Climate change
Novo Nordisk believes in the precautionary principle. This means that in situations where there could be a risk to health or the environment, the company takes steps to avert it – even if we do not yet have all the scientific evidence.
Novo Nordisk's early response to climate change was governed by the precautionary principle. With the recent findings and recommendations of the UN Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change, however, there is now solid scientific documentation that global warming is for real, that industry contributes to global warming and that urgent action is required from all levels of society.
Climate change is a threat to environmental, social, and economic sustainability. It cuts across sectors, across countries and across generations.
Climate change is also an opportunity to innovate, to develop new technologies, to find new ways of working and new partnerships.
Novo Nordisk is committed to conducting our business in a financially, environmentally and socially responsible way.
As climate change has global implications on all three dimensions, taking steps to reduce the company’s impact is both an act of critical risk mitigation and corporate responsibility.
As a company depending on energy-intensive production, Novo Nordisk believes that increasing energy efficiency and greening energy supply will benefit the business in the long run.
As a business leader and corporate citizen, Novo Nordisk believes that the company has a responsibility to contribute to finding and sharing solutions and new ways of tackling climate change. Not only in our own business, also at a global level.
Recognising the complexity and cross cutting nature of climate change, Novo Nordisk has taken a partnership approach to address it:
- Novo Nordisk initiated negotiations with WWF in 2003 and in 2006 became a member of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Climate Savers programme. Novo Nordisk’s climate strategy links to this agreement, according to which the company has set an ambitious target for the company’s CO2 emissions: To achieve an absolute reduction of 10% by 2014 compared with 2004 emission levels while still growing its business.
- In May 2007 Novo Nordisk signed a partnership agreement with the Danish energy company DONG Energy. Under the partnership, Novo Nordisk pledges to convert all energy savings realised at its Danish production sites into the purchase of green electricity from a new wind farm in the North Sea. The aim is that by 2014 Novo Nordisk’s production facilities in Denmark will be powered entirely by green electricity.
- Novo Nordisk has joined two international climate dialogue initiatives leading up to the UN Summit in 2009: The Copenhagen Climate Council and Respect Table ’the Road to Copenhagen’. Both seek to build momentum for reaching an ambitious and binding treaty at the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen 2009. Both initiatives build on the findings and recommendations of the UN Intergovernmental Panel of Climate Change (IPCC) and the Stern Review into the Economics of Climate Change.
