Sustainable Solutions
Advancing responsible sourcing and empowering our customers to achieve their sustainability objectives
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Our Do More Good™ Plan is a fundamental component of our success as a company.
It drives our strategic efforts to embed environmental, social and governance—plus sustainable solutions (ESG+)—into everything we do.
It is a pledge to our customers, stakeholders and to each other that we’re always striving to exceed expectations and fulfill our purpose to do more good for people and planet.”
Erik Fyrwald
Chief Executive Officer
Our ESG+ Strategy
The Do More Good Plan
Supported by a set of ambitious 2030 goals, our Do More Good Plan comprises of four interconnected pillars that capture the areas where we believe we can have the greatest positive impact:
Climate & Planetary Health
Leading on urgent climate action by reducing our environmental footprint across our operations
Equity & Wellbeing
Creating a safe, inspiring and inclusive workplace that supports all employees to grow and achieve their full potential
Transparency & Accountability
Conducting our business with the highest integrity through a robust and transparent corporate governance framework
2023 At-A-Glance
4th
consecutive year as a North America constituent
Top 1%
of companies assessed for third consecutive year
1 of 450+
companies named for the fourth consecutive year
27
Countries maintained EDGE Move level certification
1 & 10
Named #1 American, #10 Global for gender equality
2nd
consecutive time in the Gender-Equality Index
Top Performance Highlights
-21%
scope 1+2 GHG emissions since 2021
71
natural ingredients certified For Life by ECOCERT
38%
of women in management roles
-38%
total recordable incident rate since 2021
100%
completion rate on annual business ethics training
Sustainable Solutions
We deliver innovations and solutions that transform industries and empower our customers to achieve their sustainability objectives – beginning with our commitment to responsible sourcing and then leveraging our world-class R&D program to drive environmentally and socially conscious innovation. By 2030, we aim for all new IFF innovations will have a sustainability value proposition.
As of 2023, 91% of new innovations had a sustainability value proposition based on IFF’s Innovation for Sustainability (I4S) Scoring Methodology.
The Life Cycle Benefits of our Products & Services
Through life cycle assessment (LCA), we know our products often provide environmental benefits through their performance during the use phase.
IFF’s own environmental footprint has a proportionally small impact compared to the scale of positive benefits and avoided burdens we enable for our customers and the final consumers through our sustainable solutions (aka our “handprint”).
Customer value chain
(Our Handprint Opportunities)
DISTRIBUTION
Spotlight: Ambient Yogurt
IFF has developed a new ambient yogurt solution, which can be stored at higher room temperature than standard dairy yogurt, reducing energy use and contributing to a reduction in GHGs.
DISTRIBUTION
Reduced distribution impacts through more concentrated or ambient stable products
CONSUMER USE
Spotlight: Stable Liquid Enzymes
Through advanced protein engineering, IFF has created stable liquid enzymes that work effectively in liquid detergents without being affected by other ingredients, ensuring strong cleaning performance while enabling washing at lower temperatures.
CONSUMER USE
Healthier and/or more sustainable products, e.g., requiring less energy and water or generating less waste
END-OF-LIFE (OR REBIRTH)
Spotlight: Designed Enzymatic Biomaterials™ (DEB)
IFF has developed a technology called DEB for use in many household items. Unlike traditional, synthetic polysaccharides, DEB-enabled products can be biodegradable and enhance circularity, while offering the purity and consistency required by our customers.
END-OF-LIFE (OR REBIRTH)
Circularity though renewable and biodegradable offerings and less waste
RAW MATERIALS
Spotlight: Plant Based Proteins
IFF has expanded its number of cradle-to-gate LCA studies for plant proteins, leading to detailed carbon, water and land use footprint data for a range of protein concentrates. This transparency allows our customers to understand their value chain risks and opportunities, as well as to utilize fewer and more sustainable raw materials.
RAW MATERIALS
Alternative and more sustainable raw materials and ingredients
PRODUCTION
Spotlight: Brewing Enzymes
Our portfolio of brewing enzymes can help brewers lessen their environmental impact in various ways – from cutting back on water and energy usage to reducing GHG emissions and land use while unlocking optimal results.
PRODUCTION
Higher efficiency and fewer emissions
Our Avoided Emissions Methodology
Through the use of IFF solutions, we estimate that we enabled customers and consumers to avoid approximately 24.6 million tonnes of CO2e emissions in 2023.
This amount represents approximately 16 times more CO2e emissions than generated through IFF’s own Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions.
16 times
IFF’s emissions
Climate & Planetary Health
Our science-based approach to environmental sustainability across our own operations includes investing in energy-efficient systems and expanding our use of renewable energy as we work to achieve net zero Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions by 2040.
We partner across our value chain to reduce our footprint by advancing our climate action strategies, reducing our water use and striving for zero waste to landfill.
Our Green Teams
Memphis, TN, USA Green Team
Led a project to upgrade a boiler on site, which both increased output on the site boiler operations and now saves ~1.4 metric tons CO2e annually.
Pargua, Chile Green Team
Cleaned up the beach on the coast of Pargua Bay – next to our IFF site, collecting ~60 kg of waste, including recyclable glass and aluminium.
Philadelphia, PA, USA Green Team
Installed an air scrubber to control water loss during non-business hours (when no production is occurring), saving ~706K gallons of water/year.
Jamsankoski, Finland Green Team
Introduced a condensate heat recovery system to aid the hot water cycle system, projected to save ~400 MWh (100 MT CO2e) in its first full year.
Bomlitz, Germany Green Team
Created a 40-person cycling team for the Walsrode CITY CYCLING competition and won with +10K km travelled – saving 1.5 tons of CO2e in the process!
Sohna, India Green Team
Utilized unused facility space to grow and share vegetables with employees, with a weekly rotation plan to ensure equal distribution of produce at the site.
Equity & Wellbeing
We are committed to creating a safe, inspiring, and inclusive workplace that supports all employees to grow and achieve their full potential.
We’re increasing our focus on talent acquisition, employee engagement and retention programs; integrating diversity, equity and inclusion into how we operate; and always striving for zero workplace injuries or safety incidents.
We are proud to be a top-performing company in the U.S. and globally on gender equality. We are certified as EDGE Move level globally, confirming equal pay for equivalent work (i.e., no statistically relevant gender pay gap in favor of men) in 27 countries assessed in 2023, representing ~90% of our employee population.
.
Engaging our Employees through Colleague Communities
8
employee resource groups
+6,800
engaged participants
+25
events in 2023
Transparency & Accountability
Conducting our business with the highest integrity is essential to fulfilling our Do More Good vision.
Our robust and transparent corporate governance framework is designed to ensure compliance with our policies, as well as with laws and regulations. Our employees are expected to act ethically, speak up and seek advice when in doubt, and our leaders are accountable for upholding our values and advancing toward our goals.
Double Materiality Matrix
| A total of 19 material topics were identified across four categories, which align with the four pillars of IFF’s Do More Good Plan. | The final matrix reflects the importance of these issues in terms of their impact on IFF, versus IFF’s impact on those issues, and we use this representation to guide our strategy and reporting. |
