Investing with Impact: Novozymes
Which company is making a range of products that can improve the efficiency of agriculture worldwide, help us meet growing global demands for protein-rich foods, reduce childhood developmental damage from lead build up… and make your washing detergent more effective at lower temperatures? Meet Novozymes.
Welcome to the first article in our new series, Investing with Impact. This will be an ongoing series in which we profile the companies we are invested in. We will be exploring the reasons why we are excited about their actions and their potential – and why you should be too.
Novozymes: Powerful Biotech
Novozymes is a Danish biotechnology company, utilising the power of enzymes and microbes to create a range of products addressing many of the key environmental and social issues of our age. But how does their technology work?
Microbes are microorganisms, tiny living things that are found everywhere around us, but are so small as to be imperceptible by humans. Novozymes has been collecting microbes from soil samples since the 1960s, and primarily uses them for their ability to create enzymes. Enzymes are biologically active proteins, with have the natural function of breaking down specific substances. Through their decades of collection and study, Novozymes have assembled a library of microbes and enzymes capable of breaking down an enormous array of substances in an efficient and reliable way, which they can then develop into fit-for-purpose products.
A researcher inspects fungi samples. Much of Novozymes’ library of microbes have been sourced from fungi over many decades.
SmartGuard: Protecting Children’s Health
Take SmartGuard, which is a probiotic product designed to reduce the build-up of lead in the guts of children. It works by breaking down and binding to the lead in the gut, which is then passed through the digestive system and excreted - rather than passing into the bloodstream where it is then absorbed by the body.
Why is this required? Lead is shown to negatively impact many bodily functions in all of us, but children are at particular risk. Primarily, this is because growing children are shown to absorb more of the lead that enters their body, and this can lead to irreversible neurological and developmental damage. While children everywhere are more likely to engage in normal activities that may introduce lead into their system – like playing outdoors and crawling on the ground – a major source of lead can be contaminated food and water. This means SmartGuard is particularly important for ensuring child health in developing parts of the world with lower food hygiene and water standards.
(Note: SmartGuard is currently undergoing clinical trials)
A Novozymes research inspects a freezer containing a microbial collection
Fermented Protein: Solving a Nutritional Crisis
Another exciting product from Novozymes is Fermented Protein. Fermenting protein sounds kind of strange, but it has the potential to solve a massive food chain issue that is looming in our near future.
Consider this: the global population is predicted to reach 10 billion by 2050, but due to increasing wealth and standards of living, the demand for protein is expected to increase much faster – current estimates predict protein production will need to double from 2017 levels by 2050. Our primary source of protein now is from meat, but trying to scale our livestock production to that degree will be a disaster. Not only does livestock production already occupy 80% of agricultural land, it produces 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions – so trying to potentially double the amount of land usage and gas emissions will have devastating effects, if it is even possible.
Enter Novozymes’ Precision Fermentation technology, which allows them to produce proteins in a way that uses 90% less water and land, and produces 90% less greenhouse gases than from comparable meat production. This will not only allow us to meet the increasing global demand for protein, leading to improved global health outcomes, but also reduce the amount of agricultural land and water required. This will greatly benefit biodiversity in agricultural areas, as well avoiding the forecast catastrophic increase emissions.
A fermentation tank at one of Novozymes’ enzyme plants.
Conclusion
Fermented Protein and SmartGuard are just two applications of Novozymes’ microbe and enzyme derived biotech solutions, and there are many more we could highlight. We at ELMRI are excited to support the positive impact that they are making to addressing social, environmental, and human challenges facing us all over the coming decades.
We hold a position in Novozymes as part of our ELM Responsible Investments Global Fund. To learn more about our investment philosophy, learn about upcoming events, and be notified when the next edition of Investing with Impact is published, sign up to our mailing list.
All photography provided by Novozymes.
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