Novo Nordisk, the Danish manufacturer of insulin, has pledged only to use electricity from renewable sources at all of its global production sites by 2020. Once implemented, there will be no CO2 emissions from the electricity used at the company's plants, the firm said. So far, the company's production sites in Denmark, Brazil and Japan use 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,' said Henrik Wulff, Executive Vice President and Head of Novo Nordisk Product Supply.
An important step in achieving the 2020 ambition was taken last month when Novo Nordisk's production site Tianjin, 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.
'In Denmark, we get our electricity from windmills and 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,' said 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 has recently joined the RE100, which is a collaborative initiative of global businesses committed to using 100% renewable electricity.
