Sustainable development action plan for the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency 2008-2009

Summary
The MHRA will contribute to and support the UK Strategy for Sustainable Development (SD) through all of our working practices. We have an action plan that incorporates measurable targets for the Agency as well as encouraging best practice amongst our staff. We will ensure that sustainability is an integral part of our procurement processes. We will:

• minimise waste by reducing and reusing;
• maximise recycling;
• conserve energy and other natural resources;
• raise staff awareness of SD issues and encourage new ideas;
• monitor measurable targets and report on our progress annually.

This action plan is to cover the period from January 2008 through to 31 March 2009 but it is a 'living document' and we will update and amend it throughout the year as required.

Our vision for sustainability within MHRA
We aim to incorporate awareness of sustainability in all aspects of our work within the Agency. We have fewer opportunities to make direct changes outside the Agency and so our action plan is perhaps less wide ranging than for other Departments or Agencies but, where we do have the opportunity to influence others, we will do so.

Through our public health remit in regulating medicines and medical devices, we indirectly contribute towards the achievement of a sustainable economy through keeping a healthy workforce. As a regulator, we also have a role in promoting good governance in the pharmaceutical and medical devices industries. We are also required to use sound science responsibly in virtually all of the regulatory work we undertake. We are committed to ensuring that decisions we make, and the way we work, supports the aims of the shared principles for sustainable development insofar as we have a role to play in these areas:

• Living within environmental limits - respecting the limits of the planet’s environment, resources and biodiversity – to improve our environment and ensure that the natural resources needed for life are unimpaired and remain so for future generations;
• Ensuring a strong, healthy and just society - Meeting the diverse needs of all people in existing and future communities, promoting personal well-being, social cohesion and inclusion, and creating equal opportunity for all;
• Achieving a sustainable economy - Building a strong, stable and sustainable economy which provides prosperity and opportunities for all, and in which environmental and social costs fall on those who impose them (polluter pays), and efficient resource is incentivised;
• Promoting good governance - Actively promoting effective participative systems of governance in all levels of society – engaging people’s creativity, energy, and diversity;
• Using sound science responsibly - Ensuring policy is developed and implemented on the basis of strong scientific evidence, whilst taking into account scientific uncertainty (through the precautionary principle) as well as public attitudes and values.

As an Executive Agency of the Department of Health (DH), our Sustainable Development Plan links in with the DH’s own plan, particularly in respect of shared services, such as facilities management. We therefore have the same targets for recycling, use of lower energy lighting, etc. as the rest of DH. Our performance is counted collectively with other DH bodies under the DH umbrella for reporting to the Sustainable Development Commission. In the report for 2006, DH came second in terms of performance across Whitehall against the Government’s Sustainable Operations on the Government Estates (SOGE) report. We will continue to work to improve our performance in the areas covered by this report (the Action Plan reflects this).

Shared priorities for UK action
The UK Government Strategy sets out the following priority areas for immediate action, shared across the UK:

• Sustainable consumption and production - This is about achieving more with less, not only looking at how goods and services are produced, but also the impacts of products and materials across their whole lifecycle and building on people’s awareness of social and environmental concerns. This includes reducing the inefficient use of resources which are a drag on the economy, so helping boost business competitiveness and to break the link between economic growth and environmental degradation.
• Climate change and energy - The effects of a changing climate can already be seen. Temperatures and sea levels are rising, ice and snow cover are declining, and the consequences could be catastrophic for the natural world and society. Scientific evidence points to the release of greenhouse gasses, such as carbon dioxide and methane, into the atmosphere by human activity as the primary cause of climatic change. We will seek to secure a profound change in the way we generate and use energy, and in other activities that release these gases. At the same time, we must prepare for the climate change that cannot now be avoided. We must set a good example and will encourage others to follow it.
• Natural resource protection and environmental enhancement - Natural resources are vital to our existence and that of communities throughout the world. We need a better understanding of environmental limits, environmental enhancement and recovery where the environment is most degraded to ensure a decent environment for everyone, and a more integrated policy framework.
• Sustainable communities - The aim is to create sustainable communities that embody the principles of sustainable development at local level. This will involve working to give communities more power and say in the decisions that affect them; and working in partnership at the right level to get things done. The UK uses the same principles of engagement, partnership, and programmes of aid in overseas communities. These priorities for action within the UK will also help to shape the way the UK works internationally, in ensuring that our objectives and activities are aligned with international goals.

Where do we fit in and what can we do in support of this strategy?
There are some areas of the UK priorities where we are unlikely to be able to contribute directly but others where we can, particularly sustainable consumption and production, and climate change and energy. Our SD action plan reflects this.

What’s in it for us?
Apart from being able to stand up and be counted in the sustainable development debate by demonstrating that we are a socially and environmentally responsible business, we can also ensure that we contribute positively to the UK priorities for action. There are likely to be some financial benefits for the Agency in some areas with reduced wastage and more economic use of resources and we can also encourage staff to think about what more they can do individually and what we can do as an organisation in our everyday work to support this issue.

Our key commitments
We have already changed some of our working practices (such as the move to electronic working via Sentinel) to achieve huge reductions in volumes of paperwork required and, as a consequence, transport emissions. Through the DH facilities contract, we recycle vast quantities of our paper and other consumables and seek to reduce energy consumption. We will continue to work on making improvements to our ability to work without paper but we must also test ourselves in other areas where we are currently weaker. We will:

• ensure that sustainable policies are built into our procurement processes
• seek to reduce our energy and other natural resource consumption
• seek to reduce carbon emissions from travel where possible
• recycle as much of our waste as possible
• encourage best practice amongst our staff by producing a 'good practice' guide
• consider what we can do to support the communities we work in
• continue to consider what more we can do as an organisation and set targets for future years.

Staff engagement
The MHRA has around 850 staff. The main bulk of staff work from an office building based in Vauxhall, London but we also have a small number of staff in offices based in Blackpool, York and Welwyn Garden City.

We drew up a draft SD action plan in 2006/2007 and sought the views and comments of our staff over a period of around 6 weeks. We received a number of suggestions to add to the plan and comments on items in the plan. We set up a Sustainable Development Working Group comprising mostly volunteers with a remit to develop the plan further and to monitor and report on progress. The result of the consultation and first meeting of the working group was to revise the plan to its current state.

We aim to raise the profile of sustainable development, and keep the momentum going within the Agency, by a series of awareness and subsequent monitoring campaigns. The working group will report to the Chief Executive and the Agency’s Executive Board.

Monitoring and checking progress
The working group has a remit to collect the measurable data, set baseline measurements and consider achievable targets. Its job will also be to monitor progress and make reports to the Agency. The Agency will, in turn, make reference to its SD action plan within its published Annual Report. The Agency also contributes to the Department of Health data gathered for the Government’s annual SOGE report.

In this first year, there are a number of areas where we need to identify the best way to collect certain data, for example, actual car mileage, which is not easily identifiable from our management data at present. We may also have some difficulty in setting significant targets for reducing travel as one of our divisions is responsible for inspection duties which takes the staff all over the UK and the world. This travel probably makes up the bulk of our business travel within the Agency and the work cannot be done without visiting the sites concerned but we would like to ensure that visits are planned in such a way as to be environmentally friendly and will consider how best to achieve this.

Further difficulties arise in delivering aspirations such as using 'green' electricity in that the main MHRA building is leased from a private landlord and we are minority tenants in other buildings we occupy, and so, although we can exert some pressure on our landlords to do certain things, it is not always in our gift to deliver some desired changes ourselves. However, we will do whatever we can to effect changes.

The action plan 
The Agency’s action plan is at Annex A. The plan runs from January 2008 through to the end of March 2009. During the first three months of the duration of the plan, we will aim to collect 07/08 baseline data for areas where we do not have this. We will also consider reasonable, measurable targets to set to run from April 2008 to the end of the year and amend the plan accordingly.

Sustainable consumption and production

Climate change and energy

Creating sustainable communities and a fairer world