A new global organization called The Sustainability Consortium, has been formed to improve the sustainability of consumer products and Novozymes has become a member. The group membership consists of both government and non-government organizations, businesses, environmental organizations, and academics who will work together to impact future products and supply networks designed to address environmental, social and economic imperatives. Novozymes joins the ranks among several other well-known U.S. companies including Wal-Mart, World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Dell, Disney, and BASF.
“Novozymes is recognized for being among the best in sustainability development and their expertise in bio-innovative products and solutions will be a tremendous value and addition to the efforts of The Sustainability Consortium,” said Dr. Jay Golden, co-director of The Sustainability Consortium.
While Novozymes is best known in the biofuels space for their break-through cellulosic ethanol enzymes, the company actually works in more than 40 industries worldwide. According to the company, they use the power of bioinnovation as a means to help increase product quality and yields while reducing consumption of natural resources including water and energy.
“Society must find new ways to meet the needs of a growing population while reducing our impact on the environment,” said Claus Stig Pedersen, head of sustainability at Novozymes. “In short, we must produce more with less. Our goal in working with The Sustainability Consortium is to help develop the tools, metrics and strategies that will create more sustainable consumer products for the future. Today Novozymes is a supplier and partner to many different consumer product value chains, and this is a unique opportunity to help make them more sustainable.”
For the past 15 years, Novozymes has been developing an expertise in the study of life cycle assessment (LCA) a tool to measure the environmental impacts of products throughout their life span. Their intent is to both share and improve this expertise through their work with The Sustainability Consortium.