For the second year in a row Symrise has engaged DQS to provide third party assurance over its sustainability report. After a thorough evaluation of the report, the assessors have come to the conclusion that the Symrise Sustainability Report is a credible and material representation of the Symrise sustainability record.The Assurance Process The Symrise Sustainability Report was published in accordance with the <link https: www.globalreporting.org reporting g4 pages default.aspx _blank>G4 framework of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), with the option “comprehensive”. This means that Symrise discloses all the relevant information and is fully accountable on all essential topics. For the actual assurance, the DQS team relied on the <link http: www.accountability.org standards aa1000as index.html _blank>AA1000 Assurance Standard, a publicly available standard for third party verification. The assurance audit was conducted in accordance with a Type 2 assurance, which consists of:

• Evaluating the company’s sustainability framework and processes using the inclusivity, materiality and responsiveness criteria of the <link http: www.accountability.org standards aa1000aps.html _blank>AA1000 AccountAbility Principles 
• Evaluating the quality of the reported sustainability performance information.

The assurance encompassed the entire report and focused on all figures, statements and claims related to sustainability during the reporting period January 2015 to December 2015, as well as historical figures where relevant. On the basis of the methodology described above, the auditor team has concluded that the report provides a credible and fair representation of Symrise’s sustainability profile, and that the statements and figures achieve an adequate level of reliability and accuracy.