Committing to Sustainability

CAN IT BE POSSIBLE for a company that has annual net sales of around € 9 billion and employs over 22,000 people worldwide to be truly committed to sustainability? Going beyond reduction of emissions, running seminars on recycling, and measuring carbon footprint, and paying more than lip service to corporate social responsibility? Yes, Virginia, there is such a company: DSM, the Netherlands-based company active in health, nutrition and materials with a presence in five continents.

Taking somewhat of a dual stance – principled, on the one hand, and pragmatic, on the other – the world’s largest manufacturer of nutritional ingredients has chosen sustainability as its core value and deliberately positioned sustainability as a growth driver. "DSM believes sustainability will be a key differentiator and value driver over the coming decades," said Fokko Wientjes, director for Sustainable Development at DSM and the global partnership of DSM with the UN World Food Programme.

For a number of years, sustainability has been a driving force at the global science company – a fact recognised by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2009, when DSM was named the worldwide sustainability No. 1 in the chemicals sector, and ranked amongst the top leaders in the sector in 2007 and 2008.

The Dow Jones Sustainability Index includes over 300 companies from 34 countries that rank amongst the top 10 per cent in their industries in terms of corporate sustainability. DJSI track the performance of the leading sustainability-driven companies worldwide through a thorough assessment of companies’ economic, environmental and social performance and accounts for more than 50 general as well as industry-specific criteria in each sector.

In 2010, DSM was again ranked first by the Index and SAM, an investment boutique focused exclusively on Sustainability Investing.

The company met all the sustainability targets it had set as part of its Vision 2010 strategy last year. Both total energy consumption and greenhouse-gas emissions (in CO2 equivalents) decreased by 22 per cent (the decrease was mainly due to divestments, according to DSM). Energy efficiency in 2010 was 8 per cent better than in 2005, meeting the target set.

In 2010, 89 per cent of DSM’s Innovations were ECO+ solutions, compared to 78 per cent the year before. ECO+ solutions are products and services that create less environmental impact on human health, ecosystem quality, and resources. The qualification ECO+ is based upon internal expert opinions where various impact categories are evaluated, for a growing number of products supported by Life Cycle Assessments.

Sustainability as a business driver

Clearly, such solutions and ecological benefits lead to savings both internally and for society as a whole, and over the next five years, DSM is ratcheting up its commitment to sustainability.
"Sustainability has gone from leveraging value to become a business driver," Mr Wientjes explained. "Our ambition is to go to the next level: DSM is consciously shifting its approach to sustainability from a corporate responsibility to a strategic business driver"

A number of ambitious targets and aspirations have been set for 2011-2015, he said: Maintain top ranking in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index; keep the percentage of ECO+ products in the innovation pipeline at least 80%; reduce energy consumption by 20% annually to 2020; and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 3.5% per year, amongst others.

"We want to stay in the top ranks "[because] it means we have something to offer," said Mr Wientjes. "In terms of ECO+ products, this means that the products that we will bring to the market should have better environmental footprint and better environmental performance than the produNike Air Max Plus TN