Novo Nordisk's quest for zero environmental footprint leads to recycling effort

➤ Novo Nordisk has committed to zero CO2 emissions from its own global operations and transport by 2030 as part of its Circular for Zero strategy.

➤ In 2020, the drugmaker achieved its target of using 100% renewable power across its global production network.

➤ Novo Nordisk wants to see an industrywide approach to recycling pharmaceutical products and medical devices, according to the company's sustainability lead.

Katrine DiBona, Novo Nordisk A/S’ corporate vice president for global public affairs and sustainability, spoke to S&P Global Market Intelligence about the Bagsværd, Denmark-based drugmaker's environmental, social and governance journey.

The diabetes-focused company first embarked on the use of green energy for its Danish facilities 15 years ago and has since implemented a number of environmental strategies, such as recycling water at its production sites and a pilot to collect and recycle medical devices like insulin pens. The following is an edited version of the interview.

S&P Global Market Intelligence: How has Novo Nordisk's environmental strategy evolved over time?

Katrine DiBona: We have three responsibilities: We have a social, we have an environmental and we have a financial responsibility for how we drive our business. So in that sense, it's always been in our DNA.

If you go back [to 2007], our agreement with Dong [Energy] to let water-based windmills supply our factories was a first step and very much driven by dedicated colleagues at the time who thought that was the right thing to do. It was also at a point where we were mostly focused on turning off the lights and ensuring that our electricity was as green as possible.

Of course, it set a precedent for how to continue to work with this and we've had a number of environmental strategies along the way. Again, it's important to appreciate that the world has really changed when it comes to this — so have the technologies, the focus and the expectations — so it really is a dynamic space to try to be a front-runner.

Our most recent [strategy], Circular for Zero, which is 2.5 years old, set out a quite ambitious aspiration to have zero environmental footprint. We focus on three main components. One is emissions: How do we go from switching off the lights to really going deep with our suppliers?

Novo Nordisk was thinking about a lot of these issues before its U.S. pharma peers. Why is that?

The world is realizing at a different pace. We've been very much aware that as a company that has the resource and the competencies to address this as we go along, that also comes with a responsibility to do so. One of the changes that we're really working to integrate right now is to continue to be more proactive early on, which is much easier than actually trying to manage [sustainability] when you're on the other side.

What efforts are you making to recycle?

It is complex, but we appreciate that every year the world produces more plastic in total than the weight of the human population. It's not sustainable to not address our small part of it.

You can always argue [that] other companies have a bigger footprint. But it doesn't change the fact that we also do have a footprint. And you could say that there's a number of levers to that: We could use different kinds of plastics — the technology is not quite there yet — but also try to collect it and take it back.

We tried a pilot in the three biggest cities in Denmark. Despite the fact that we launched in the middle of COVID, where nobody was allowed to go to the pharmacy, it's actually been really well received. [There are] a broad number of partners working with us on this one, everything from the Danish Diabetes Association to the pharmacies to logistic companies, it's been really great to see. But, of course, we appreciate that it's going to be more feasible in some countries than others.

Also, and this is really important, for it to be sustainable down the line it needs to be an industry solution. So it cannot be just taking back Novo Nordisk [insulin] pens, it probably needs to be medical devices, waste, or some sort of broader [measure] to make sure that that we're all pushing in the same direction.

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