Symrise has broken down its sustainability activities into four areas: footprint, sourcing, innovation and care. With them, the company reaches the sustainability goals of the United Nations and hits its own sustainability targets around the world. Examples from a broad array of areas show how and where Symrise acted in 2023 – from projects in India and certifications in Madagascar to preparations for complying with the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive of the European Union.

SOCIETY AND CLIMATE

Better water, more light

At the company’s location in India, Symrise joined forces with an NGO called the United Way of Chennai to provide support to the community. Both projects were part of SMETA 4-Pillar audits.

A nondescript pond is located in Sithalapakkam, a community that is just five kilometers from the location of Symrise India. The pond is called Nalla Thanni Kulam and once played a key role in the lives of the 400 families who live in the neighborhood: Residents spent their leisure time here and used the rainwater captured by the pond to drink and use at home. In recent years, though, maintenance of the pond stopped.

Symrise India, the local community and the United Way of Chennai have now taken the initiative and thoroughly cleaned Nalla Thanni Kulam with the goal of making it usable once again. The United Way of Chennai is an NGO that is active in such areas as the environment, education and health. The pond was dredged and desludged. A nature path leading around the pond was created. A play area for children was built, and benches and solar-powered lights were installed.

The project in India is just one of many that Symrise is conducting in the immediate neighborhood there. This project and several others were honored during the SMETA 4-Pillar audit that the company conducted. The abbreviation stands for Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit. Under this program, companies commit themselves to joining the SEDEX (Supplier Ethical Data Exchange) and providing information about ethically sustainable production in the supply chain. The SMETA 4-Pillar audit focuses on four areas: labor standards, health and safety, the environment and business ethics.

Another project in India is being conducted on a heavily used road that runs through Sithalapakkam. The road was unlighted. People felt unsafe at night, and a large number of accidents occurred. Symrise supported the installation of 100 streetlights, also with the help of the United Way of Chennai. The highlight of it all: The lights are solar powered and are exceptionally sustainable as a result.

Symrise India supported the clean-up of a pond in the Indian community of Sithalapakkam. 

In another project, lights were installed on a heavily used street.

Madagascar: 52 ingredients UEBT-certified

Symrise works with about 7,000 farmers in Madagascar. The company turns their raw materials into things like essential and plant oils. Fifty-two of these ingredients have now been certified by the Union for Ethical BioTrade (UEBT). The UEBT is an international nonprofit organization that promotes the responsible sourcing of natural raw materials. Companies that are members of the association take steps to assure good working conditions along the supply chain and protect biodiversity.

Ready for the CSRD

In November 2022, the EU Parliament passed the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), a regulation that will significantly change the sustainability reporting that companies do. The directive requires the environmental and social impact of business activities to be disclosed. Companies must also detail their sustainability strategies and objectives as well as the impact of sustainability issues on their business situation. The report must also meet the high European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). In preparation for the new directive, Symrise conducted a materiality analysis that meets the requirements of the CSRD/ESRS in 2023. The focal points covered by this analysis were largely the same ones addressed during the previous year. In mid-2023, an internal working group led by the Executive Board was set up for the purpose of carrying out the requirements of CSRD/ESRS.

Wages

Symrise considers appropriate and fair remuneration to be a human right that applies to all employees worldwide. We are therefore currently evaluating various benchmarking methods for living wages, which we plan to use in selected pilot countries in 2024. Building on these pilot projects, we will develop a roadmap and action plan to ensure that we pay all our employees the living wage by 2030.

Turning the old into new

AfB gGmbH has collected 3,574 IT and mobile devices at Symrise over the past five years and given them a new lease of life. Symrise helps Europe’s largest nonprofit IT company to sustainably use computers, smartphones and other electric devices. AfB deletes the data, tests the hardware, orders replacement parts as well as cleans and repairs the devices. It has reintroduced 78 percent of them to the market. This has saved 372 tons of CO2, 2.5 million liters of water and nearly 1.5 million kilowatt hours of primary energy. Thanks to its partnership with Symrise, AfB gGmbH has also been able to hire an individual with a disability.

Jurij Deperschmidt from AfB presents the certificate for successful collaboration to the Symrise team.