Case Study: Novo Nordisk Fill-Finish Expansion Clayton, NC

The Challenge of Expansion and Sustainability Targets

Novo Nordisk initially selected a building location near its existing manufacturing facilities in Clayton, North Carolina. The original plans involved a fill-finish pharmaceutical manufacturing expansion, but the project underwent a significant increase, tripling in size to meet increasing product demand. This shift led the project owner to pivot and develop a larger greenfield site nearby.

“North Carolina was well-positioned for an expansion like this due to its available land, temperate climate and nearby research universities,” noted Jeff Albert, PE, SE, Senior VP of Sales & Projects at Dave Steel, one of the fabrication partners on the project. “We’ve seen a lot more expansion in pharmaceuticals in recent years because of the increased need to bring advanced manufacturing onshore in the United States.”

Novo Nordisk’s goal is to achieve a global zero environmental impact, and their strategy is called Circular for Zero (C4Z), which includes stringent sustainability targets aimed at transitioning toward a circular economy. That circular mindset led Novo Nordisk to seek out project partners and suppliers who would pursue the most sustainable solutions possible to reduce overall embodied carbon from the construction of the facility and operational carbon emissions.

Specifically, the sustainability target for the project’s global warming potential (GWP) over a 50-year period was to limit CO2 emissions to 12.0 kg., in line with Novo Nordisk’s C4Z goals.

“We wondered how we were going to meet the embodied carbon target,” said Larry Lane, Project Director, Construction & Engineering at Novo Nordisk. “It was one of the bigger project challenges, and the initial calculations for our embodied carbon were well over 13 kilos before we started really looking at our options.”

With ambitious environmental goals guiding every decision, the project team was tasked with meeting the highest standards for efficiency, material selection and long-term impact. To make this goal a reality, they selected like-minded partners early in the design and planning process to understand the budget, design and construction needs.

Early Partner Involvement Leads to Promising Solutions

To determine the construction material requirements for a project of this scale, the construction manager, BE&K Building Group, looked to its trusted vendors and trade partners. “We got our steel fabricators involved at the beginning, which was early enough so that the design team could really use their knowledge and expertise on material availability and costs to help them navigate the design and make the best decisions,” stated Jeff Hall, VP of Project Development, BE&K.

Involving fabricators early in the design phase helped identify the most sustainable building materials upfront, reducing the risk of costly design changes later in the project. “The earlier we can be brought on as a design assist partner, the more helpful we feel it is. We can collaborate with the construction manager and engineers to suggest a better approach. We started by reviewing structural steel environmental product declarations (EPDs) and facility-specific EPDs to find the best GWP (global warming potential) metrics out of those,” said Rob Johel, Vice President at SteelFab.

Learn more about environmental product declarations in the EPDs in Steel 101 article series.

Bennett & Pless, the structural engineering firm overseeing the project, quickly realized they needed to be strategic in the planning stages: “We ran the original design with all Grade 50 steel, and as the project grew, we needed to compare the entire tonnage to see if we could downsize and save,” noted Michael Bain, PE, Project Engineer.

“The Novo Nordisk team stressed from day one the need for sustainability to be at the forefront in our design process,” added Ben Mielke, Associate, Bennett & Pless. “We reached out to the Nucor team after hearing about how we could use [Aeos™ ASTM A913] Grade 65 steel to reduce tonnage.”

Early partner involvement allows for flexibility if a project needs to pivot or expand, as demonstrated by Novo Nordisk. Specifying steel in the project design phase enables project owners to reduce embodied carbon and understand the GWP impact to make informed decisions and meet sustainability targets.

"I learned that getting early involvement from your trade partners makes all the difference. It’s not just involving engineers and architects. You need the folks who are making the steel and fabricating the steel to build it right. I think too often we take things for granted and forget the value of collaboration early in the design phase," stated Larry Lane of Novo Nordisk.

Aeos™ Grade 65 High-Strength Structural Steel: More Strength, Reduced Weight

After the team analyzed the numbers, ASTM A913 Grade 65 steel emerged as the clear solution for reducing tonnage while maintaining structural integrity.

Nucor’s steel products are manufactured from recycled scrap in an electric arc furnace (EAF), making it one of the lowest embodied carbon steels of its kind. Additionally, Aeos™ ASTM A913 is produced domestically at Nucor-Yamato Steel Company in Arkansas, ensuring it is readily available for shipping in bundles to the job site on a regular rolling schedule.

“It's becoming a no-brainer to use Grade 65 steel for columns in most larger buildings, because not only is it more sustainable, but it just uses less steel for the same strength,” noted Rob Johel of SteelFab. “You are able to reduce the total weight of the steel needed, so there can be a cost savings to use it.”

Jeff Hall of BE&K explained, “These are heavy steel frame buildings, so we used Grade 65 for all the large members [like columns and trusses], and it contributed to helping us meet our low-embodied carbon target.”

How Grade 65 Reduced Project Tonnage and Embodied Carbon:

• The tonnage of 65 ksi used for the Novo Nordisk project was approximately 1,950 tons. 
• Overall, using Aeos ASTM A913 Grade 65 saved approximately 400 tons of material compared to what would have been required for traditional 50 ksi sections, which equates to a 17% weight savings.
• When applying the tonnage savings to embodied carbon, the team saved over 840,000 kg of CO2 (32%) compared to the industry average for 50 ksi material.

“It’s a big deal for Novo Nordisk. We’re proud of this facility, and our embodied carbon numbers are amazing,” Larry Lane of Novo Nordisk said of the outcome. “We had a very aggressive goal, which I'll be honest, I wasn't sure we would be able to meet, and the steel played a big role in that. We have other projects moving worldwide, and our numbers are the best in the entire group, which is impressive. The return on value for this steel is clear.” Due to the success of this project, Novo Nordisk plans to utilize high-strength structural steel in future development to meet reduced carbon targets.

Benefits of Aeos ASTM A913 Grade 65 Steel:

• Cost savings: Using high-strength structural steel reduces the material required, thereby reducing overall costs and embodied carbon.
• Sustainability: Nucor utilizes a sustainable, circular steelmaking process using EAF technology to create low-embodied carbon steel
• As North America’s only domestically produced A913 steel, Aeos Grade 65 is readily available domestically even for the most complex structures

Discover these benefits and more for Aeos ASTM A913.

Circularity and the Future of Steel

At the time of publication, the Novo Nordisk project is significantly below their 12.0 CO2 C4Z target, coming in around 9.2 kg CO2/sm/year over 50 years. This value includes on-site renewable energy and reflects life cycle stages A1-A3, B4, B6 (operational energy) and C3-C4. C4Z is a business sustainability strategy that focuses on three areas: circular company, circular supply and circular products. The goal is to promote a circular mindset by utilizing renewable energy and collaborating with suppliers who proactively implement circular sourcing and procurement. For this fill-finish campus expansion, prioritizing circularity involved a focused approach to implementing the most sustainable solutions possible, from sourcing materials to reclaiming stormwater and using electric boilers within the building.

One of the most unique aspects of the project is that Novo Nordisk considered circularity from start to finish, including the end-of-life use of the building.

The project was designed and constructed with future reuse and adaptability in mind. “Novo Nordisk looks at it from a reconfiguration and recycling standpoint,” explained Robert Stevenson, PE, Principal, Regional VP, Life Sciences Market Sector Leader of Bennett & Pless. “The building is designed for disassembly. Everything is fully bolted with minimal welding. The idea is, at the end of its useful life, it's easier and more efficient to reuse the materials — it's ready to go.”

This circularity mindset permeated every detail of the project, and the project partners agreed that they have been seeing a shift towards companies prioritizing environmental stewardship. As technology advances, project owners are evaluating both the embodied carbon aspects of the built environment along with operational carbon, including future needs for heating, cooling and other facility efficiencies.

“I've been involved with a lot of projects, but none that have had the commitment to sustainability that Novo Nordisk has,” mentioned Larry Lane. “Is it good for the bottom line? Absolutely. But it's good for the environment, and it's good for the industry as well.”

Nucor has been dedicated to supporting a more circular economy for over 50 years through our circular, EAF steelmaking process that prioritizes minimizing waste, maximizing recycled content and lowering embodied carbon to meet the industry’s stringent sustainability project requirements.

Nucor’s corporate initiatives include 2050 net-zero steelmaking goals. Learn more about our commitment to sustainability.