Sustainability Governance Framework
Managing Board
Sustainability falls under the responsibility of the Managing Board. Specific actions in our climate action agenda are owned by members of the Managing Board and Executive Committee. In 2022, our Co-CEOs oversaw Sustainability as a key responsibility and company value as well as a driver of business growth. They Co-Chair our Inclusion & Diversity Council, and jointly oversee our strategic partnership with the World Economic Forum. Both our Co-CEOs are engaged in our climate advocacy efforts.
In 2022, our Co-CEO Dimitri de Vreeze was responsible for Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) and supervised our Sustainable Procurement Program and the sourcing of electricity from renewable sources in his responsibility for the Sourcing function. He managed our engagement with organizations with a primary focus relating to climate. Within the climate agenda, he was responsible for the upgrading of our methodology for measuring the impact of our product portfolio, for our climate advocacy efforts, and for reviewing our emissions reduction targets.
Our Co-CEO Geraldine Matchett oversaw our engagement with organizations with a primary focus relating to nutrition and food system transformation. She was responsible for integrating sustainability into financial decision-making. She also oversaw our efforts and commitment toward the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations. Within the climate agenda, she was responsible for integrating climate risks into our risk management process, TCFD, carbon pricing and developing our engagement with climate-focused investors.
Supervisory Board
Our Supervisory Board has its own Sustainability Committee to oversee progress against targets and to report on the embedding of sustainability across the organization. For more details, see Supervisory Board Report.
External Sustainability Advisory Board
Comprising a diverse international group of thought leaders, DSM’s Sustainability Advisory Board acts as a sparring partner for the Managing Board and senior executives, to help sharpen their focus on strategic issues, deepen their understanding of external stakeholder needs, conduct advocacy and tackle specific issues as they arise.
The Sustainability Advisory Board met twice in 2022 with the Managing Board and a number of senior executives. The first meeting was a hybrid meeting in Amsterdam and the second was a virtual meeting. Subjects included business updates, food systems and the true value of food, nature, healthy livelihoods, and our innovation roadmaps to support our net-zero transformation. During the Amsterdam meeting, this Board hosted colleagues on a panel discussion during Earth Day. This board maintains a good balance of knowledge and a diverse composition in terms of gender and nationality.
Sustainability Advisory Board
Member
Background
Robin Chase (f)
Co-founder and former CEO of Zipcar, co-founder of Veniam and the New Urban Mobility Alliance, Advisory Board Member to WRI’s Ross Center for Sustainable Cities and Chair of Tucows. Serves as an informal advisor to many cities, national governments, and transport agencies on urban transportation planning and innovation. Nationality: American.
Ertharin Cousin (f)
CEO and Founder of Food Systems for the Future; Distinguished Fellow at The Chicago Council on Global Affairs; Visiting Scholar at Stanford University; Robert von Weizsäcker Fellow at the Bosch Academy; Senior Advisor at ClimateWorks Foundation; Board Member of Bayer S.A., Mondelez International Corporation, and Camelot North America; Trustee on the Rwanda-based AKADEMIYA2063 Board of Directors. She served as the twelfth Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme from 2012 to 2017 and as the US Ambassador for Food and Agriculture from 2009 to 2012. Nationality: American.
Paul Gilding (m)
Social entrepreneur, author and corporate strategy advisor. Fellow at the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (UK). Author of The Great Disruption (Bloomsbury, London, 2011). Executive Director of Greenpeace International during the 1990s. Published papers at www.paulgilding.com. Nationality: Australian.
David King (m)
Emeritus Professor of Chemistry, University of Cambridge; Founder and Chair of the Centre for Climate Repair at Cambridge; Chair of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group, an Affiliate Partner of SYSTEMIQ Limited; Senior Strategy Advisor to the President of Rwanda; Founder Member of the Clean Growth Leadership Network; The British Foreign Secretary’s Special Representative on Climate Change 2013–2017. Nationality: British.
Ndidi Nwuneli (f)
Social entrepreneur and Founder of LEAP Africa and African Food Changemakers, and co-founder of AACE Food Processing & Distribution Ltd. (AACE Foods). She is also co-founder and Executive Chair of Sahel Consulting Agriculture & Nutrition, which works across Africa, transforming the nutrition and agriculture landscapes via innovative ecosystem solutions. She is the author of the book Food Entrepreneurs in Africa: Scaling Resilient Agriculture Businesses (Routledge, 2021). Nationality: Nigerian.
Ye Qi (m)
Head of the Innovation, Policy and Entrepreneurship Thrust at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), and Cheung Kong Professor of Environmental Policy at Tsinghua University in Beijing (China). Before joining HKUST(GZ), he taught at HKUST, Tsinghua University, Beijing Normal University, and the University of California at Berkeley (USA). Nationality: American.
Rob Routs (m)
Former Member of the DSM Supervisory Board and Chairman until 2021. Degree in Chemical Engineering from the Technical University of Eindhoven and Ph.D. in Technical Sciences. Devoted the professional side of his life to the energy sector during his 37-year career with Royal Dutch Shell plc, building up a global energy sector leadership as well as operating and board experience. Served in regional manufacturing and global general manager positions, restructuring operations to enhance business operations. Led the company’s sustainability efforts. Nationality: Dutch.
Feike Sijbesma (m)
Honorary Chairman of Royal DSM since March 2020, and CEO from 2007 to 2020. In 2020, he acted as the Special Corona Envoy for the Netherlands. He is Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Royal Philips, Non-Executive Board member of Unilever, and Member of the Supervisory Board of the Dutch Central Bank (DNB). He co-chairs the Global Centre on Adaptation together with Ban Ki-moon and acts as an advocate and leader for business tackling climate change. As Co-Chair of the Alliance of World Economic Forum (WEF) CEO Climate Leaders and via his membership of the Board of Trustees of the WEF, he also contributes to the expansion of Africa Improved Foods. Nationality: Dutch.
Global network
Sustainability Leadership Team
At corporate level, sustainability is steered by our Sustainability Leadership Team, a group of senior executives representing the Business Groups and contributing corporate functions, which is chaired by the Vice President Sustainability. He leads the Corporate Sustainability department and reports directly to the Co-CEOs. The Corporate Sustainability staff functions as a business-oriented center of excellence and partner on sustainability, internally and externally.
The Sustainability Leadership Team meets quarterly to monitor the progress of sustainability across the company, with particular emphasis on steering our business and innovation portfolio in relation to key drivers. Regional operational sustainability networks are in place in China, India, Latin America and North America.
Operations and SHE & Security
DSM SHE & Security has responsibility for all corporate issues related to Safety, Health and Environment (SHE) as well as Security. The Vice President DSM Safety, Health & Security reports directly to the co-CEO. SHE managers and experts in the business and in each region provide support to all our operations worldwide. Our SHE Leadership Team, which includes all Business Group SHE managers as well as all regional SHE leads, is instrumental in sharing experiences and developing best practices and communications on SHE issues.
Environmental strategy and progress are steered by the Environmental Review Team, consisting of the Executive Vice President Operations; the Chief Operating Officers of the Business Units; the Vice President Safety, Health & Security; the Vice President Operational Sustainability; and the Corporate Lead Environment/GHG Reduction Program Director.
People and Organization
Our Inclusion & Diversity (I&D) Council steers the overall I&D strategy and drives activation of our I&D program. Co-chaired by the Co-CEOs, it comprises the Regional Presidents and Employee Resource Group leads. In addition, the five diversity pillars are sponsored by Executive Board members.
The day-to-day responsibility for Human Rights at DSM sits with our Executive Vice President People & Organization, who chairs our Human Rights Steering Committee. This committee is responsible for the strategy and framework for managing human rights issues and is comprised of senior leaders from People & Organization, Sustainability, Legal, Procurement and Operations. These departments are further represented in the human rights working group who are responsible for the day-to-day implementation of our respect for human rights.
Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures
In her capacity as CFO, Ms. Matchett has appointed a finance executive to lead the efforts needed to address the recommendations of the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Senior leaders from various disciplines such as Finance, Risk Management, Sustainability, Insurances, Operations and Sourcing worked on various initiatives in 2022 to expand physical and transition risk assessments to our business units and to our value chain, as well as continuing to embed climate-related risks into the overall risk management processes. For more information, see Note 3 Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) of the Sustainability statements.
