World Business Council for Sustainable Development
We are a member of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and participate in various working groups and coalitions. Our Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO), Katharina Stenholm, is a WBCSD Council member, and a Board member of the Agri-Food pathway.
In 2023, we played a role in various programs such as the Agri-Food pathway, the CFO Network, the Business Commission to Tackle Inequality, and Reporting Matters.
In May 2023 WBCSD and 60 business and civil society leaders published ‘Tackling inequality: an agenda for business action’. Specifically, within the Agri-Food pathway, we participated in stakeholder dialogues with private sector, NGO and academics about scaling up nutritious and sustainable plant-based and diversified proteins, summarized in the publication in ‘Meat & dairy analogues: Opportunities, challenges and next steps’. We contributed to the insights to living incomes in the Equitable Livelihoods project, further shaping of Regenerative Agriculture metrics within the Positive Agriculture group and participated in the Positive Nutrition group.
World Economic Forum
dsm-firmenich is a strategic partner of the World Economic Forum (WEF) and we actively participated in both virtual and in-person events throughout 2023, including the Annual Meeting in Davos in January. Both Dimitri de Vreeze and Géraldine Matchett were present during the International Business Council (IBC) meeting in August 2023. We are a member of the Agriculture, Food and Beverage industry community. Next to this industry group we participate in initiatives of WEF’s Centres for Nature and Climate, Health and Healthcare and New Economy and Society, as well as C-suite communities that bring together leaders fulfilling the same position across organizations to collaborate and drive progress on common issues.
Within the Centre for Nature and Climate a very active leadership community is the Alliance of CEO Climate Leaders. This community, that our CEO is a member of, is committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 at the latest. We as dsm-firmenich have committed to the Scope 3 upstream action plan of the Alliance to scale collaborative action across value chains and drive impact. The action plan offers a guiding framework to achieve near-term supply chain emissions reductions by collaborating with suppliers toward decarbonization. We remain actively engaged with the Alliance, driving forward decarbonization initiatives by setting key priorities for 2024.
The SDG Tent
During the 2023 Annual Meeting in Davos we convened for the last time the SDG Tent, a venue for discussing business engagement for achieving the SDGs. Joining forces with Proctor & Gamble, Bain, Salesforce, Philips, The Nature Conservancy and others, the SDG Tent was again home to several successful events on resilient food systems and the future of food, regenerative farming, climate action and carbon in healthcare systems. As of the 2024 Annual Meeting Royal Philips N.V. has taken over the baton in setting up the SDG Tent during the WEF Annual Meeting in Davos.
UN Global Compact
We have been a signatory to the UN Global Compact (UNGC) through DSM since 2007, and through Firmenich since 2008 and commit to annually communicate on progress in implementing The Ten Principles of the UNGC in the areas of human rights, child and forced labor, the environment and anti-corruption. We were members of the Global Compact CFO Taskforce, UNGC Network Switzerland & Liechtenstein, Global Compact Network Nederland, and were a Global Compact Impact Sponsor for Labour and Decent Work. Within the latter for example, we joined the Think Lab on Living Wage and contributed to the Living Wage Analysis Tool. We also joined the Business and Human Rights Accelerator to learn about Living Wage in the supply chain.
Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley
Swiss Food & Nutrition Valley (SFNV) is a purpose-driven, nationwide, not-for-profit association that strengthens and promotes food system innovation, with international engagement. Firmenich, now dsm-firmenich, was one of the Valley’s founding partners and has been represented on the Executive Committee since its creation. With 150 Valley partners from corporates, governments, accelerators, academia and research, SMEs and startups, SFNV is the reference in the area of food and nutrition in Switzerland. Partners collaborate to address the most pressing challenges in food, agriculture and nutrition through five Impact Platforms focused on Precision Nutrition, Sustainable Proteins, Food Systems 4.0, Sustainable Farming, and Sustainable Packaging.
At the end of 2023, as part of an SFNV initiative to demonstrate the uniqueness of the Swiss food ecosystem by leveraging a broad, value chain driven approach, we submitted two proposals to explore how ‘nutrition personalization’ can be incorporated into daily breakfast habits and how consumers can enjoy a plant-based or hybrid dairy drink as a part of a healthy diet. Subject to project approvals, we look forward to actively developing these collaborative projects in 2024.
ERT
In 2023 dsm-firmenich joined the European Round Table for Industry (ERT). The ERT focuses on creating a strong, open and competitive Europe, promoting sustainable growth, jobs and prosperity for all. ERT members include CEOs and Chairs from around 60 of Europe’s largest companies in the industrial and technological sector.
Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition
The Dutch Sustainable Growth Coalition (DSGC) is a CEO-led coalition of eight multinational corporations which aims to drive sustainable growth business models that combine economic profitability with environmental and social progress. The coalition of CEOs uses their leadership for the development toward a future-proof world and sustainable growth. The DSGC stimulates activities and international cooperation, in value chains and between sectors, that contribute to the achievement of the SDGs. Every year the DSGC organizes a meeting with the Dutch government. In 2023, this meeting focused on climate, circular economy and international corporate responsibility. Moreover, the DSGC organized knowledge exchange sessions between company experts and ministries, for example around Scope 3 emissions. DSGC is supported by VNO-NCW and facilitated by Accenture.
