26.08.2022 Royal honours awarded for succesful and sustainable export achievements

Sustainability was the key word when the crown prince of Denmark awarded royal honours to three subsidiaries of Danish companies at a ceremony at Amalienborg Palace on Friday 26th of August.
It’s the third time the HRH Crown Prince Frederik International Business Awards are awarded in the categories Business Excellence, Green Solutions and Export Achievement, and this year’s recipients have all excelled in foreign markets.

Between many strong applicants, the jury chose Novo Nordisk France, Copenhagen Offshore Partners Korea and Troldtekt Deutschland as recipients of the royal award.
The award is given to foreign subsidiaries, partners or agents of Danish companies, who have promoted Danish export through products and services. Besides presenting strong business cases, the recipients should also have a strong sustainable profile.

” We are proud and happy to once again be honouring three companies who have put Denmark on the world map and contributed to exporting Danish solutions to the whole world. This year’s awards are given to companies who promote Denmark through Danish strengths such as renewable energy, sustainability, and a circular mindset,” says Ulrik Dahl, CEO at Danish Export Association.

Royal award with a long back story

The cooperation between the Royal Danish Court and Danish Export Association goes back to 1982, when HRH Prince Henrik’s Medal of Honour was awarded for the first time to a company that had excelled in promoting Denmark and Danish export.
In 2020 the HRH Crown Prince Frederik International Business Award was instituted as a cooperation between Danish Export Association, the Royal Danish Court, and the Ministry of Foreign Affaris of Denmark. Including this year’s recipients, a total of nine companies have now received the award.
HRH Crown Prince Frederik is chairman of the jury which consists of a number of executives from Danish exporting companies.

About the recipients:

Business Excellence: Novo Nordisk France recycle millions of injection pensNovo Nordisk France has made a tremendous effort to minimize the amount of plastic litter in France. Every year the company provides more than 25 million injection pens with insulin for the French market. The pens are mostly made of plastic and once used they are incinerated with energy recovery.
With the ambition of turning the millions of used injection pens from plastic garbage to valuable resources, Novo Nordisk France will be launching the ReturpenTM programme. This project will be rolled out in four French regions where injection pens will be collected and recycled.
As there are no recycling facilities for medical equipment in France, Novo Nordisk cooperates with the French authorities to set up an efficient recycling system with a large group of stakeholders (patient associations, regions, pharmacy groups etc).

“Novo Nordisk is committed to reaching zero environmental impact, and we can only achieve this by being part of the solutions and work in partnerships,” says Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen, Group CEO In Novo Nordisk.

“We are very honored and proud to receive such a prestigious award which recognize the hard work of Novo Nordisk France employees from our affiliate and our production site to accelerate ecological transition," says Etienne Tichit, Corporate Vice President, Novo Nordisk France.

The ambition is to make ReturpenTM national by 2025 and at the same time, Novo Nordisk will participate in the work to have a recycling system set up not only for Novo Nordisk but also for the entire French health sector.
Furthermore, Novo Nordisk France works in collaboration with the Danish and UK affiliates to launch similar projects.
While Novo Nordisk have shown responsibility through sustainable actions, the company with 1500 employees in France is still highly competitive and innovative.

Green Solutions: Troldtekt GmbH sikrer bæredygtigt byggeri
Globally, the building and construction industry is responsible for 35 to 40 percent of alle CO2-emmission and resource consumption. With many public building projects in Germany in the next few years, Troldtekt GmbH seized a great opportunity to not only contribute to lower the emission and resource consumption but to actually leave a positive climate footprint.
Troldtekt, who provides the building industry with natural acoustic solutions, focus on the Sustainable Development Goals and the sustainable design concept cradle-to-cradle. It means that Troldtekt works systematically with healthy materials and a circular mindset where the products are recycled in a biological or technical cycle. Furthermore, 98 percent of the energy consumption for the production comes from renewables.
In March 2022 the whole range of Troldtekt acoustic panels received the Cradle to Cradle gold certification after ten years of working with the entire value chain.

” It’s hard to describe how proud we are to receive HRH Crown Prince Frederik International Business Awards for our effort. It’s a tremendous honour. Germany is a market with huge potential for Danish construction companies, who are ready to invest in certified sustainable innovation. At Troldtekt we went all in to build a national German sales organization that understands the industry, the culture and especially the architectural business. To receive such a prestigious award amongst such skilled companies confirms that we have done the right thing,” says Peer Leth, CEO at Troldtekt A/S.

Troldtekts products, including new CO2-negative types, will be deployed to a large number of public buildings I the years to come. Currently millions of Euros are invested in building and restoration of schools and institutions, sportsvenues and office buildings in Germany where Troldstekts products will contribute to a safer indoor environment as well as helping improve the climate.

Export Achievement: Copenhagen Offshore Partners deploys offshore wind in East Asia
Denmark is world-reknowned for wind turbines and green energy, and with a strong business model to develop and construct offshore wind projects, Copenhagen Offshore Partners (COP) has brought Danish offshore wind far beyond national borders to establish itself as a leader in South Korea and the East Asian offshore wind market.
COP Korea has secured exclusive rights to the seabed for a number of large offshore wind projects, bringing deep knowledge and experience to the region and simultaneously providing opportunities for other Danish companies, who have been given access to supply products and services for South Korea’s growing number of offshore wind projects. South Korea plans to be among the world's five leading offshore wind countries, setting a goal to be carbon neutral by 2050 and prioritizing economic growth and green jobs within the country.

As a result of this early momentum, COP has so far established Asia Pacific offices in Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam and Australia. COP’s success in the region is mirrored across global markets as a result of its exclusive partnership with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP), the world’s largest fund manager of greenfield investments in green energy infrastructure. CIP and has raised nearly 18 billion Euro to date from more than 120 international institutional investors worldwide.

"We are very honored and proud to receive the HRH Crown Prince Frederik International Business Award on behalf of the entire Copenhagen Offshore Partners Korea team. We literally have a tailwind in Korea, where we, together with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners, have succeeded in positioning ourselves and Danish offshore wind as a significant player in the green transition, thereby creating the basis for both Danish export success and jobs," says partner and Senior Vice President of Copenhagen Offshore Partners, Jesper Krarup Holst, and David Taeseung Yoo, COP Korea Co-CEO.

In Korea, Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners green energy funds have obtained licenses for six projects totalling 2.4 GW, which roughly corresponds to the total Danish offshore wind capacity. There are eight more major projects underway that are currently awaiting approval from the Korean authorities.

Facts: HRH Crown Prince Frederik International Business Awards

• HRH Crown Prince Frederik International Business Awards was awarded for the first time in 2020 and is an annual event.
• The royal honours are awarded in three categories: Business Excellence, Green Solutions and Export Achievement.
• Everybody can nominate a recipient.
• Recipients can be persons, agents, distributors, subsidiaries or other foreign companies who made an extraordinary effort in promoting Danish products and solutions globally.
• The recipients are given a statuette, a diploma and the right to use the logo and name of the awards in their branding.
• The awards are sponsored by a number of companies who make it possible to honour this year’s recipients: Arla, Bestseller, Blue Water Shipping, Danfoss, Danish Crown, ECCO, Foss, Grundfos, ISS, Kamstrup, Lars Larsen Group og Radiometer.
• HRH Crown Prince Frederik is chairman of the jury that also consists of Henrik Mørkholt Sørensen, chairman of Danish Export Association and Steen Hommel, State Secretary for Trade and Global Sustainability, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as a permanent and a rotating member from Danish Export Association in each of the categories.