Strategic Report 01 Strategy 02 03 04 GHG is the largest employer in the private sector in Georgia with To prevent human or environmental harm, our clinics collect and about 16,000 full-time employees, including 3,600 physicians and dispose of medical and biological waste through a specialised 3,300 nurses. It is training the next generation of doctors through outsourced service. For waste collection, we use plastic bags or 26 residency programmes and is continually upskilling its doctors, containers that have sufficient strength and are secured with staples. nurses and other medical professionals. We never fill more than two-thirds of the bags’ capacity. Then steam sterilisation is used to decontaminate biological and bio hazardous Environmental matters waste, including blood. All used sharp objects are placed in labelled, The Group has a separate environmental division closely monitoring and hermetically sealed single-use containers made of hard plastic. leading environmental operations in our medical facilities. Most of the Waste is collected from our sites daily or twice a day when required. Group’s environmental impact comes from medical waste generation, The maximum on-site storage time is 24 hours. To ensure reliability electricity and water consumption, use of fuel for own vehicles and of our contractors, we regularly examine their monthly reports and paper. By developing various standards and procedures, we aim at impose penalties if necessary. becoming more resource-efficient and environmentally friendly. In total, our hospitals generated 600 tonnes of medical waste in 2018. Our approach to our impact on our environment is guided by our Environmental and Social Policy (viewable via: http://ghg.com.ge/ We will continue to look at innovative ways of reducing medical uploads/files/environmentalandsocialpolicy33-52.pdf). and biological waste, taking advantage of best practice both in Georgia and internationally. The aims of the policy in respect of environmental issues are, at a high level, to: Supporting a healthy environment • recognise sustainable development as a corporate commitment, We continuously strive to minimise GHG’s environmental impact. sound business management and an integral part of its pursuit To reduce the harmful effects of plastic, Pharmadepot has been of good corporate citizenship; using paper bags in its pharmacies. • be an environmentally responsible business; • conduct all activities in compliance with relevant environmental We continually look at ways across the Group of reducing our carbon legislation and regulations in the countries in which the Group footprint and contribute to building a recycling-oriented society that operates; strives to coexist with nature. To minimise the damage caused by • provide a clean, safe and healthy workplace for employees; paper industry we are promoting ways of going “paperless” across • conserve natural resources by improving the energy efficiency of the Group. In this regard, one of the initiatives we have recently buildings, reducing energy consumption and the level of harmful introduced is to replaced several historically paper-based procedures emissions, and reduce the consumption of materials by reusing with software-based programmes and have launched “the Green and recycling where possible; and Project” by placing special boxes at our facilities for recycling paper • require clients to adhere to environmental and social risk waste. The money received from the sale of scrap paper collected management procedures. at boxes will be used for various social activities. The Group’s annual consumption of paper stood at appoxi ately 520.6 tonnes in 2018, We detail below some of the major outcomes of the Environmental compared with 669.1 tonnes in 2017. and Social Policy in 2018 below. Greenhouse gas emissions management Waste management We consume annually thousands of kilowatts of electricity. The We have ensured that our medical waste management record-keeping electricity usage accounts for more then half of our total greenhouse standards remain at least in line with national legislative requirements gas emissions. To be more environmentally friendly, we continue to and have amended such standards in 2018 to be in line with new implement a number of energy-saving solutions, such as LED lights, and national regulations that came into force over the year. Our personnel other energy-efficient equipment, such as boilers and HVAC systems. are responsible for registering the information on produced hazardous waste on the state platform and fill out waste registration and In order to reduce air pollution and lessen our negative impact on transportation forms. To further reduce risks and maintain regulatory the environment, our medical insurance business has shifted from compliance, we regularly conduct internal trainings on waste traditional petrol-powered vehicles to hybrid vehicles. Hybrid cars are management procedures and issue special certificates to the attendees more fuel-efficient and create lower emissions than conventional cars. who successfully pass the test. At each of our hospitals, there is a special storage room set up to store waste before final disposal. Greenhouse gas emissions management Tones of COe2 2016 2017 2018 Scope 1 ( emission from combustion of fuels in stationary equipment and in owned vehicles) 6,517 7,993 7,509 Scope 2 (emissions from electricity, heat, steam and cooling purchased for own use) 10,302 15,124 16,471 Scope 3 (emissions from air travel and land transport) 3,621 4,795 5,430 Total GHG emissions 20,440 27,912 29,410 Per FTE 1.59 1.85 1.85 41