January 21, 2026

Novo Nordisk Sustainability

table of contents

Novo Nordisk embeds sustainability directly into its core business model and governance through the Novo Nordisk Way and an integrated annual report that combines financial and ESG performance. The company’s environmental strategy, Circular for Zero, aims for net zero emissions across the full value chain by 2045 and zero environmental impact over the long term, while its broader purpose agenda focuses on defeating serious chronic diseases, tackling health inequity, and becoming nature positive. Novo Nordisk has already achieved 100% renewable power at production sites and is now shifting focus to its 60,000+ suppliers and massive device footprint, especially prefilled injection pens for diabetes and obesity.

Net zero: committed to net zero emissions across the entire value chain by 2045, with a new near-term target to cut Scope 3 CO₂ by 33% by 2033 vs 2024.
Renewable power: production sites have sourced 100% renewable power since 2020; >85% of electricity used at production sites is currently renewable across multiple regions.
Waste and circularity: 72% of total waste is recycled and only 0.1% of total waste is sent to landfill, reflecting Circular for Zero’s emphasis on closing loops.
Climate footprint: in 2023, Scope 1 emissions were 78 ktCO₂e, Scope 2 15 ktCO₂e and Scope 3 3,738 ktCO₂e, giving total emissions of 3,831 ktCO₂e; Scope 3 is ~95% of total impact.
Health impact: people reached with diabetes and obesity care products increased from 34.9 million (2021) to 41.6 million (2023) and 45.2 million (2024), including 2.4 million reached via the Access to Insulin Commitment in 2023.

Sustainability Strategy and Goals

Novo Nordisk’s sustainability strategy is organised under its Strategic Aspirations for purpose and sustainability: progress towards zero environmental impact, being respected for adding value to society, and being recognised as a sustainable employer. The Annual Report 2023 includes a double materiality assessment aligned with CSRD, highlighting climate, resource use and circular economy, water, biodiversity, patients’ quality of life, workers in the value chain and business conduct as key topics. Governance is underpinned by the Board, a Sustainability Advisory Council (established 2022), and ESG-linked executive remuneration.

Across ESG pillars, the strategy can be summarised as:

Net Zero and Carbon Emissions – Net zero across the full value chain by 2045; production sites already on 100% renewable electricity; new near-term target to reduce Scope 3 CO₂ by 33% by 2033 vs 2024. Climate targets are framed in line with the Science Based Targets initiative net-zero criteria, and Novo Nordisk is a member of RE100 and EV100.
Water Stewardship – Water and marine resources are defined as material in the double materiality assessment, with KPIs for water consumption at production sites (4.15 million m³ in 2023, up from 3.49 million m³ in 2021). Focus is on efficiency and risk management in key manufacturing hubs.
Regenerative Agriculture, Deforestation and Biodiversity – Novo Nordisk has introduced a nature strategy committing to halt nature loss across its value chain by 2033 and be nature positive by 2045, with particular focus on agricultural inputs (e.g. glucose), packaging fibres and land-use impacts.
Packaging and Circular Economy – Circular for Zero and initiatives like PenCycle and ReMed shift devices from a linear to a circular model through take-back, plastics recycling and product eco-design. The company explicitly targets zero waste to landfill from production by 2030 and reduced plastic use per patient.
Human Rights and Responsible Sourcing – Human rights, workers in the value chain and affected communities are material ESG topics; governance is supported by corporate policies, supplier programmes (e.g. Suppliers for Zero) and compliance with international frameworks.
Nutrition and Health – The core contribution is therapeutic innovation in diabetes, obesity, rare blood and endocrine disorders, backed by an Access to Insulin Commitment and programmes like Changing Diabetes in Children, which has reached more than 52,000 children cumulatively.
Community and Social Impact – Initiatives span global access programmes, tax transparency, community investments and collaboration with the Novo Nordisk Foundation on broader health and societal projects.
Governance and Transparency – ESG is integrated into Articles of Association, the integrated Annual Report, and executive pay; Novo Nordisk has a low ESG risk rating from Sustainalytics and discloses in line with CDP and GHG Protocol.
Technology and Innovation – Strategy documents emphasise process optimisation, energy efficiency, novel materials and data-driven supply chain improvements (e.g. low-carbon logistics, nature and climate scenario analysis) as key levers for decoupling growth from impact.
Scope 1 emissions were 77–78 ktCO₂e over 2021–2023, while Scope 2 stayed at 15–16 ktCO₂e due to renewable power; Scope 3 rose from 2,418 to 3,738 ktCO₂e over 2022–2023 as capacity investments accelerated.
Energy use for operations increased from 3,387 to 3,784 thousand GJ between 2021 and 2023, reflecting expansion, while renewable power at production sites remained at 100%.
Waste from production sites fluctuated between 180,806 and 213,505 tonnes over 2021–2023, now complemented by global metrics showing 72% recycling and 0.1% landfill share.
Patients reached with diabetes and obesity care products grew from 34.9 million (2021) to 41.6 million (2023) and 45.2 million (2024), while employees increased from 48,478 to 77,349 over 2021–2024.
In the 2024 Access to Medicine Index, Novo Nordisk ranks 12th of 20 pharma majors, with a score of 2.88 and a mid-pack trend over recent editions.

Key Sustainability Innovations and Technologies

Novo Nordisk’s most distinctive sustainability innovations sit at the intersection of devices, supply chain and nature. The Circular for Zero programme reframes environmental performance around circular design and zero impact, supported by device take-back schemes, supplier engagement campaigns, and RE100-aligned energy strategy. On nature, Novo Nordisk is among the first big pharma companies to set explicit nature-positive targets across the value chain, including land-use, biodiversity and plastic footprint.

Circular devices and take-back systems
- Pen recycling pilots such as PenCycle in Europe and ReMed in Japan and other regions allow patients to return used prefilled pens; an early UK programme saw 200,000 pens returned between 2021 and 2023, with plastic reprocessed into items like furniture.
- Novo Nordisk produces around 600 million pen devices per year, putting it “at the forefront” of the pharma plastics challenge and making device circularity central to its strategy.
- ReMed and the Insulin Pen Take-back Programme are being scaled globally, positioning take-back and material recovery as core business capabilities, not side projects.
Suppliers for Zero and Scope 3 innovation
- Suppliers for Zero is a climate and nature engagement programme targeting Novo Nordisk’s extensive supplier base, where more than 95% of the company’s environmental impact arises.
- The initiative pushes key suppliers to set science-based climate and nature targets, switch to renewable energy and share emissions data, directly supporting the 33% Scope 3 reduction target by 2033.
Nature-positive and plastics innovation
- Novo Nordisk aims to halt nature loss in its value chain by 2033 and be nature positive by 2045, focusing on agricultural inputs, packaging materials and site-level biodiversity (including a nature park at headquarters).
- The company’s circular product framework defines four levers: design for expected lifetime, sustainable materials, zero waste in production, and recyclability after use—applied to devices and secondary packaging.
- Environmental policy targets include zero waste to landfill from production sites by 2030 and reduced plastic use per patient in diabetes and obesity, explicitly linking product strategy to plastic reduction.
Energy and climate technology
- Production sites reached 100% renewable electricity in 2020; subsequent growth is supported by renewables procurement, energy efficiency projects and collaboration with partners like Maersk on low-emission freight.
- Company cars, business flights and logistics are tracked as discrete emission categories, enabling targeted initiatives (e.g. low-emission fleets, route optimisation, sustainable aviation fuel pilots) as part of Circular for Zero.
72% of total waste is currently recycled and only 0.1% goes to landfill, with circular take-back programmes expected to increase recycling rates further.
Scope 3 emissions, at 3,738 ktCO₂e in 2023, are dominated (90%) by purchased goods and services and capital goods, making supplier- and design-driven innovation the main decarbonisation lever.
Patients’ access and device experience are integrated into circular pilots (e.g. PenCycle for Saxenda and Wegovy pens), linking sustainability to product and brand differentiation in GLP-1 markets.

Measurable Impacts

Novo Nordisk’s ESG data over 2021–2023 show strong operational decarbonisation and renewables progress, but also a sharp increase in Scope 3 emissions driven by explosive demand for diabetes and obesity therapies and associated capacity investments. Circularity metrics are improving, especially at production sites; global metrics now demonstrate high recycling and very low landfill rates. Socially, patient reach and access programmes are expanding, but Access to Medicine Index rankings place Novo Nordisk in the middle of the big-pharma pack.

Climate and energy (2021–2023)
- Scope 1 emissions: 77–76–78 ktCO₂e in 2021–2023, essentially flat despite substantial production growth, reflecting efficiency projects and refrigerant controls.
- Scope 2 emissions: stable at 16–16–15 ktCO₂e across 2021–2023, underpinned by 100% renewable electricity at production sites.
- Scope 3 emissions: 2,418 ktCO₂e in 2022, rising 55% to 3,738 ktCO₂e in 2023; total emissions reached 3,831 ktCO₂e in 2023. Purchased goods & services and capital goods account for 90% of Scope 3 and 98% of its year-on-year increase.
- Energy consumption for operations increased from 3,387 to 3,784 thousand GJ between 2021 and 2023, while production volumes and obesity drug sales surged.
Water, waste and circularity
- Water consumption at production sites rose from 3.49 million m³ (2021) to 3.92 million m³ (2022) and 4.15 million m³ (2023), reflecting capacity expansions.
- Waste from production sites fluctuated from 180,806 tonnes (2021) to 213,505 (2022) and 189,091 (2023), while breaches of environmental regulatory limits remained low (8–12 per year).
- Corporate environmental performance pages report 72% of total waste recycled and only 0.1% sent to landfill, indicating strong progress toward zero-landfill production goals.
Patients, access and workforce
- Patients reached with diabetes and obesity care products increased from 34.9 million (2021) to 36.9 million (2022) and 41.6 million (2023), with 2.4 million reached via the Access to Insulin Commitment in 2023 and 52,249 children reached cumulatively through Changing Diabetes in Children.
- The 2024 Annual Report highlights 45.2 million people reached in 2024 and 77,349 employees across 13 countries with production facilities and 5 countries with R&D facilities.
- Year-end employees increased from 48,478 (2021) to 55,185 (2022) and 64,319 (2023), while employee turnover fell from 11.0% to 5.5% over the same period.
Reputation and ESG ratings
- Novo Nordisk holds a “Low Risk” ESG rating from Sustainalytics and appears in top tiers of several global sustainability rankings, including Sustainability Magazine’s 2025 Top 250 (ranked 13th).
- In the 2024 Access to Medicine Index, it ranks 12th with a score of 2.88—solid but behind leaders such as Novartis, GSK, Sanofi and Pfizer.

Challenges and Areas for Improvement

Novo Nordisk’s rapid growth in obesity and diabetes markets creates a paradox: its therapies address major health burdens but sharply increase production volumes, logistics and device use. This reality shows up clearly in Scope 3 emissions, which have surged with manufacturing and capital investments. While operational emissions are controlled, value-chain impacts, plastics and water use remain structurally challenging. Moreover, despite ambitious climate and nature commitments, Novo Nordisk sits mid-table in the Access to Medicine Index and faces scrutiny around the affordability and equitable access of breakthrough GLP-1 therapies.

Scope 3 dominates the footprint at 3,738 ktCO₂e in 2023 vs 93 ktCO₂e for Scopes 1+2 combined; the company now must deliver a 33% Scope 3 reduction by 2033 against a backdrop of strong demand and capex.
Water use and total waste volumes are growing or fluctuating at high levels as capacity expands, despite high recycling and low landfill percentages, implying a need for deeper process redesign and demand-side efficiency.
Packaging and device circularity pilots are promising but geographically limited; scaling PenCycle/ReMed and similar programmes to the global footprint of 600 million+ pens per year is non-trivial, especially in markets with weak collection infrastructure.
Access performance is good but not leading: a 12th-place Access to Medicine ranking and public debate around pricing of obesity drugs highlight the tension between high-value innovation and affordability in both high- and low-income markets.
Internally, restructuring moves such as recent job cuts aimed at sharpening focus on diabetes and obesity also raise questions about organisational resilience, culture and capacity to deliver on broad sustainability ambitions during rapid transformation.

Future Plans and Long-Term Goals

Looking ahead, Novo Nordisk’s sustainability roadmap is anchored by its 2045 twin ambitions: net zero emissions and a nature-positive value chain. Circular for Zero remains the central framework, now complemented by explicit Scope 3, plastic and nature targets. Near-term focus is on scaling supplier engagement, circular device systems and nature-risk management, while sustaining access commitments and social programmes as the business pivots even more heavily into obesity.

Climate and nature milestones
- Net zero across the full value chain by 2045, with 100% renewable power already achieved at production sites and further renewables expansion expected in logistics and supply.
- Scope 3 CO₂ reduction of 33% by 2033 vs 2024, with suppliers targeted through the Suppliers for Zero programme; more than 95% of environmental impact is in the value chain.
- Halt nature loss across the value chain by 2033 and become nature positive by 2045, with specific focus on land use, agricultural inputs and packaging.
Circularity and plastics
- Zero waste to landfill from production sites by 2030 and reduced plastic use per patient in diabetes and obesity, supported by circular product design, ReMed and PenCycle take-back, and plastics-to-resource projects.
- Continued expansion of pen recycling across more countries and integration of eco-design into device and packaging development, guided by the four-lever circular design framework.
Social impact and access
- Sustained commitment to the Access to Insulin Commitment and Changing Diabetes in Children, with rising patient reach and explicit integration of access and affordability into core strategy.
- As obesity treatments like Wegovy scale globally, Novo Nordisk will be under increasing pressure to align pricing and availability with its stated goal of being respected for adding value to society.

Relative to competitors, Novo Nordisk’s future plans position it as an environmental frontrunner in devices and supply-chain-centric decarbonisation, but not yet an access leader in the way that GSK, Novartis or Sanofi are perceived. The coming decade will be critical: achieving the 33% Scope 3 cut by 2033 while meeting soaring GLP-1 demand will be a stress test of both strategy and execution.

Comparisons to Industry Competitors

Novo Nordisk is often benchmarked against Eli Lilly (its closest rival in obesity and diabetes) and diversified big-pharma peers like Sanofi and AstraZeneca. On climate and circularity, Novo Nordisk’s device and supplier-centric strategy is distinctive; on access and broader ESG, it still trails the strongest all-round performers.

Versus Eli Lilly
- Lilly targets carbon neutrality in its own operations by 2030 and 100% renewable electricity by 2030; by 2024 it had sourced 58% of purchased electricity from renewables and cut Scope 1 & 2 emissions 37% from 2020.
- Novo Nordisk’s 2045 net-zero and 100% renewable production sites position it strongly on value-chain and device circularity, while Lilly is more focused on operational neutrality and zero-landfill, with less visible device recycling programmes in the public domain.
- Access-wise, Lilly ranks 19th in the 2024 Access to Medicine Index, far below Novo Nordisk (12th), but both face similar scrutiny over GLP-1 pricing and obesity drug accessibility.
Versus Sanofi
- Sanofi targets net zero across all scopes by 2045 with carbon neutrality by 2030 (55% Scope 1+2 and 30% Scope 3 cuts by 2030 vs 2019), while Novo Nordisk focuses on a 33% Scope 3 cut by 2033 vs 2024 and net zero by 2045.
- Sanofi is particularly strong on blister-free packaging, PVC phase-out and zero-landfill; Novo Nordisk counters with highly visible pen take-back and device circularity pilots.
- In the Access to Medicine Index, Sanofi is a top-three performer while Novo Nordisk sits mid-table, highlighting a relative gap on structured access strategies beyond insulin commitments.
Versus AstraZeneca
- AstraZeneca’s Ambition Zero Carbon aims for a 98% Scope 1 & 2 reduction by 2026 vs 2015 and a 50% value-chain cut by 2030, on the way to a 90% reduction by 2045—more aggressive near-term decarbonisation than Novo Nordisk’s current trajectory.
- Novo Nordisk is more advanced on device circularity and explicit nature-positive targets, whereas AstraZeneca is a stronger climate pure-play with very fast operational decarbonisation.

Overall, Novo Nordisk distinguishes itself less by net-zero year (2045 is now common among big pharma) and more by its focus on devices, plastics and supply-chain alignment. Eli Lilly is arguably ahead on near-term operational carbon cuts, Sanofi and GSK lead on structured access and global health portfolios, and AstraZeneca leads on fast operational decarbonisation. Novo Nordisk’s competitive edge is in the convergence of GLP-1 growth, device circularity and nature-positive ambition—provided it can execute at scale.

Our Thoughts

Novo Nordisk is one of the more interesting sustainability cases in pharma because its core products both drive and potentially reduce planetary and human health risks. The company’s environmental strategy is sophisticated—Circular for Zero, Suppliers for Zero, nature-positive targets, and device recycling programmes are all well ahead of industry averages. Its production operations are already largely decarbonised from an electricity standpoint, and circular initiatives are beginning to tackle the immense plastic footprint of injection pens.

At the same time, the ESG data tell a clear story: Scope 3 emissions, water use and total waste volumes are rising with unprecedented demand for GLP-1 and insulin products. Novo Nordisk has now set more specific Scope 3 and nature milestones, but reaching them will require much deeper demand-side and structural changes—such as redesigning devices for modularity and reuse, rethinking packaging systems for low-resource settings, and making climate and nature performance a hard gate for suppliers. On the social side, rising patient reach and longstanding insulin commitments are positives, yet mid-pack Access to Medicine rankings and ongoing pricing debates suggest there is room to bring access governance up to the same level of innovation seen on environment and nature.

For other high-waste, logistics-intensive industries, several lessons stand out:

Treat Scope 3 as the main design problem—use supplier campaigns like Suppliers for Zero, circular product frameworks and nature-positive targets to re-shape the value chain, not just offset residuals.
Elevate product-system circularity (like pen take-back and plastics-to-resource schemes) from pilots to core operations, with clear tonnage and geography targets.
Integrate nature, climate, and plastic targets into a single environmental policy, tying executive incentives to a small number of hard, auditable KPIs.

If Novo Nordisk can bend its Scope 3 trajectory downward while keeping its nature and circularity promises – and simultaneously strengthen access governance – it has a credible path to being seen not just as a GLP-1 growth story, but as a reference model for sustainable health-tech and device-intensive business models.

Key sources

Novo Nordisk integrated reporting/core ESG data

https://annualreport.novonordisk.com/2024/

https://www.novonordisk.com/investors/esg.html

Environmental strategy, Circular for Zero and environmental policy

https://www.novonordisk.com/sustainable-business/zero-environmental-impact.html

https://www.novonordisk.com/sustainable-business/zero-environmental-impact/environmental-policy.html

Nature-positive and value chain strategy

https://www.novonordisk.com/sustainable-business/zero-environmental-impact/nature.html

Device recycling / circular pens

https://www.novonordisk.com/sustainable-business/zero-environmental-impact/recycling-used-devices.html

Scope 3 and supplier engagement (Suppliers for Zero – overview via case article)