory separated disposal information.
1 A high percentage, of the cardboard used by Horus Pharma is FSC-certificated.
2 A bottle with more content and less container compared to other packaging (single-dose and 10 ml).
And, another plastic neutral bottle thanks to our partnership with Plastic Bank.
The actions of Horus Pharma
The Group-wide policies and actions implemented with the aim of reducing the Group’s environmental footprint include:
- A new transportation policy that:
- makes maximising proximity to and accessibility of public transport a criteria when selecting office locations,
- integrates carbon emission limitation requirements in transport-related tenders,
- avoids travel through teleworking and videoconferencing.
- Implementing a responsible purchasing and consumption policy
- A range of measures that encourage recycling by employees and product users.
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