Circular for Zero

Sustainable business

Zero environmental impact

We are adopting a circular mindset to reach zero environmental impact

Circular for Zero

Zero environmental impact

Environmental challenges have never been more critical or more urgent to address than they are today. Growing consumption, industrialization and urbanization threaten not only the sustainability of the environment in which we live, it also impacts the health of people in the communities in which we operate. We must do our part by embracing a circular mindset to have a more positive impact on the environment.

To lead the change, we have taken a bold and broad, company-wide approach to reducing our impact on the environment.

We have adopted a new strategy with the goal to have zero environmental impact.

Have a look at our journey towards zero environmental impact.

Circular for Zero

Our global zero environmental impact strategy is called Circular for Zero. Many people and organizations are working to make the circular economy a reality. We want to be part of that change and are focusing our efforts in three areas:

Circular company

We will continue to reduce the production of waste sent to landfill and zero loss of water, energy and resources.

Circular supply

We will reduce environmental impact across the supply chain by collaborating with suppliers to encourage circular business practices. We will also increase our use of recycled and carbon-neutral materials and resources.

Circular products

We will upgrade existing products and design new products based on circular principles as well as work toward a sustainable solution for the reuse and recycling of products.

Three ways to get to zero

We focus on our use of electricity, how we design our products and our suppliers.

Our progress

In the U.S., we support our global goals and have made significant progress toward our Circular for Zero ambitions. Some examples include:
Solar farm

LEED Certified U.S. Headquarters

The construction of our Novo Nordisk headquarters in the U.S. is LEED (Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design) Silver certified, demonstrating our approach to being responsible stewards of our environment. Our commitment to quality and our focus on maintaining high ethical standards goes hand in hand with living up to our responsibilities to shareholders, patients, society and our own employees.

Utilizing recycled and locally sourced materials, the U.S. headquarters is consistent with Novo Nordisk's sustainable business model.

We have also eliminated single use plastics in our U.S. headquarters building, including plastic water bottles, utensils and serving dishes in the cafeteria.

U.S. solar farm

In January 2020 Novo Nordisk U.S. operations connected to the grid in North Carolina with a 105-Megawatt Direct Current (DC) solar energy installation near its facility in Clayton, North Carolina. With this, Novo Nordisk reached its RE100 goal and became the first pharmaceutical company to use only renewable electricity in all of its global production facilities.

The power consumption of Novo Nordisk's U.S. headquarters' offices, labs, R&D facilities, and all U.S. manufacturing facilities is offset by solar power from Solar Park.

 

The 105 megawatts of renewable energy from Cardinal Solar Park offsets carbon emissions equivalent to:

The 105 megawatts of renewable energy from Cardinal Solar Park offsets carbon emissions equivalent to:

The amount

223,225

tree seedlings could sequester in ten years.

Removing

2,917

cars from the road.

The power for

12,000

homes per year.

5,626,196

gallons of gasoline consumed.

Are we meeting our global targets?

We account for our environmental performance on three levels: Use of resources, CO2 emissions and handling of waste.

Conflict minerals disclosure