Along the lines of our "Novozymes Touch" vision, we subscribe to the United Nations Global Compact and the International Chamber of Commerce''s Charter for Sustainable Development, just as we support the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity.

On the basis of this vision, which also calls for unlocking the magic of nature and imagining a future where our biological solutions create the necessary balance between better business, cleaner environment and better lives, we have developed a sustainability development strategy, overall policies on the environment & bioethics, social responsibility and people as well as positions on human rights, equal opportunities, gene technology with food/feed production, antibiotic resistance genes in genetically modified micro organisms, enzymes produced by genetically modified micro organisms, detergent enzymes, labelling of enzymes and animal testing.

Furthermore, a cross functional sustainability development strategy group with reference to the executive management has been devised, just as sustainability performance indicators have been integrated into our balanced business scorecard (Novozymes strategy map) as well as into our bonus schemes for directors, vice presidents and members of the executive management.

In addition to that management standards related to the following issues have been developed: the environment, social responsibility, occupational health & safety, use of genetically modified micro organisms and triple bottom line reporting, just as we are currently in the process of developing life cycle analysis.

Last but not least, a particular ombudsman institution has been installed in order to ensure that our vision, policies and management standards are lived up to.

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Internally, we have established global sustainability standards as part of our quality management system. These standards constitute minimum requirements related to international conventions on human rights, labour standards and the environment, the latter of which is based on ISO14001 certification. We monitor compliance with these standards through an internal procedure that currently consists of questionnaires covering the whole organisation as well as audits related to environmental and occupational health & safety performance.

Externally, we have established a supplier evaluation programme, which includes evaluation and dialogue with respect to the same sustainability standards that are applied internally.

Furthermore, there is a variety of local sustainability strategies being implemented throughout Novozymes. For instance, our site in Brazil is undertaking to hire women and disabled people in the production, whereas our sites in the United States have devised initiatives around affirmative action and equal opportunity.

As a result of the above-mentioned actions, the general employee and management awareness on sustainability issues has increased significantly within Novozymes.

For more information on Novozymes'' progress in implementing the Global Compact principles, please contact Pia Carlé Bayer (pcba@novozymes.com) or Michael Hougaard Pedersen (mhgp@novozymes.com).