The non-profit organisation awarded Symrise the number one position in a recent sustainability assessment due to the fact that it "factors ecological risks and opportunities into its core business and keeps external stakeholders informed in a comprehensive and transparent manner."
The ‘Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index’ (CDLI) is a guideline that determines which companies made top ten position out of the 350 that were assessed and with 88 points out of a possible 100, Symrise was ruled as the MDAX leader with 35 points above the index average.
Symrise's Corporate Vice President, Dr. Helmut Frieden delighted with the leading position ranking, stated that “it confirms that we are on the right track with our integrated corporate strategy that anchors sustainability within our core business."
"We are grappling strategically with the impact of climate change both on our processes and product development and we are working in a consistent way to meet our environment and efficiency targets. Thus, we want to reduce our CO2 emissions and our energy consumption per product sold by 33 per cent until 2020,” he added.
According to the Carbon Disclosure Project, an increasing number of institutional investors and customers find it important that companies be aware of the consequences of climate change, develop strategic approaches to dealing with them and report in a transparent way on what has been achieved.
Since 2000, the Organisation has been collecting data and information from companies on a voluntary basis regarding their carbon dioxide emissions, climate risks and reduction targets on behalf of institutional investors, which now totals at 655.
Consistent in its efforts
In December of last year the company was also awarded an internationally recognized sustainability rating, due to their compliance with social and environmental standards in corporate management and along the value creation chain.
The rating awarded by agency 'oekom research AG' analyzes sustainability performance at the world’s 101 largest chemical companies and assigns them a grade according to a twelve-part scale from A+ (the highest grade) to D-.
With a B-, Symrise received “Prime Status” as well as a top grade in the chemical sector, meaning the company is qualified for a socially responsible investment (SRI) with only four other companies receiving the same status to date.