Right now, the world is looking to Copenhagen for forward thinking, innovation, and worldchanging sustainability outcomes at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 15). Here at Novozymes’ headquarters we are already ready with forward-thinking, innovative, and world-changing sustainability solutions – because we have been producing them for years.
Reading today’s headlines, the future does not look promising. Reports on the disappearing Arctic ice cap, erratic weather patterns, poverty, hunger, and soaring energy costs have emphasized the need for sustainable solutions to complex global problems. But in recent years, the world has woken up and realized that an extensive global effort is needed to solve man-made issues such as climate change, poverty, and pollution. Novozymes has been thinking about and acting on these issues for longer than most – the bioinnovative solutions that we produce have the potential to help solve some of the world’s most pressing economic and environmental challenges, such as reduction of CO2 emissions and resource scarcity.
At this point in history, a number of trends are coming together: the explosion of people on the planet and, with it, a need for more energy and more efficient food production. All of this puts more pressure on resources. Novozymes has a long history of sustainable actions, as we have been developing economically attractive sustainable solutions for the past two decades. Sustainability has guided our activities and our research efforts – we have been developing products that save energy, water, and raw materials, reduce waste, and enable the use of renewable resources.
Often, and certainly during financial crises, it can seem that sustainable choices do not make economic sense. But we have a unique opportunity open to few other companies: Our technologies can make a significant impact on the performance of many industries, while becoming more attractive both from a sustainability and an economic perspective. We have been doing a number of things around the world to raise awareness in industry regarding COP15 and the importance of sustainability, because sustainability is also about economic performance. We believe that there are a lot of opportunities for industries to become more sustainable, reduce their CO2 emissions, and continue to meet the bottom-line.
Part of Novozymes’ ambition is to share our sustainable solutions and CO2 reductions with the companies we work with. Use of our enzymes can result in savings of, on average, 100 kg of CO2 emissions for each kilogram used. We have calculated the CO 2 savings we enable our customers to make, and the net result in 2008 was 28 million tons. We believe that we will be able to help our customers save 75 million tons of CO2 by 2015.
WWF recently released a report on the opportunities for white biotechnology, such as the enzymes that Novozymes produces, to contribute toward the global CO2 reduction goal. WWF found that white biotech can save up to 2.5 billion tons of CO2 each year. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report released in 2008 says that we need to reduce CO2 by 42 billion tons before 2050 in order to stop the worst of climate change. If biotechnology can help achieve a reduction of even 1 billion tons, then we will have made a significant contribution.
Novozymes’ vision of a future where biological solutions create the necessary balance between better business, cleaner environment, and better lives provides meaningful direction for the company now, and will continue to do so as we head into the future.
By offering sustainable solutions, we are helping industries prepare for the requirements of tomorrow by decoupling economic growth from pollution and resource consumption. Tomorrow’s headlines will hopefully be all about cars running on fuel made out of organic waste, washing clothes in cold water, and the world’s farmers producing more and better food, feed, fuel, and fiber. It is all about making the most out of nature’s own resources.
I believe it is our obligation to help reduce the environmental impact of our activities so that future generations can enjoy this planet as we do. Thanks for joining us in helping change the world with sustainable solutions. For the sake of the planet and all its inhabitants, I wish for a successful COP15 that brings us closer to a cleaner and more prosperous future.
Steen Riisgaard, CEO, Novozymes