BUSINESS
ships with U.S. universities—including funding, corporate liaisons, licensing, and contract research—are increasingly prevalent. According to the report, a troublesome factor in this exchange is that most technology transfers are oneway—from the U.S. to Japan. But increased cooperation will be both "desirable and inevitable/' as biotechnology becomes an even more significant part of a global economic and technology base. Future technology linkages with Japan, the committee concludes, must ensure that the U.S. clearly benefits through ties that strengthen manufacturing, expand participation in marketing, and ensure technology transfer back to the U.S. A critical issue, the committee believes, is intellectual property protection. Many chief executive officers of U.S. biotechnology firms, says the report, see a gap between U.S. and Japanese intellectual property protection as a major hindrance to their independent participation in Japanese markets. The committee suggests the U.S. government give serious consideration to moving to the "first-to-file" system of intellectual property rights protection used in Japan and most other countries. Both the Japanese government and industry have made biotechnology a national priority and view it as a critical technology for future growth. Together, they are said to be developing broad-based strategies to use biotechnology as a base to move into diverse new business areas. The U.S. government, in cooperation with industry and academia, similarly needs a technology strategy, says the report. "If conscious strategies are not developed ... to increase inflows of technology from Japan and to expand marketing and sales in Japan, the net result of increasing technology linkages in biotechnology will be to create significant competition from Japan without strengthening the ability of U.S. firms to compete and commercialize technologies," the report says. It adds that U.S. companies need to focus on areas in which Japan excels, such as secondgeneration products, product improvements, and technology commercialization, and that universities need to develop guidelines for reciprocal access to technology from Japan. Ann Thayer 12
MAY 25,1992 C&EN
Environmental openness gets European foothold BP Chemicals, a unit of British Petroleum, has launched a five-point "open communications" program on health, safety, and the environment. The goal is to earn public trust by the turn of the century. It is the latest of what so far is only a handful of such initiatives in Western Europe. Of the three areas—health, safety, and the environment—BP Chemicals is clearly emphasizing the environment. When John Bishop, director of communications for the company, opened the press briefing to launch the program, he noted, "We want to disclose BP Chemicals' global emissions, and we want to say what we intend to do about them." The corporate press conference was the first of a series of meetings with local communities, staff, and local press. Bryan Sanderson, chief executive for BP Chemicals, says open communications is a crucial part of the program: "We will listen to people in our communities, measure our performance, and, each year, publicly and openly report our progress." The company is pledging to reduce hydrocarbon emissions into the air by 50% by 1997, and to reduce emissions into the water two thirds by the same year. Those reductions will be calculated using 1990 levels as a base. Sanderson and his colleagues presented aggregate data for 1990 for the company's 10 major sites worldwide. Although these sites account for 75% of BP Chemicals' total annual production of about 7 million metric tons of petrochemicals, they produce 95% of the company's total emissions. These sites include Antwerp, Belgium; Baglan Bay, Barry, Grangemouth, Hull, and Hythe, in the U.K.; Lavera and Wingles, in France; Lima, Ohio; and Green Lake, Tex. The company's total "listed" emissions in 1990-—compounds that must be accounted for according to hazardous-chemicals regulations in the U.K., the European Community, and the U.S.—amounted to 61,000 metric tons. Of those emissions, some 44% were releases in the U.S., with ammonia the largest single compound at 25%. Overall total emissions—excluding carbon dioxide—were 170,000 metric tons. Carbon dioxide emitted, the company
added, was about 1 million metric tons of carbon. And most of the emissions were airborne—62%, compared with 10% into water; 14% were emitted onto land on site, and another 14% offsite. The BP effort comes two months after fellow U.K. chemical producer ICI published its first report on the progress made toward meeting the environmental objectives it announced in late 1990. ICI chairman Sir Denys Henderson said that "although there are some problems that will not be resolved speedily, we have made a good start in 1991 toward our long-term environmental goals." The company's investment in the environment has increased 10 to 15% per year since 1987, reaching roughly $220 million in capital spending last year. The company's target was to reduce wastes 50% by 1995. Total ICI wastes to land, air, and water in 1991 were 8.31 million metric tons, down from 8.63 million metric tons in 1990. Most went into on-site landfill (45%) or into water (44%), whereas off-site landfill accounted for 7% and air emissions (excluding carbon dioxide) 4%. Hazardous wastes, which make up less than 6% of the ICI total, have been reduced almost one third in 1991, says the report, to 475,000 metric tons. Of that, 48% was handled by on-site land disposal, and 32% offsite; 19% emitted into air; and 0.4% into water. The ICI commitment to openly discuss its environmental objectives was the first in the U.K., and followed the 1990 publication, by Norsk Hydro, of its worldwide environmental performance. Norsk Hydro had published such reports, in Norwegian, on its operations in Norway, but the report created a significant impact throughout the rest of Western Europe, when the English-language version came out. Industry observers believe a similar impact could have been felt had DSM, the Dutch chemicals producer, promoted its environmental communications program in English. DSM's program has been running for nearly 20 years and aims to inform company employees and plants and local Dutch communities about the company's environmental performance. Patricia Layman
