Symrise AG has successfully passed the UEBT membership assessment and is now expanding its UEBT membership to the entire corporation. For a couple of years, Symrise Madagascar and Brazil have been members of the Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT). During this time, they have been successfully implementing a number of comprehensive programs. They are designed to promote sustainable cultivation and collection practices for natural raw materials and socioeconomic support for local smallholder farmers and collectors.

“We congratulate Symrise on its company-wide commitment to sourcing with respect for people and biodiversity. This is a significant milestone as Symrise becomes the first leading fragrance and flavor house to join UEBT as a whole. UEBT membership means that Symrise has become part of a growing movement of companies committed to improving their impact on biodiversity along their supply chains” says Rik Kutsch Lojenga, ED of UEBT. As a precondition to becoming a global UEBT member, Symrise has successfully passed a membership assessment where adherence of the company’s biodiversity policy commitments and its ethical sourcing system with the key indicators of the UEBT Ethical BioTrade Standard has been verified. In addition, Symrise has developed work plans to continuously improve its management systems and procedures to promote positive impact for people and biodiversity across its entire business ecosystem.

Biodiversity – an invaluable source of inspiration and innovation

With its global UEBT membership, the German based ingredient manufacturer has made another strong commitment to reinforce its ethical sourcing approach in order to further promote internationally recognized biodiversity objectives as well as fair labor conditions and human rights criteria across its business ecosystem. This approach is based on a deep understanding that biodiversity means more than a source of precious natural raw materials to Symrise. It also serves the company as an invaluable and irreplaceable source of innovation and inspiration for unique flavors, fragrances as well as cosmetic and functional ingredients. “Engaging for people and biodiversity in times of global environmental change and social transition is in the self-interest of our company. For this reason, we do everything to ensure that our sourcing systems operate well within planetary, social and ethical boundaries and continuously provide our markets with precious natural raw materials,” says Dr. Heinz Jürgen Bertram, CEO of Symrise.

Creating sustainable blueprints for the Flavor & Fragrance industry

In times of increasing consumer demands for natural products and ingredients, the value of biodiversity and natural capital increases for the consumer goods industry and its suppliers, such as Symrise. It therefore requires resolute actions from all industry actors to stop global biodiversity loss. The good practices UEBT sets through its principles and standards will increasingly serve Symrise and its suppliers as a compass on how to grow, collect and harvest natural ingredients in an utmost sustainable and ethical manner. “Our ambition is to set the standard, pace and direction for sustainable sourcing practices across the entire F&F industry. Together with likeminded partners, such as the Union for Ethical BioTrade, we want to create blueprints for our industry and expect others to follow on our journey towards making our planet a better place for people and biodiversity”, says Hans Holger Gliewe, Chief Sustainability Officer of Symrise.

Besides its key role for sustainable development, the commercial relevance of biodiversity to the Flavor and Fragrance industry constitutes a decisive factor. Sascha Liese, Corporate Sustainability Manager and Biodiversity expert at Symrise explains: “If we look beyond scientific definitions, "biological diversity" stands for "nature" and the "variety of life". In other terms, biodiversity ensures nutrition, delivers good taste, promotes health, supports wellbeing, creates beauty, inspires human culture, and touches the senses. And this is exactly what our business model is all about.”