Carbon Disclosure Project Honors Symrise for Transparency on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

21 Oct 2014 --- Symrise takes a leading position in dealing responsibly with climate change. The Carbon Disclosure Project reached this conclusion after having assessed 350 companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

In the MDAX, Symrise leads the energy and materials sector. The CDP certified that Symrise factors ecological risks and opportunities into its core business and informs external stakeholders about this in a comprehensive and transparent manner.

Institutional investors and customers are increasingly mindful that companies become aware of the consequences of climate change, develop strategic approaches for dealing with them and report in a transparent way on what has been achieved. Since 2000, the CDP has been collecting data and information from companies regarding their carbon dioxide emissions, climate-related risks and reduction targets on behalf of institutional investors, which now total 767.

CDP uses this data to compose the “Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index” (CDLI), which is intended to provide a useful guidance for investors with regard to responsibly acting companies. The index comprises the top ten percent of the companies under assessment. With 96 points out of a possible 100, Symrise is leading the MDAX companies within the energy and materials sector outperforming the index average by 33 points.

“We are very excited about our top position in the CDLI. Managing our climate-related activities responsibly plays an important role for us,” explained Dr Heinz-Jürgen Bertram, Chief Executive Officer of Symrise. “We process more than 10,000 raw materials, partly requiring energy-intensive processes,within the entire supply chain. Consequently, the management of our climate-related processes has strong and direct implications on our long-term business success. Pioneering approaches in raw material sourcing and green chemistry as well as innovative product solutions allow us to protect our raw material base, reduce CO2 emissions and enhance financial competitiveness. Efficiency is thus a central pillar of our corporate strategy. For us, this means sharing values with all stakeholders along the supply chain.”

For example, Symrise has upgraded its highly efficient manufacturing method for synthetic menthol, reducing its carbon footprint by 125,000 tons per year. In addition, Symrise obtains many of its high-volume products from so-called side streams of other industries, such as orange oil from orange peels, saving resources and therefore emissions and costs. Finally, the company sources the majority of its raw materials, such as onions, locally, reducing transportation costs and emissions considerably.