"Novo Nordisk will communicate openly, honestly and timely with each of its stakeholder groups."
From Novo Nordisk's Communication Policy
Target audiences
This report is targeted at all stakeholder groups wishing to follow our environmental and bioethical performance including financial and business sectors, opinion leaders, local communities, the environmental authorities as well as our employees. It is our aim to provide information in a form that can be appreciated by a very wide and non-technical audience. We welcome all feedback and endeavour to incorporate new ideas and suggestions so that our reports become progressively improved.
Key environmental aspects and issues
Our main production technology is fermentation using primarily genetically modified microorganisms (GMOs). The processes involved are characterized by a large consumption of water, energy and raw materials leading to large quantities of nutrient-rich liquid waste as well as energyderived emissions such as carbon dioxide (CO2). We also account for other aspects relating to our production including ozone depletion, non-compliance with limit values set in the approvals governing our production as well as waste disposal and recycling programmes.
In addition to environmental information the report also covers issues having a wider societal impact and which are of importance to the sustainable development agenda and the public perception of the technologies we employ. In this context we include sections on bioethical issues such as animal welfare, biodiversity and the safety of genetic engineering. Our understanding of sustainable development is evolving and the development of specific sustainability indicators is still in its infancy.
Scope of report
This report covers the environmental performance of all our production facilities worldwide. Two of our sites - Suzhou, China, and FeF Chemicals, Denmark - are not included in our environmental performance totals. The plant in Suzhou is a joint venture where Novo Nordisk has a 62% share ownership. Data for Suzhou is presented in the plant's site report. FeF Chemicals is a wholly owned subsidiary which is subject to Novo Nordisk's standards including our Environmental Policy. The company is a separate business with its own environmental organization, which publishes separate green accounts and the plant's data is therefore not included in the totals. Data for FeF Chemicals is presented in the plant's site report. Environmental data from administration and research departments in Denmark is included while data from our 61 marketing and sales affiliates is not.
Data collection
The environmental data in this report is based on quarterly data sheets prepared by each site which are consolidated in our central database.
Although we put much effort into ensuring that the information in our report is complete and accurate, there may be some uncertainty related to some of the figures given.
Verification
The main purpose of verification is to have an external validation of data collection procedures and an independent assessment of the report. We have opted for two statements - a qualitative verification concerning the overall report which has been prepared by SustainAbility, a UK-based strategic management consultancy, and a quantitative verification primarily focusing on the systems developed for the collecting and controlling of the data. The latter has been provided by Deloitte & Touche Environmental Services in Denmark on the basis of the work done by Novo Nordisk's Group Internal Audit.
