Product stewardship
Product stewardship is a product-centred approach to environmental protection. It encourages companies to adopt life-cycle thinking and requires all stakeholders – from manufacturers to distributors and consumers – to reduce the environmental impact of products. Reducing the environmental impact of Novo Nordisk’s products can be done in a multitude of ways, such as reducing use of toxic substances, designing for reuse and recyclability, and creating take-back programmes for products.
Responsibility throughout the product life cycle
Increasingly, there is a trend to close the loop on the product life cycle by placing responsibility for safe and environmentally sound disposal of products on the manufacturers. Governments are introducing legislation to ensure the sound disposal of products at the end of their life by making producers responsible for the products following disposal. In the EU, the Directive on Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) requires companies to take back electronic products, including medical devices. Devices used as analysers are also included in the directive. Regulations similar to those of the directive are currently being discussed in Asia as well.
For Novo Nordisk, the WEEE Directive has implications for existing glucose-monitoring devices such as InDuo® and Innovo®. Novo Nordisk has to accept responsibility for the products at the end of life and therefore has to frame appropriate cost-efficient responses.
Another issue relating to product stewardship is the safe and environmentally sound disposal of prefilled devices. Novo Nordisk’s diabetes strategy focuses on upgrading patients from human insulin to modern insulins and therefore to prefilled devices such as FlexPen®. As a responsible company, it is important to develop strategies to ensure safe and environmentally sound disposal of these prefilled devices.
Pharmaceuticals in the environment is another issue pertaining to product stewardship. This is relevant for Novo Nordisk's oestrogen-related hormone products.
In recent years it has been learned that when pharmaceuticals are administered to patients, some of the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) may not be completely metabolised (biochemically altered and inactivated). These non-metabolised portions are generally excreted through the urine and find their way into sewage systems, where they are transported to waste water treatment systems that remove most of the pharmaceutical residues. However, extremely low concentrations may pass through the waste water treatment plant and be discharged to the environment. Despite low concentrations, low-level effects have been observed in aquatic organisms.
The Device Green Team
The Device Green Team was established as a competence group in 2004 as a result of a workshop on innovation. The group has participants from three ongoing projects: Regulatory Affairs, Packaging & Devices, and Materials & Testing. The Device Green Team has a mandate and objectives to look at legislation, materials, electronics and processes.
The idea of an environmental project support group has spread to other parts of the research organisation in Novo Nordisk.
The work of the Device Green Team is based on a list of proposals from an ongoing project in PDS. Among these was the need for easy access to environmental data on a website. The first task was to create a homepage with environmental relevance for device development projects, with for example links to directives such as WEEE and RoHS as well as presentations of relevance to device projects.
Since its inception, the Device Green Team has developed four tools:
- Tools 1 and 2 contain environmental information for a large number of polymer materials used in the device industry. It includes for example information on the energy content, the emission of gases (CO2, NOx/SOx ) and other relevant information.
- Tool 3 includes MECO analysis (Material, Energy, Chemicals and Other issues) for the same materials. This tool is useful for identifying the environmental ‘hot spots’.
- Tool 4 is a template developed for use as a frame for environmental documentation in a development project from idea phase to pilot production. It has been used with success in one development project.
In order to facilitate considerations for reducing environmental impacts in projects, the Device and Packaging Development Manual has been updated with respect to environmental issues.
Three device projects have been evaluated on their environmental impact during 2006. Based on these assessments, the tools and the assessment checklist have been updated.
In 2006 Novo Nordisk also established a cross-organisational working group to update Novo Nordisk's 1995 packaging policy. This group will work to establish guidelines on packaging and disposable device materials.
This page has been assessed by PricewaterhouseCoopers as part of its assessment of Novo Nordisk’s statement that it reports ‘in accordance’ with GRI. Please refer to Audit and assurance for a full description of the nature of assurance offered.
