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The meeting began at 6:35 p.m. with a welcome from Jen Schauble. CJ Gleason attends Kennedy Kenrick High School and is the student that Lonza sponsored this year to attend Pennsylvania's Free Enterprise Week. CJ, who attended the meeting with his parents, gave the CAP an overview of his week. They formed teams that developed a product, and competed with the other teams. They gave a stock holder's presentation. They kept the financial books for their business. They had a "junk night" where they built a product out of discarded materials. CJ's team received Honorable Mention for their Bike with a Bully Deflector. Their real product was a skateboard; they managed to drive the price down with quality management. They had inspirational speakers throughout the week, and CJ is recommending it to other Kennedy Kenrick High School students. Business Update: Charlie Nye shared a copy of the recent press
release for those who do not have email. The Lonza plant in Ohio has
been legally sold; the plant in Los Angeles will be closing by year
end. The Riverside plant will be having approximately 12 more people
laid off by year end. The facility is constantly under price pressure
to help our customers compete. It used to take up to ten years to
get a drug to be profitable; now drugs are profitable in about three
or four years. The competition constantly undercuts the market for
profit. Typically, once the generic form of a drug reaches the market,
approximately 80% of the market is lost within a year. We must adjust
to the global market so that we are able to remain competitive. Permitting Update: The site received their Title V permit on 12/31/2001. The permit became effective on 2/1/2002. This will serve as the site's operating permit for air emission sources. The addition of the site's solvent recovery unit was approved by the Township Board of Supervisors on April 25, 2002. The upgrades for the liquid incinerator was approved by the Township Board of Supervisors on June 6, 2002. Community Activities: Since the last CAP meeting, Lonza employees have participated in the Upper Merion Area Middle School Science Expo and the Science Shadowing Program. Also, an Upper Merion Area High School student received the Lonza Science Award in June. Community Survey: The community survey was mailed out. Approximately 80 surveys were returned to the site, and it was determined that the Swedesburg and Bridgeport areas need to be targeted. It appears that they are not aware of who Lonza is and what we do. For those respondents who left an address on their survey, they will receive information from Lonza. The next CAP meeting will be held on Wednesday, January 8, 2003,
at 6:30 p.m. at Lonza Riverside.
The meeting began at 6:35 p.m. with a welcome from Jen Schauble. The new CAP members introduced themselves. Ajit Ghorpade is an employee of GlaxoSmithKline, lives in Upper Merion Township, and is President of the Rotary Club. Bob Krutsick lives in the Wayne Section of Upper Merion Township, is a member of the Upper Merion Area School District's School Board, serves as President of the Lafayette Ambulance Squad, and is current President of the Upper Merion Park and Historic Foundation. We are very grateful for our newest CAP members' interest in Lonza. Business Update: Lukas Utiger is the head of the business sector that Riverside is in and gave the CAP an update on the current business situation. Lukas indicated that many changes are happening in order to remain competitive. LonzaGroup is trying to move forward with the sale of the polymer division and is focusing on the life sciences/fine chemical businesses. LonzaGroup's main financing is going into the Portsmouth, New Hampshire biotechnology manufacturing facility. Markus Gemuend is now the CEO since the resignation of Sergio Marchionne. Sergio will remain on the Board of Directors for LonzaGroup. LonzaGroup is moving to a Process Centered Organization to increase our competitiveness. With the new organization, it will allow the sites to work more closely and move the business forward. It will also help to increase speed and flexibility. However, quality and regulatory compliance is a given and cannot be negotiated. Riverside has gone from 218 employees to 200 employees in January 2002 through Voluntary Separations and normal employee turnover. The 200 employees will be used differently and more wisely to increase the site's competitiveness. President's Award for Safety: Paul Sieracki gave the details of Riverside's recent winning of the President's Award for Safety. It is an award that is given out to one of the Lonza manufacturing sites in the United States for best overall safety performance in a calendar year. Some of the criteria include safety responsibility and accountability among employees, training programs, STOP program statistics, Process Safety compliance, and statistical performance. The Corporate Safety Manager plus the leader of the business function audits each facility which includes face-to-face discussion with the employees at each site. Pollution Prevention: Paul Sieracki gave the CAP an overview of the site's Pollution Prevention Successes and Future Plans. The site has actively sought ways to reduce waste generation, air emissions, and waste concentrations. Activities include solvent reuse and recovery, reducing the amount of solvent used per batch of product, dewatering the wastewater treatment plant sludge, implementing an extensive program for fugitive emissions, making improvements to the site's containment areas, monitoring scrubber conditions through the DCS system in production, and reducing the amount of total organic carbon (TOC) in wastewater discharges to the Schuylkill River. Future plans for pollution prevention include upgrading the incinerator which will result in the addition of a low NOx burner, a reduction in particulate emissions, and the ability to burn phosphate waste on site. Also, the product teams will help the site remain focused on cost reduction and waste reduction. Question: What does
the site discharge to the sewer? New Chemicals on Site: Paul Sieracki gave an overview of types of chemicals the Riverside site has and the various reporting requirements associated with holding chemicals on site. Reporting authorities include Upper Merion Township, the Montgomery County LEPC, and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Question: Why does the site submit reports? Is it a federal regulation? Question: What happens to the scrubber and filters? Question: Who at
the township reviews the list of chemicals? Security Update: Jennifer Schauble gave an update on the enhanced security measures that the site is taking as a result of the events of September 11. Riverside has been complying with the corporate security initiative following September 11, and the site's efforts are being led by John Roscovich. A site security team has been formed to discuss the employee requests and concerns and also to raise the level of awareness of all employees through discussion and correspondence. A site evaluation was recently performed by Sgt. Michael Martin from the Upper Merion Police Department. His recommendations include instituting a bomb threat procedure for the site, installing additional security cameras with strobe lights, installing additional lighting on the site facing outward, installing "No Trespassing" signs at the property lines and on the fence, installing mirrorized/smoke glass in the guardhouse, installing cement planters at the entrance of the building, and conducting background checks on cleaning personnel and contractors. Recent site security upgrades include cross-referencing drivers' names with an FBI list, notifying security of deliveries, shipments, and drivers, plans to get the site surveyed to mark property corners, adding an outside card reader plus locks on the guardhouse doors, no vehicles are allowed to be parked onsite, photo identification is required for site entry, and visitors are escorted to and from the guardhouse. Community Donations: Rosemary Jenkins summarized Lonza's community donations for 2001. Donations included the Lonza Science Award for Kennedy-Kenrick Catholic High School, Upper Merion Baseball Association, Upper Merion Basketball Booster Club, Valley Forge Optimist Club, Foundation for Free Enterprise Education, and numerous other associations. Question: Could
Lonza give an award of some type to an Upper Merion citizen who demonstrates
environmental consciousness/awareness? Lonza's 10-year Anniversary: On April 1, 2002, Lonza Riverside will celebrate its 10th anniversary. An employee celebration will occur somewhere around that timeframe. Comment from CAP: Consider adding a larger sign with a planter at the entrance of the facility to draw more attention to the facility. Community Survey: A draft copy of the upcoming survey was distributed to the CAP for comment. Suggestions: Add a question concerning the awareness of the new addition of the Lonza Science Award to Lonza's community donations. Also, add a running list of donations to the website. Also, add a few lines onto the end of the survey for any general comments the community may have. New Business: Dave Burns commented that both Upper Merion Area Middle School and Upper Merion Area High School are in the final application process for the Blue Ribbon Award, which takes into consideration at what the students give back to their community and local businesses. The next CAP meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 12, 2002, at 6:30 p.m. at Lonza Riverside. Home | CAP Members | CAP Meetings | About Riverside |