2.4) By 2030, ensure sustainable food production systems and implement resilient agricultural practices that increase productivity and production, that help maintain ecosystems, that strengthen capacity for adaptation to climate change, extreme weather, drought, flooding and other disasters and that progressively improve land and soil quality.
Novozymes’ solutions, such as its BioAg work, help to build resilient agricultural value chains by increasing crop yields and reducing raw material inputs. Similarly, Novozymes’ Animal Health and Nutrition solutions improve animal digestion resulting in higher farm efficiency and productivity by extending the range of raw materials used in feed. By adding enzymes to feed, the animal grows faster and enjoys better health. Production becomes more uniform, and a higher feed conversion ratio and larger yield are achieved. Novozymes also works with a variety of partners, such as the BioAg Alliance, which was initiated to increase the market penetration of Novozymes solutions to support sustainable agricultural development, and the WBCSD Climate Smart Agriculture LcTPi, which aims to scale up the development and diffusion of low-carbon technologies and business solutions.
4.7) By 2030, ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development, including, among others, through education for sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development
Novozymes has strengthened its commitment to education with a target to educate one million people about the potential of biology from 2015 to 2020. Since 2015, Novozymes has helped more than 941,000 people learn about biology and how it enables a sustainable future, by engaging with local schools, universities and communities.
In Latin America, Novozymes’ educational initiatives in this region rely on a digital and interactive format and center around apps that educate young readers about biology, biotechnology and sustainability through exciting tales connected to a specific SDG. In Brazil, partnering with the Municipal Department of Education in Araucaria, “Biotechnology goes to school” reached over 3500 students and teachers. It is now bringing the SDGs to the attention of young people and is partnering with SESI (Federation of Industries of the State of Paraná (FIEP)), reaching more than 11,000 students. Another example is Novozymes’ Mobile Science Lab, which strives to make quality education accessible to remote schools and communities in the vicinity of Bangalore, India. In China, “The Little Biologists” program engages with communities and schools to teach people about biobased solutions in everyday life.
5.5) Ensure women’s full and effective participation and equal opportunities for leadership at all levels of decision-making in political, economic, and public life
Novozymes has a long-term target to have 30% females in Senior Management positions by 2020.
To emphasize the importance of meeting its diversity target, a process has been established to ensure that diversity remains core to Novozymes recruitment. The company also has the objective of further promoting diversity among leaders and continues to increase this focus via its global talent pool for management and succession planning processes.
In Denmark, Novozymes is a member of the Gender Diversity Roundtable, an initiative that brings together the top leaders from 15 Danish Businesses to bring more women into leadership roles
6.3) By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally
Many of Novozymes enzymatic solutions help customers and consumers save water during application compared with conventional methods.
For example, enzymes can be used in the textile industry to combine processes and save significant amounts of water. Other Novozymes solutions help customers in the pulp & paper industry to address lignin toxicity in effluents generated during the production process. We also offer solutions for wastewater treatment and sludge reduction for municipal and industrial applications.
In China, Novozymes is working to help to solve water challenges in the south-eastern industrialized area as well as in the less developed north-west. Our microbial wastewater treatment solutions have been applied in factories in Ningxia, Shanxi, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia, ensuring the compliance discharge of wastewater and improved water availability. As part of the goals in China’s Water 10 Plan, we are currently working together with partners to expand applications of bio-solutions into recovery and conservation of black-odour water bodies.
7.1) By 2030, ensure universal access to affordable, reliable, and modern energy services
Novozymes is working with partners towards the shared goal of ensuring universal access to affordable, reliable and modern energy services. It has supported the UN Sustainable Energy for All (SE4ALL) Initiative's Sustainable Bioenergy High-Impact Opportunity (HIO) since 2013. The HIO is a voluntary partnership of likeminded stakeholders, which seeks to facilitate the development and deployment of sustainable bioenergy solutions in line with the SDGs. Its initiatives focus on-farm bioenergy production; waste to energy; cellulosic ethanol for clean cooking and transportation, and sustainable aviation biofuels. Formally launched in May 2015, the HIO has become a global partnership platform for developing a community of good practice, enhancing knowledge, and scaling up implementation. It has linked the private sector with national governments and civil society, to foster sustainable rural economic development and reduce the use of fossil fuels. Just one year later the Sustainable Bioenergy HIO is now accelerating the deployment of sustainable biopower and biofuels projects in 18 countries. To help de-carbonize the transportation sector, it is also working with the WBCSD to develop below50, a global campaign to increase the number of companies using sustainable fuels with emissions reductions greater than 50%.
In addition, Novozymes supports the European Union Biobased Industries Joint Undertaking, a partnership Novozymes had a leading role in creating, which launched in 2014. The Joint Undertaking is expected to inject €3.7 billion into the European economy from 2014-2024. Novozymes is also actively engaged in driving specific project based opportunities under this effort such as the Maarberg Energy Concept.
7.3) By 2030, double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency
With climate change as a top priority, Novozymes has made considerable investments in energy efficiency and has significantly increased the share of renewables in its energy mix. Energy from renewable sources accounted for 30% (target 28%) of the total energy consumed in 2019, up from 23% in 2018. Novozymes procures renewable energy for their Danish and Brazilian facilities and has set a target of increasing annual sourcing of renewable electricity to 100% by 2030.
7.A) By 2030, enhance international cooperation to facilitate access to clean energy research and technology, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and advanced and cleaner fossil fuel technology, and promote investment in energy infrastructure and clean energy technology
In Italy, alongside its partner Beta Renewables, Novozymes helped establish the first biorefinery in the world to be designed and built to produce cellulosic bioethanol from agricultural residues and energy crops at commercial scale using enzymatic conversion. Situated in fields outside Crescentino and using waste residues from local agriculture, the biorefinery can produce up to 13MW of electricity and up to 50M litres of cellulosic bioethanol per year, with a GHG reduction potential of up to 90% compared with petroleum-based fuel. It is entirely self-sufficient in its energy consumption.
Novozymes is also heavily engaged with the Sustainable Energy for All initiative of the UN and World Bank.
8.4) Improve progressively, through 2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavor to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, in accordance with the 10-year framework of programmes on sustainable consumption and production, with developed countries taking the lead
Novozymes emphasizes sustainable production internally by setting targets for operational eco-efficiency. Since 2009, we have successfully decoupled absolute water and energy consumption from business growth. At several of our production sites, we have installed biogas reactors to utilize wastewater, creating carbon and energy savings.
At Novozymes and within our supply chain, human and labour rights are respected and promoted. We generate direct value for the economies in which we operate through the purchase of goods and services from suppliers, the payment of wages and pensions to our employees, various types of taxes and duties to the community, and dividends and financial costs to our capital providers.
9.5) Enhance scientific research, upgrade the technological capabilities of industrial sectors in all countries, in particular developing countries, including, by 2030, encouraging innovation and substantially increasing the number of research and development workers per 1 million people and public and private research and development spending
Innovation, particularly product innovation, is a key driving force for Novozymes business and continues to be one of the most material issues for us. More than 20% of our global workforce works in R&D, and each year we spend around 13% of revenue on R&D.
Our Portfolio board which manages R&D pipeline across divisions, evaluates all the projects in the pipeline on several criteria, including strategic impact, financial impact and contribution to delivering on the UN SDGs.
As part of our international outreach, together with the Henning Holck Larsen Foundation, Novozymes and has an agreement to advance the relationship between Denmark and India and to develop scientists both scientifically and personally by giving them international work experience.
11.6) By 2030, reduce the adverse per capita environmental impact of cities, including by paying special attention to air quality and municipal and other waste management
Novozymes offers solutions for municipal solid waste management and wastewater treatment with wide-ranging applications for cities.
In the United Kingdom, Novozymes is partnering with DONG Energy to deliver enzymes for its REnescience plant at Northwich in the North West of England. Today, a large part of UK waste ends up in landfill sites, which is expensive and harmful to the environment.
The plant in will ensure that as much of the waste as possible from almost 110,000 UK homes is recycled and converted into biogas, which can be converted into green power and used to generate around 5 MW of electricity which is enough to power around 9,500 typical households. The remaining parts of the waste include plastic and metal, which can be recycled, and an additional part that is converted into fuel.
12.2) By 2030, achieve sustainable management and efficient use of natural resources
Novozymes' biosolutions enable the biobased economy and help customers to produce more with less enabling sustainable consumption and production patterns as its products reduce energy, raw material and chemical consumption and CO2 emissions, compared with conventional technologies. Novozymes has conducted a large number of lifecycle assessment studies (LCA) to document the environmental benefits of biological technologies over conventional technologies. In 2019, customers saved an estimated 87 million tons of CO2 emissions by applying Novozymes’ products. The savings achieved are equivalent to taking approximately 36 million off the road. Novozymes’ 2022 targets for the world are to save 60 million tons of CO2 by enabling low-carbon fuels in the transport sector, reach >4 billion people by providing laundry solutions that replace chemicals and gain 500,000 tons of food by improving efficiency from farm to table. In its operations, Novozymes has set goals to reduce absolute CO2 emissions from operations by 40% (compared to 2018 baseline), develop context-based water management programs at 100% of their sites, achieve 100% circular management of their biomass and develop plans for circular management of 100% of key packaging materials by 2022.
12.6) Encourage companies, especially large and trans-national companies, to adopt sustainable practices and to integrate sustainability information into their reporting cycle
Novozymes is committed to transparent communication and documentation and has long been a leader in practicing integrated sustainability reporting, including through the integration of scientific documentation of product sustainability impacts through Life Cycle Assessment (LCA).
13.2) Integrate climate change adaptation and mitigation into national policies, strategies and planning
Climate change mitigation is well integrated into Novozymes’ business strategy. The company has targets for CO2 savings, both from its own operations and from customers’ application of its products. In 2019, customers saved an estimated 87 million tons of CO2 emissions by applying Novozymes’ products. The savings achieved are equivalent to taking approximately 36 million off the road. Since 2009, Novozymes has decoupled absolute CO2 emissions from business growth and has also committed to reducing dependence on conventional sources of energy by investing in renewable power.
Among other actions, Novozymes is part of Below 50, which aims to increase the number of companies using transportation fuels that reduce carbon dioxide emissions by at least 50% relative to conventional fossil fuels whilst making both good business and environmental sense.
15.2) By 2020, promote the implementation of sustainable management of all types of forests, halt deforestation, restore degraded forests and substantially increase afforestation and reforestation globally
Our Supplier program on responsible sourcing seeks to ensure that our directly sourced agricultural raw materials do not come from locations that contribute to further deforestation.
15.6) Ensure fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources, and promote appropriate access to such resources
Novozymes supports the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) in terms of the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising out of the utilization of genetic resources.
Novozymes acknowledges and respects the principles of both the CBD and the Nagoya protocol and the company has internal procedures to ensure that it lives up to its commitments. Novozymes promote fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the utilization of genetic resources and promote appropriate access to such resources, as internationally agreed. We are regularly assessing outcomes of CBD meetings and with a view to undertake a broader strategic discussion on its management and reporting of biodiversity issues.
16.5) Substantially reduce corruption and bribery in all its forms
Business integrity, anti-corruption, anti-trust and responsible policy engagements are critical issues for Novozymes from both a legal and business ethics perspective. As a responsible global company, we are committed to fair business practices and upholding the values of transparency and accountability.
17.16) Enhance the global partnership for sustainable development complemented by multi-stakeholder partnerships that mobilize and share knowledge, expertise, technology and financial resources, to support the achievement of the sustainable development goals in all countries, in particular developing countries
Novozymes is committed to partnering for sustainability impact through a diverse array of partnerships with multilateral institutions as laid out in its Partnering for Impact strategy. Novozymes collaborated with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and other partners to help launch below50 – a partnership to promote the use of more sustainable low-carbon transportation fuels. Novozymes has been a leader of Sustainable Energy for All (SE4All), the World Bank-U.N. led initiative that seeks to transform the global energy sector by ensuring universal access to modern energy services, double the rate of improvement in energy efficiency and double the share of renewables in the global energy mix by 2030. Novozymes is an active partner of the Sustainable Food Platform, an initiative under the P4G partnership that aims to rethink market-based solutions for food and nutrition security in Africa. In 2019, the partnership developed its first product idea for a healthy, nutritious and affordable biscuit, in which Novozymes’ enzymes enable the addition of protein-rich flours. In 2019, Novozymes supported the implementation of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED II) in Europe. In partnership with industry organizations, Novozymes focused on maintaining direct dialogue with influencers and policy makers to advocate for the use of renewable fuels. Finally, Novozymes has been a signatory to the UN Global Compact since 2001 and has demonstrated its support for broader U.N. goals and issues by engaging with various U.N. initiatives (e.g. PRME), working groups such as Caring for Climate, and regional networks in the Nordic region, India, Brazil, China and North America.
17.17) Encourage and promote effective public, public-private and civil society partnerships, building on experience and resourcing strategies of partnerships
Novozymes’ corporate strategy is called Better Business with Biology because the company is committed to doing its part to solving the challenge of ensuring good standards of living for a growing population without depleting the world’s resources and accelerating climate change. Novozymes is active within the UN Sustainable Energy For All (SE4All) initiative and started the Sustainable Bioenergy Accelerator, with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) and other international organizations. The group works to accelerate the use of sustainable bioenergy for power and fuel, whilst considering agricultural resources, sound environmental management, economic growth rates, energy and food security needs, financing mechanisms and policy frameworks.