Making sustainability thinking part of everyday business practice offers new opportunities. Sustainability- driven decisions not only have a societal impact that can be measured – throughout the value system business benefits and potential financial impact can be identified.

The strategic framework - The Novo Nordisk learning curve - Sustainability practices at work -Novo Nordisk's Triple Bottom Line Strategy  

Operational excellence is about becoming more efficient in our business operations – from manufacturing to staff and quality functions – and about being innovative in our approaches. This is also a key driver for our sustainability-driven initiatives. On the path towards sustainability the challenge is to find ways to deliver more value – socially, environmentally and economically – than the value of the resources we use to make and sell our products.

That is why the key priorities for Novo Nordisk’s contribution to sustainable development are included in the corporate Balanced Scorecard: ensuring sound environmental, social and bioethical performance, improving collaboration with key stakeholders in diabetes care worldwide, and embedding social responsibility.

Novo Nordisk’s sustainability-driven initiatives benefit our business as well as society. The business benefits may be measured as potential financial impact. Stakeholder trust, reputation, risk management, employee motivation and customer loyalty are factors which, though not yet measured in financial terms, support the business case for Novo Nordisk’s Triple Bottom Line approach to doing business. While the financial impact of our sustainability strategy is not the main motivator for our approach, the examples provided here illustrate how this way of thinking and making decisions impacts on many facets of our business.

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Novo Nordisk’s Triple Bottom Line approach rests on a threetiered strategic framework. Firstly, the corporate governance framework ensures action and consistently tracked performance against long-term as well as short-term targets to ensure compliance with international standards and company commitments. Secondly, stakeholder engagement activities enable us to be attentive to current and emerging concerns. And thirdly, follow-up procedures ensure full integration in the business and independently reviewed assessment of our corporate conduct.

We aspire to become a model of sustainable business, to be a preferred business partner, and to build on our understanding of the people whose healthcare needs we serve in order to innovate our products and services. Sharing with stakeholders how we chart our desired future, we believe that we can work together to make it happen. Several examples of partnerships and stakeholder engagement activities are given in this report; more can be found in the internet version at novonordisk.com/sustainability/partnerships.

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The Novo Nordisk learning curve reflects how issues related to sustainable development are being integrated in our business. Stakeholder engagement is key to identifying the relevant issues and helps shape our way of dealing with them. For each issue, indicators are identified to track performance, once our response has been defined. Scenarios and new business models were introduced in 2003. At the other end of the continuum, we have revisited our Environmental Strategy, while social responsibility – particularly our responses to access to health and diversity in the workplace – and socio-economics have matured.

The Novo Nordisk learning curve
(click to view pdf file)

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The performance indicators we have selected for the six strategic areas serve as a measure of how well we are doing in the efforts to build a sustainable business which balances concerns for society and the environment with economic growth. They are also a measure of the potential benefits to society. Showing, in turn, the potential financial impact of the company’s sustainability strategy is a particular challenge and relies on the ability to measure the value of intangible assets, such as reputation, innovation, brand and knowledge. These assets are not easy to measure in monetary terms, but significantly influence a company’s cost level and market value. Listed below are these building blocks of a busin ess case for sustainable development as we see it.

Sustainability practices at work
(click to view pdf file)

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The sustainability-driven initiatives are orchestrated by Stakeholder Relations, which drives, challenges and monitors the Triple Bottom Line Strategy in Novo Nordisk and helps the line implement new activities to pursue sustainable business goals. This strategy serves as a platform for organisational learning and innovation. It rests on six key processes:

• Monitoring issues and spotting trends that may affect our future business. 

• Engaging with stakeholders to reconcile dilemmas and find common ground for more sustainable solutions.

• Building relationships with key stakeholders in the global and local communities of which Novo Nordisk is a part.

• Driving and embedding long-term thinking and the Triple Bottom Line mindset throughout the company.

• Accounting for the company’s performance and conveying Novo Nordisk’s positions, objectives and goals to audiences with an interest in the company.

• Translating and integrating the Triple Bottom Line approach into all business processes to obtain sustainable competitive advantages in the marketplace.