Novo Nordisk plants aim for total renewable energy by 2020

Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk on Tuesday announced its intention to only use electricity generated from renewable sources at all its global production sites by 2020.

"Switching to renewable electricity makes sense from both a climate and a cost perspective," said Henrik Wulff, executive vice president and head of Novo Nordisk Product Supply, in a statement.

"As more companies invest in renewable electricity, the technology is likely to get even more efficient and less costly," Wulff said.

There will be no carbon emissions from the electricity used at Novo Nordisk's plants once the plan is implemented, the company said.

Novo Nordisk has recently joined the RE100 campaign, which is a collaborative initiative of global businesses committed to using 100 percent renewable electricity.

It also took an important step in achieving the 2020 ambition when its production site in Tianjin, China, signed an agreement in October on purchasing electricity from a windmill farm in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The company's other production sites in the United States, France, Russia, Algeria and Iran will enter similar agreements in the coming years, according to the company. Endit