Firmenich in Top 2 Worldwide With CDP Triple ‘A’ for Climate Change, Water & Forests

GENEVA, Jan. 22, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — Firmenich has been ranked by CDP as a world leader in environmental management, one of only two companies this year to achieve CDP triple "A" status for climate change, water security and forests. This world-class distinction is testament to Firmenich's commitment to conducting its business responsibly, with ambitious sustainability goals embedded in its strategy.

"We are immensely proud to be one of only two companies globally to have achieved CDP's triple "A" ranking," said Gilbert Ghostine, CEO, Firmenich. "Ever since we made our first public environmental commitment three decades ago, we have been leading real change in sustainable business. We owe this year's outstanding result to our teams' deep belief in inclusive capitalism, committed to making a positive difference for our customers, people and the planet."

Sonya Bhonsle, Global Head Supply Chain at CDP, commented: "We congratulate Firmenich for making it onto CDP's A Lists this year for its actions to tackle climate change, deforestation and water security. This achievement demonstrates the company's continuing commitment to scaling up environmental action, in order to meet the Paris Agreement and Sustainable Development Goals. As a CDP supply chain member it provides leadership to suppliers by demonstrating best practice and showing what can be achieved."

"Building on the breadth and depth of our programs, we are actively partnering across our supply chain to scale up our climate change mitigation actions," commented Neil McFarlane, Senior VP Quality, Health, Safety, Security & Environment, Firmenich. "Accelerating the transition towards a more sustainable global economy, we look forward to continuing our collaboration with CDP to share best practices on our journey towards zero impact."

CDP assesses companies on the comprehensiveness of their disclosure, their awareness and management of environmental risks and their demonstration of best practices associated with environmental leadership, such as setting ambitious and meaningful targets. The full list of companies that made this year's CDP A List is available here, along with all other public company scores: https://www.cdp.net/en/scores.

In 2015, Firmenich announced its vision to become a carbon neutral company as well as its ambitious Environmental Goals for 2020. One of only 160 companies worldwide to have approved science-based targets, the Swiss company committed to operating with 100% renewable electricity or offsets, along with a 20% reduction in absolute CO2 emissions and a 25% decrease of water use in water stressed areas. On track to deliver these goals, the perfume and taste company currently operates with 100% renewable electricity across all of its US and European manufacturing sites. Learn more about Firmenich's 2020 environmental goals and commitments to climate change mitigation in its "Performance and Sustainability Report 2018." To view it, click here.

Note to editors

The full methodology and criteria for the Climate Change, Forests and Water Security A Lists are available on CDP's website at: https://www.cdp.net/en/guidance/guidance-for-companies under 'CDP scoring methodologies 2018'. The 2018 CDP A List includes the CDP Supplier A List, which in previous years was released separately.

About Firmenich

Firmenich is the world's largest privately-owned perfume and taste company, founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1895. Driven by its purpose to create positive emotions to enhance wellbeing, naturally, Firmenich has designed many of the world's best-known perfumes and tastes, bringing delight to over four billion consumers every day. Renowned for its world-class research and creativity, as well as its leadership in sustainability, each year, Firmenich invests 10% of its turnover in R&D to understand and share the best that nature has to offer responsibly. Firmenich had an annual turnover of 3.7 billion Swiss Francs at end June 2018. More information about Firmenich is available at www.firmenich.com

About CDP

CDP is an international non-profit that drives companies and governments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, safeguard water resources and protect forests. Voted number one climate research provider by investors and working with institutional investors with assets of US$87 trillion, we leverage investor and buyer power to motivate companies to disclose and manage their environmental impacts. Over 7,000 companies with over 50% of global market capitalization disclosed environmental data through CDP in 2018. This is in addition to the over 750 cities, states and regions who disclosed, making CDP's platform one of the richest sources of information globally on how companies and governments are driving environmental change. CDP, formerly Carbon Disclosure Project, is a founding member of the We Mean Business Coalition. Visit www.CDP.net or follow us @CDP to find out more.

SOURCE Firmenich