Novo Nordisk has begun an environmental profit and loss (EP&L) account to further integrate sustainability into its core business.
The pharmaceutical company says it is the first in its industry in the world to publish an EP&L, which was developed with natural capital analysts Trucost. Puma also releases its EP&L impacts.
The EP&L puts a financial value on these impacts so that their significance can be easily understood and managed alongside other business issues.
Trucost’s analysis shows that the environmental impacts of Novo Nordisk’s business cost 223 million euros in 2011. However, Novo Nordisk’s own operations were responsible for only 13 percent of these costs. Three-quarters came from supply chain impacts such as greenhouse gases released from agricultural production of maize to make glucose, the main ingredient in insulin.
A significant benefit of the EP&L approach is that it provides a single metric to compare the relative scale of all environmental impacts across company operations, supply chains and product portfolios, the company says. The results of the EP&L will be used by Novo Nordisk to ensure its sustainability strategy is focused on the most costly environmental ‘hotspots’ in its business enabling the company to reduce operational and supply chain risks from volatile energy and raw materials prices, natural resource scarcity and regulatory costs.
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