Novo Nordisk to Switch to Renewable Energy by 2020

Novo Nordisk has announced plans to switch all of its production plants to renewable energy by 2020. Implementation will see the company’s sites running on carbon-free electricity. The drugmaker’s production sites in Denmark, Brazil, and Japan are already using electricity from renewable sources.

“Setting an absolute target of zero CO² emissions from electricity at all our global production sites in just five years is ambitious, as our production is growing to meet the increasing global demand for our diabetes products,” says Henrik Wulff, executive vice president and head of Novo Nordisk Product Supply, in a press statement.          

The decision to switch to renewable energy was made when Novo Nordisk's production site Tianjin in China signed an agreement on purchasing electricity from a windmill farm in Inner Mongolia. Other production sites in the US, France, Russia, Algeria, and Iran will enter similar agreements in the coming years. 

The company’s facilities in Denmark are currently operating on wind-powered electricity, according to the press release. “This will also be the case in China, but there is not a one-size-fits-all solution, and we will identify the most efficient renewable electricity sources for our production facilities in the other countries,” says Wulff. “Switching to renewable electricity makes sense from both a climate and a cost perspective. As more companies invest in renewable electricity, the technology is likely to get even more efficient and less costly.” 

Novo Nordisk recently joined the RE100, which is a collaborative initiative of global businesses committed to using 100% renewable electricity.

Source: Novo Nordisk