Biotechnology has the potential to create significant advances for humankind through the development of products that can enhance quality of life by making better products and reducing the use of natural resources in production. Yet these beneficial qualities of biotechnology must be balanced with the ecological risks.

At Novo Nordisk we are trying to reconcile the ethical dilemmas surrounding the use of biotechnology, in part by devising clear policies in response to controversial issues and by consulting key stakeholders to analyse the dilemmas with us.

Environmental responsibility covers our impact on the external environment, as well as the bioethical implications of our activities. Our impact on the external environment includes global climate change, change in biodiversity, ozone layer depletion, acidification and eutrophication, the uses of freshwater and fossil fuels, and the waste generated by production and consumption. We attempt to mitigate our contribution to these local and global environmental problems by incorporating appropriate measures in our environmental management

systems.

Sustainable development implies decoupling resource consumption from environmental impact. Continued growth at the expense of nature’s capital is clearly unsustainable. This presents a dilemma. In order to meet the needs of our customers, we must increase production of life-saving drugs. Yet we must make those products without increasing our use of natural resources to an unsustainable level.

We are working continuously to address this dilemma by reducing the consumption of scarce resources such as freshwater of drinking quality and fossil fuels. This is done by using the best available technologies and environmentally sound materials, and by optimising our processes. These tasks are accomplished by committed employees at our sites all over the world.

For more than a decade, we have followed a pro-active environmental strategy aiming to be one of the front-runners in defining, engaging and reporting on how business can address global environmental challenges.

The following six processes are key elements of our systematic approach to implementing this strategy in all our activities:

• Embed We actively involve employees about sustainable development at all levels. This guides our strategy for implementing ISO 14001
• Globalise We work on an international basis and have established an international environmental network across all our production sites
• Train We educate employees on issues in relation to sustainable development at all levels
• Report We publish annual reports that provide definition of targets, follow-up on targets, performance documentation and external reviews
• Integrate Triple Bottom Line thinking is integrated in our decision-making processes in such areas as product development, life cycle assessment and building new production facilities

• Involve We conduct dialogue and partnerships with our stakeholders. For example, in 2001 we developed educational materials on genetic engineering in a partnership with an NGO.

This section gives a brief description of how we work with these processes in practice.