Roche wins first Financial Times / Citi Private Bank Environmental Award and was reselected for inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes

Greatest improvement in carbon efficiency achieved by a large enterprise both on a European and a global level

Roche announced today that it has been awarded the first Financial Times / Citi Private Bank Environmental Award as the company with “The Greatest Improvement in Carbon Efficiency Achieved by a Large Enterprise both on a European and a Global level”. These Awards underline the company’s leadership in environmental protection and its commitment to meet the climate change challenge by concrete and measurable steps. Since 1996, Roche has reduced its CO2 emissions, the main factor of the climate change, by more than 70% relative to its total turnover.

At the FT Environmental Awards Dinner in London, Peter Schnurrenberger, Head of Roche Corporate Safety, Health and Environmental protection, commented: “It is an honour for Roche to be presented with this Award, recognising our improvements in carbon efficiency. We are continuously evaluating ways to improve our environmental performance and eco-efficiency and we are delighted to be the recipient of this first award. At Roche, we view safety, health and environmental protection not as a separate component to our healthcare business, but an integrated part of a long-term, sustainable business. Roche is committed to not only delivering increasingly carbon efficient operational performance but also to greater disclosure and transparency in our reporting on this topic, and on all the other areas related to corporate sustainability.”

For instance, the Hybrid Car initiative is part of Roche’s overall efforts to reduce its environmental footprint. By using more fuel efficient vehicles, Roche is reducing its emissions of greenhouse gases and saving the finite resource of gasoline. Roche started to incorporate hybrids into its US pharmaceutical sales fleet in 2004. Encouraged by positive feedback from drivers, the number of hybrids was increased and will reach around 500 in 2007, representing 25% of the Roche Pharmaceutical US car fleet. Chugai, the Roche Group company in Japan, was running 50 hybrid cars at the end of 2006 and plans to add another 100 this year. Other countries are evaluating similar steps.

In addition to the specific recognition in the area of carbon efficiency, Roche was reselected for inclusion in the Dow Jones STOXX and World Sustainability Indexes for the fourth consecutive year. This is based on the results of this year’s review by the SAM (Sustainable Asset Management) research group for the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes. The annual review – in which Roche scored highly – takes into account elements such as corporate governance, risk management, access to medicines, climate change, supply chain standards, stakeholder engagement and labor practices. It involves a thorough assessment of the company’s economic, environmental and social performance. Inclusion in these important index series ranks Roche amongst the top 10 percent of the 2,500 largest companies worldwide in terms of sustainability and underlines Roche’s commitment to responsible business practice and long-term value creation.

About the Financial Times / Citi Private Bank Environmental Awards
In order to meet the climate change challenge, companies around the globe must improve their carbon efficiency. Business must become progressively less dependent on carbon emissions. The first step towards this is for companies to measure carbon emissions. These inaugural awards presented by the Financial Times and Citi Private Bank recognise small, medium and large companies from around the world for their outstanding environmental performance. The awards acknowledge transparency and winning companies also have demonstrated that they had reduced carbon emissions in their operations when compared to turnover and that they are more carbon efficient than their peers.