Social
In the following sections, we elaborate on the material topics defined in the Materiality matrix and describe how we manage these topics.
Nutrition & Health
This topic refers to the transition to sustainable food systems within planetary boundaries that is needed to secure the future availability of food. An increasing global population and the impact of climate change will put greater strain on our ability to provide sufficient food that is also nutritionally complete — addressing issues including malnutrition, non-communicable diseases and obesity.
Management approach: Nutrition & Health is a Focus Domain of DSM, and we manage this topic by improving the health of our own workforce, and enabling healthy food systems through our Nutrition businesses, which target health and well-being, and our Biomedical business, which helps improve health outcomes for surgical patients.. We advocate for a change in food systems within planetary boundaries.
For information on this topic, see:
- Our approach to the Sustainable Development Goals Strategy
- Strategy
- Collaborative platforms & networks
- Review of business
Leadership & development
This topic refers to the continuous development of employees’ skills through training and development programs, and the company’s ability to generate commitment among employees to the organization and its goals.
Management approach: Leadership & development fuels the growth of our employees and leaders, which in turn enables our overall growth as an organization. Through our People & Organization strategy, we aim to reset the context for leadership to create an inspiring, empowering and inclusive environment for our people and our business.
For information on this topic, see:
Occupational health & safety
Occupational health & safety addresses the company’s ability to create and maintain a safe and healthy workplace environment that is free of injuries, fatalities, and illness (both chronic and acute).
Management approach: The occupational health, safety and well-being of all our employees and contractors is our highest priority. Our approach to safety is defined in the DSM Responsible Care Plan and is spearheaded by our Life Saving Rules. We apply an occupational health model based on prevention, primary care and promotion to support employee health.
For information on this topic, see:
Labor practices & human rights
This topic encompasses decent working conditions for DSM employees, suppliers and other partners across the value chain. It addresses subjects including freedom of association, non-discrimination, the prohibition of child labor and forced labor, and fair compensation.
Management approach: DSM has installed a cross-functional Human Rights Steering Committee and working group to manage our approach toward human rights, which is defined in our position paper. Our whistleblower policy (DSM Alert) is available for employees and external stakeholders to report potential violations of human rights.
For information on this topic, see:
- Human rights
- DSM Code of Business Conduct
- Suppliers
- Human Rights position paper
- Whistleblower policy — DSM Alert
Internationalization & diversity
This topic revolves around equal opportunities, in particular ensuring that our company culture and hiring and promotion practices embrace the building of a diverse and inclusive workforce that reflects the makeup of local talent pools and its customer base.
Management approach: We focus our activities on increasing the representation of women and the nationality diversity of our executive population and management pipeline. In addition to gender and internationalization, we include the focus areas of disability, generations and LGBTQ+. These areas are supported by Employee Resource Groups: BLEND (race, ethnicity and national identity), Generations (age), Rainbow (LGBTQ+), Valuable (disability) and WIN (women and gender).
For information on this topic, see:
