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Financial highlights in 1998 |
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 Compared with 1997, operating profit and profit before tax increased by 16% and 13% respectively, to DKK 3,536 million and DKK 3,740 million.
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 Net profit was DKK 2,409 million, an increase of 15% compared with 1997.
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Consolidated sales increased by 6% to DKK 17,911 million. Health Care sales increased by 8%. Enzyme Business sales were 2% lower than in 1997. |
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 Capital expenditure (net) for property, plant and equipment amounted to DKK 2,020 million.
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For more information, see the Annual Report 1998 and the
Environment & Bioethics Report 1998, also available in hard copy on request. |
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Environmental highlights in 1998 |
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 The total water consumption was 4% less than in 1997 despite an increase in total production output.
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 Energy consumption decreased by 2.3% in 1998 compared with 1997.
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Liquid waste from our production was 4,166,600 m3, down from 4,485,300 m3 in the previous year. 30% was recycled as fertiliser for nearby farmland or yeast cream for animal feed. |
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The total amount of solid waste from our production has decreased by almost 9% from 16,810 metric tons in 1997 to 15,330 metric tons in 1998, 24% of which was recycled. |
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 In 1998, total environmental costs were DKK 216.8 million, which represented 1.2% of net turnover and 3.7% of total production costs.
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 Novo Nordisk commissioned an external bioethics review by two independent bioethics experts. The overall objective was to review Novo Nordisk's awareness and actions in relation to bioethical issues. These issues were examined from both a strategic and operational viewpoint and recommendations for future work were given.
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Novo Nordisk requirements on the use of and access to genetic resources have been formulated during 1998 in keeping with the Convention on Biological Diversity. |
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 The enzyme factory in Copenhagen was the first Novo Nordisk plant to design an environmental management system based on the ISO 14001 standard. It gained final environmental certification in September 1998.
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