CIA announces 2012 award winners

The 2012 winners of the Chemical Industry Awards, which this year took the theme of winning growth, include faces familiar to the pharmaceutical sector such as Eli Lilly, GSK, Dow Chemical and Dow Corning.

Eli Lilly took both the Dow Reputation Award and the ABB Manufacturing and Resource Efficiency Awards and was voted CIA Company of the Year in an award sponsored by Newton Europe.

Lilly’s approach at its plant in Speke, Merseyside, UK, which won the Dow Reputation Award, is about partnerships, building and strengthening relationships and offering tangible support, including employee’s time. The site is involved in a whole raft of community work with schools and local charities and in 2012 its charitable donations will top £1m.

Judges for the ABB Manufacturing and Resource Efficiency Award were looking for evidence that the winning company has developed or is developing its people and systems towards achieving excellent manufacturing and resource efficiency performance.

Lilly has developed a multi-faceted strategy to increase product supply across all manufacturing steps to meet demand for Avilamycin, which is produced by fermentation and was outstripping production capacity. By going back to first principles to improve product floculation from the fermentation process, a huge increase in capacity was obtained at the same time as reducing water and steam use by nearly 75%. The changes have had a significant impact on the environmental footprint of the site as well as enabling more products to be made available.

Eli Lilly was also voted CIA Company of the Year, based on an excellent overall performance. In the last two years the company has won major capital investment for a new product as well as a new bottling facility. The site has also made significant investments in its infrastructure, ensuring its longer-term sustainability.

In addition the firm has gained a number of contract manufacturing projects, again demonstrating the high esteem the site is held in by the parent company. This expansion has gone hand in hand with creation of around 50 jobs.

GSK’s Ulverston plant took the EDF Energy Low Carbon Award and Michael Bootyman, assistant team leader at the firm’s Worthing site, was voted BASF Young Ambassador. Bootyman has worked in pharmaceutical manufacturing for five years. He will participate in a programme of activities representing the industry, including chairing the Future Forum.

Dow Chemical, King’s Lynn won the INEOS Responsible Care Award for its commitment to improving its performance towards a ‘Vision of Zero’ – zero incidents, injuries, illnesses, and environmental harm.

Finally, the Environmental Leadership Award sponsored by Johnson Matthey went to Dow Corning, which has reduced waste to landfill by more than 50% and has made a seven-fold increase in recycling in the last four years.