Environmental Assessments and Standards

A good environmental management system requires regular and robust verification to ensure it operates effectively. Our Management Awareness and Action Review System (MAARS), is a global system for identifying and mitigating environment, health and safety (EHS) risks. It enables our Family of Companies to proactively address EHS issues and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and our standards. The process includes self-assessment, independent assessment, action planning, corrective action tracking and training.

Every site conducts annual regulatory compliance self-assessments, which are supplemented by an independent compliance and management system assessment on a regular basis. Worldwide Environment, Health and Safety tracks performance on these assessments and reports aggregated assessment results to the Executive Committee and the Public Policy Advisory Committee of the Board of Directors.

Environmental management system assessments are conducted against internationally recognized environmental, health and safety standards, such as the International Standards Organization (ISO 14000) or the Occupational Health and Safety Assessment Series (OHSAS 18000), and/or the Johnson & Johnson Worldwide Environmental Health and Safety Standards. These standards address more than 25 areas and are designed to ensure that all Johnson & Johnson organizations achieve and maintain a consistent and high level of EHS performance. These standards are reviewed and, if necessary, revised on an annual basis.

To learn about the results of our assessments, visit our compliance and certification sections.

External Manufacturing Standards

For many years, Johnson & Johnson has set expectations for suppliers that manufacture finished products or active pharmaceutical ingredients for our companies. Our Responsibility Standards for Suppliers outline expectations for appropriate business conduct, and labor, employment, environment, health, and safety practices. Since establishing our standards in 2006, 98 percent of our external manufacturers have been assessed against and are in conformance with our standards. As a practice, if we discover minor violations of our Standards, we will work with the supplier to identify areas and strategies to improve performance. If significant violations are identified that cannot be resolved, the relationship with the supplier may be terminated.