Compliance with environmental laws and regulations form the basis of our environmental management. Our ambition is full compliance, a goal that was supported in 2002 by improved reporting through our new Environmental Management System.

EPIs relate the scale of production to the consumption of resources. An increase in the index figure is a positive trend and means that we have been able to produce more with less. In other words, we have contributed to the decoupling of environmental impact and economic growth.

Our main environmental targets are therefore focused on optimising our eco-efficiency – produced units per unit of energy and water used. We have been successful in keeping a positive trend in these key figures over recent years, and since 2000 we have achieved an improvement of 29% for water and 18% for energy. We expect this increase to continue, and have undertaken a number of efforts to that end.

Key indicators of environmental performance
(click to view illustration)

The total water consumption for Novo Nordisk in 2002 amounted to 2,044,000 m3, which is an increase of 14% compared with 2001.In spite of this, we achieved an increase in ecoproductivity for water of 16 percentage points compared to 2001. This assures us that we should be able to achieve, if not exceed, the target of an annual average 5% improvement in the EPI for water by 2005.

Throughout the company, production sites have worked to reduce water consumption. Water saving campaigns and projects have resulted in reduced water consumption in general, and reduced consumption of scarce groundwater resources in particular.

The total energy consumption for Novo Nordisk in 2002 amounted to 2,083,000 GJ, which is an increase of 13% compared with 2001. Despite the increase in consumption, we achieved an increase in eco-productivity for energy of 15 percentage points compared to 2001.

The improvement indicates that we have been better at utilising energy – at producing more with less energy, and bodes well for being able to achieve, if not exceed, the target of an annual average 4% improvement in the EPI for energy by 2005.

Validation and implementation of new facilities and equipment are very resource-consuming, but as soon as the new facilities are fully operational, we benefit from improved efficiency from the use of best available technology.

Although the energy consumption, supplied from own or external sources, has increased by 13%, the total CO2 emissions have increased by only 4% and the SO2 emissions have declined by 34% compared with 2001. This is due to the fact that we are increasingly using energy from more environmentally friendly sources such as renewable energy.

65% of the energy used by Novo Nordisk is supplied by external power stations primarily as electricity and also as steam or district heat. The remaining 35% comprises heat and steam produced by combustion plants at our production sites. Heat and steam generated at our sites are based on 99% natural and town gas and 1% mineral oil.

With the liberalisation of the electricity market in Europe, Novo Nordisk in Denmark took the opportunity to purchase electricity from a Swedish supplier (Elektra) which supplies electricity based on renewable sources such as hydropower.

In 2002 approximately 44% of the energy consumption at our largest production site in
Kalundborg was electricity of which approximately 69% was based on renewable sources, while the remaining 31% was delivered from the Danish energy network and based on other environmentally sound energy types such as wind energy, and energy from incineration of natural gas, biomass and waste.

The process steam is supplied by the Asnæs Power Station in Denmark as part of an industrial symbiosis where five enterprises trade by-products resulting in a reduction of both resource consumption and environmental impacts.

For indicators such as emissions to air, wastewater, spent biomass and other waste and environmental impact potentials, see the 'performance' section.

Greener facilities bring return on investment

Greener facilities bring return on investment Time-to-market is a critical factor for the pharmaceutical business today. This has led to fast-track design and construction of production facilities using preassembled modules that are not necessarily the most resource-efficient.

The solution is building new plants with a view to keeping resource use in check,
thereby decoupling economic growth and environmental impact. This was the thinking
behind a new procedure introduced in 2002 to ensure environmentally sound project design in the construction, extension and conversion of production plants. If a resource-saving investment has a payback time of four years or less, there is a green light to move ahead.

The procedure was tested at the new insulin plant in Kalundborg, Denmark, resulting
in energy- and water-saving measures in the design that reduce water consumption by 45% and energy consumption by more than 35%, compared to the original design. The extra cost is less than 1% of the total investment, with a payback time of just over a year. Reduced operating costs of DKK 6.5 million a year make an attractive return on investment.

In 2003, we will speed up pace by developing methods for environmental assessment
of new technologies in our facilities.

Tracking our transport impact worldwide

Producing pharmaceutical products for the world market is greatly dependent on transport, which has environmental impacts from atmospheric emissions of eg CO2, CO, SO2, NOx and hydrocarbons originating from combustion of fossil fuels.

These emissions contribute to environmental impacts such as global warming, acidification and photochemical smog. In accordance with our Environmental and Purchasing Policies, since 2000 environmental considerations have been an integral part of our annual evaluation of the transport companies we use as suppliers. We focus on lorry transport and transport by air, since transport by ship is an insignificant part of our transport.

We have made considerable progress on the target for 2005 to improve methods
for reporting transport emissions and use the results to reduce the environmental impact, in cooperation with our suppliers.

In 2002, we implemented a system to report on lorry transport of raw materials to the Danish production sites (import), and intermediary or final products to affiliates and customers outside Denmark (export). The system enables us to control and improve this environmental indicator for reporting environmental impacts of air transport. The work was carried out in a partnership with some of our key suppliers. In 2003, we will work with our
partners to develop and disseminate the model to make it a generally accepted reporting method for environmental impacts from air transport.

Transport emissions 
(click to view data)

Turning waste into energy in France

At our production facility in Chartres, France, waste is not just waste. It is energy.
An ambitious programme to convert solid waste into energy was prompted in part by the fact that the French environmental authorities would introduce new regulations from 2004 that would prohibit landfilling of certain types of solid waste.

The Chartres facility decided to step ahead of the coming legislation by deciding that from 2003, any incinerated waste would be converted into energy.

That meant accelerating its programme for recycling of waste materials such as cardboard, wooden pallets, toner cartridges, and office paper. The toner cartridges are collected by an organisation that employs people with physical disabilities to dismantle the cartridges for reuse.