Climate changes requires innovation

Press release from DONG Energy sent at 02:40 PM on Wednesday 26.11.2008

Climate changes requires innovation

At Nordic Climate Solutions on Tuesday afternoon, a number of major Danish enterprises and communes spoke of their ambitions and strategies in the climate field. 

At Nordic Climate Solutions on Tuesday afternoon, a number of major Danish enterprises and communes spoke of their ambitions and strategies in the climate field. The venue was a conference arranged by DONG Energy. Those taking part in the debate included top leaders from Novo Nordisk, KMD, Ballerup Commune, Toms and other companies.

Need for industrial revolution The participants agreed that we are facing huge challenges if we are to solve climate change. Anders Eldrup confirmed that a new industrial revolution might be needed:

“It’s crucial for the business world to take a leading role along with the energy sector, because the market economy, industry and customers are the ones that are going to be solving a large proportion of the tasks. For that reason it’s also necessary for the incentives – e.g. our taxation systems – to be put in place so that they support that effort. That appears to be broad political backup for that with the government’s new vision for climate change.”

Finding new solutions Novo Nordisk, which is one of the enterprises most seriously committed to climate issues and corporate social responsibility in Denmark, is constantly searching for new solutions.

“We are experiencing a fantastic level of ambition among our employees in this field, so that creates a great commitment. One of the areas we are currently working on is power consumption. Around 60% of our CO2 emissions come from there, so we would really like to reduce them. We need to be able to do that regardless of the increase in our production. We have developed a new – and very simple – recipe for success together with DONG Energy”, says Lars Rebien Sørensen.

The recipe for success is a climate partnership in which DONG Energy, together with experts from Novo Nordisk, will reduce energy consumption. Novo Nordisk will utilise the savings achieved to buy green energy from the new wind farm Horns Rev II. In that way Novo Nordisk will have played a part in ensuring that the wind farm gets built.

DONG Energy has provisionally entered into ten individually tailored climate partnerships. Anders Eldrup considers this as one of the tools that can evolve as a positive aspect of climate change:

“The debate about the climate and the need for action here and now creates an ideal starting point for growth and innovation – so those enterprises and local government that are able to see the opportunities in the new challenges will become the winners of the future. Our partnerships make it possible to react offensively to climate change and to develop a responsible profile that will be of benefit to enterprises, employees and customers.”

Read more about DONG Energy and partnerships at www.dongenergy.com and http://www.dongenergy.dk/.

Contact information:

With kind regards,

DONG Energy, Press department: +45 99 55 95 52