The pursuit of sustainable development requires a vision that takes into account the perspectives of communities, governments, industry and society in the framework of an international agenda. We believe that this broad view is essential for tackling global environmental issues. That is why our approach to assessing and acting upon our environmental performance focuses not only on the impact of our production, but on the role we play as a representative of industry.

In that spirit, we participate in international industry groups’ efforts to promote sustainable development and subscribe to or support a variety of international conventions and compacts. We support national and international political objectives to decouple environmental pressures from economic growth becausewe think it makes good business sense. In this section we discuss our role from an international perspective. Our Environmental Policy and Strategy, which are continually updated to keep abreast of developments in global environmental concerns, seek to proactively identify issues of relevance for Novo Nordisk. The strategy is rooted in embedding our environmental work throughout our organisation to achieve the best possible progress in prevention and  reduction of our environmental impacts. In every case, we apply the precautionary approach, as outlined in the section on management of risks.

Good environmental housekeeping is where we need to start when signing on to global efforts to address issues such as global climate change, change in biodiversity, ozone layer depletion,the uses of freshwater and fossil fuels, and the waste generated by our production and consumption of our products.

A robust environmental management system is an important tool for mitigating our contribution to these problems. That is why we have put a great deal of effort into implementing the ISO 14001 Environmental Management System at our production facilities worldwide, a goal we expect to achieve in 2003. On the following pages we explore the process of education and awareness raising that has put us firmly on that path. Case stories show the continued potential for improvement.

We see biotechnology as having the potential to create significant advances for humankind through the development of products that can enhance quality of life. This is partly achieved by making better products and reducing the use of natural resources in production, and the progress we have made in this area is addressed in a discussion of our processes. But we also recognise that these beneficial qualities must be balanced with ecological risks.

Since our first Environmental Policy was formed in 1975, our approach has entailed continual improvements of our environmental performance. While we report on our compliance record annually as part of our commitment to transparency, we know that these figures do not tell the whole story.

As the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg made clear, all players in the global community needs to accelerate their pace to stem environmental degradation. It is a challenge that we at Novo Nordisk take seriously.