Novo production to be fully powered by renewable energy in 2020

Novo Nordisk's global production will be completely powered by renewable electricity by the beginning of early 2020. The drugmaer has a ten-year goal of achieving zero carbon emissions from operations and transportation.

The company recently announced a $70 million investment in a 105-megawatt dc solar energy installation to be built in Pender County, North Carolina. When completed, ground-mounted solar arrays will harvest sunlight and provide renewable electricity to all existing Novo Nordisk US offices, labs and manufacturing facilities. According to Novo, the solar panel installation will be one of North Carolina's largest solar sites.

Construction began in March, and is creating approximately 900 construction-related jobs this year. Last year, Novo Nordisk US production sites in Clayton and New Hampshire emitted 13,460 tons of CO2 from electricity use. With the new solar project, the company's net CO2 emissions from electricity will go down to zero.

In 2015, Novo Nordisk made a commitment with The Climate Group and The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) by joining RE100, a collaborative, global initiative of businesses committed to using 100% renewable power. Once the solar site is completed in early 2020, Novo Nordisk expects to be the first pharmaceutical company in the RE100 to achieve this goal.

Novo Nordisk's production in Tianjin in China uses 100% wind power. In Monte Claros in Brazil the company uses 100% hydropower and in Europe all production sites use 100% wind power. In Denmark, all facilities, production sites and offices, run on 100% renewable power.

Read the full Novo Nordisk release.