Answering key questions

How we respond to three decisive sustainability challenges

The world is on the cusp of an unprecedented build-out of renewable energy. In the coming years, the renewable energy industry will have to address several challenges to drive a rapid and sustainable build-out.

This year, our analysis of important sustainability themes reflects how several fundamental sustainability challenges are emerging at the intersection of renewable energy, communities, and nature. Below, we identify nine key industry challenges, of which three are of highest relevance, and outline how we address them.

Decarbonising supply chains

Absolute carbon emissions from renewable energy supply chains increase as the green build-out progress. Decarbonising these supply chains is essential for realising a net-zero world.

Managing biodiversity impacts

As we accelerate the build-out of green energy, our work will take place in more diverse marine ecosystems in far greater numbers. That’s why we need an even more programmatic approach to manage our potential biodiversity impacts.

Creating shared value with local communities

For local communities, renewable energy projects offer economic opportunities, but they also raise concerns. We need to work with a growing set of local stakeholders across geographies to expand green energy and realise shared local benefits.

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Renewable energy is the key solution to climate change. As an industry, we need to balance the positive climate impacts of the transition to a global green energy system with the impacts it will have on our natural environment and societies.

— Mads Nipper, CEO

The energy industry must also address other challenges while accelerating the green energy build-out:

Offsetting residual emissions
The residual less than 2 % of carbon emissions we have left in our energy generation and operations by 2025 may need to be offset and we work to establish a mature strategy to find carbon removal solutions that are credible, trustworthy, and clearly demonstrate carbon removal.

Sourcing sustainable biomass
We continue to ensure that the biomass we use is sustainably produced and that the quality of documentation lives up to our expectations, in line with Danish and EU legislation.

Managing human rights issues in new supply chains
We strengthen our due diligence and stakeholder engagement efforts to continue to ensure that human rights are respected wherever we operate.

Enabling inclusion of diversity
We work to refine our approach to creating a more diverse workforce and inclusive company culture that reflects a larger variety of perspectives and enables a more global company.

Sourcing minerals and metals sustainably
We need to work carefully with suppliers to ensure traceability, due diligence, and mitigation of risks beyond our immediate control throughout the supply chains related to our sourcing of minerals and metals.

Increasing recyclability from renewable energy technologies
Our industry needs to find solutions to recover or recycle wind turbine blade materials or face a serious potential waste problem in the coming decade.

Supply chain emissions

Supply chain decarbonisation programme picks up speed

We have set a target to reduce all indirect emissions from our supply chain and wholesale buying and selling of natural gas by 50 % between 2018 and 2032. This is an important step towards realising net-zero emissions by 2040.

Read about our programme