Environment, Health and Safety

Baxter's Environment, Health and Safety (EHS) organization manages and coordinates global programs and activities to reduce the company's environmental impacts, to create safe and healthy workplaces, and to advance product stewardship across Baxter.

This reporting year marks the first year of performance against the company's EHS 2015 goals, which are integrated into the company's overarching sustainability priorities.

EHS results from 2011 include the following:

• Baxter reduced energy usage by 24% and associated greenhouse gas emissions by 34% since 2005, both indexed to revenue. During that period, global energy management initiatives have achieved cumulative savings of approximately $39 million on an annualized basis.
• The company reduced waste generation 11% compared to 2005, indexed to revenue. A product recall in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region resulted in approximately 9,400 metric tons of total waste in 2011, 13% of the 2011 total. Excluding this waste, Baxter would have achieved a 23% decrease indexed to revenue compared to 2005.
• Baxter reduced water usage by 6% in absolute terms and 33% indexed to revenue since 2005.
• Compared to 2010, Baxter improved its recordable case rate by 5% and its cases with days lost rate by 6%.  However, the company’s days lost rate rose by 20%. The increase was primarily due to a small number of serious injuries with extensive lost time.

Internal Partnerships

The EHS organization works with a wide range of groups internally to enhance Baxter's EHS capabilities and performance, such as Corporate Communications, the Device Center of Excellence, executive and facility management, Human Resources, Purchasing and Supplier Management, and others. These partnerships are crucial to helping Baxter achieve progress against its EHS-related sustainability priorities and overcome the related challenges it faces, such as waste reduction. See Internal EHS Partnerships: Collaborating to Advance Sustainability.

Scope of Baxter EHS Reporting

• The environmental data included in this report are based on 100 reporting locations, of which 53 are manufacturing, 18 are warehouse and nonmanufacturing, and 29 are administrative, clerical or other. Several of the reporting units comprise multiple locations that report as a single entity. For example, in 2011, 36 renal distribution facilities reported as a single entity, as did Baxter's 61 North American plasma collection centers.
• The health and safety data included in this report are based on 260 reporting locations.¹
• Regional breakdowns for EHS data are as follows: Asia Pacific; Latin America; Europe, Middle East and Africa; and North America.
• The EHS information reported covers 100% of Baxter's operations.
• EHS data are revised to reflect acquisitions, divestitures and plant closings as well as to incorporate any corrections necessary due to additional data verification activities (such as EHS audits).

1

The scope of Baxter's health and safety data is different than the scope of the company's environmental data because Baxter's occupational injury and illness accounting includes smaller facilities that are not material to the company's overall environmental performance or are reported as individual operations rather than as combined locations.