For the spirit of sustainable development to truly take hold in an organisation, it must be embedded in the daily working lives of each and every employee. This is the only way to ensure that the Triple Bottom Line is supported through every layer of the business. That is the intention behind the TakeAction! employee programme.

Making a difference in Tanzania  

Clockwise from the left: On Daffodil Day employees raised funds for the National Cancer Council in Australia. On World Haemophilia Day employees raised funds for children with haemophilia in Germany. At a bazaar employees raised funds for a diabetes clinic in Vietnamin, and employees collected 9 tons of clothes and toys for a diabetes centre in Tanzania. Both activities were initiated in Denmark.

The TakeAction! programme was launched in January 2003 to provide employees of Novo Nordisk with a formal opportunity to initiate individual or team activities in the name of sustainable development. While Novo Nordisk employees have a long history of contributing to worthy causes in their local communities and around the world, TakeAction! provides a way to channel the energies of the many employees who wish to join together to take positive steps towards a more sustainable future.

The launch of the programme has been greeted enthusiastically, with activities taking place all over the world, including bikeathons or walkathons to raise money for people with diabetes or other healthcare needs. In one walkathon, employees of the South African affiliate raised USD 4,800 to establish a diabetes clinic in one of the outlying areas in the Gauteng Province.

Every initiative that helps embed sustainability into the organisation counts. This includes, for example, employees participating in World Diabetes Day events, exercising with colleagues as a way to stay healthy and help prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes, reducing paper consumption, and car pooling to save on CO2 emissions. Employees working in Denmark are offered the opportunity to sponsor two different diabetes programmes via automatic donations from their pay cheques. In 2003, the employees raised DKK 53,300 for children with diabetes in Bangladesh and DKK 31,480 for people with diabetes in El Salvador. A list of ideas for ways to take action is being generated by employees and is available on the internal TakeAction! website, which serves as a place for employees to share experiences and inspiration. An annual TakeAction! Award has been established. In 2003 the Award was presented to employees in Ukraine for their public awareness campaign ‘Beware of diabetes’.

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As part of TakeAction! Novo Nordisk employees can also apply to participate in a three-week programme working at the diabetes centre at Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam, which was funded partly by Novo Nordisk employees. (For more information, read the article on 'Sustainable diabetes care in developing countries').

The programme in Tanzania has attracted a great deal of interest among employees. Volunteers at the centre during 2003 contributed in various ways, including training nurses and doctors, setting up IT and accounting systems, and assisting in the laboratory. The employees keep a diary of their experiences, which is published on the TakeAction! website. Returning volunteers also share their experiences with colleagues.

Lisbeth Vestergaard Jacobsen, who works in Clinical Pharmacology, came to the centre to train clinic staff. They helped her make the most of her very limited time.

"They were very interested in getting new information. They gave me good feedback, explaining how I could improve my training for other professionals. All I had to do was open my eyes and ears."

Zeeshan Rab, one of the first volunteers in the programme, told a group of Novo Nordisk managers during a presentation after his return from Tanzania that "It has been an awakening. It makes you realise that the problems of our daily life aren’t really problems. It’s a matter of changing your priorities".