Planet: Keeping the footprint light
Our greatest contribution to preserving the planet is through reducing our carbon footprint, and since vitamins form a major part of what we do, we examined the potential for reducing their footprint:
- DSM has the lowest carbon footprint for vitamin E in the industry
- In Scotland, where we produce vitamin C and Panthenols (vitamin B5), we successfully implemented a 5-year program to reduce waste to landfill by 90% and lower energy use through leak reduction and isolation of redundant equipment. These efforts were rewarded with a CEFIC European Responsible Care Award in the category “Environment”.
In other examples: we celebrated a great success with the AMPHISOL® K production process. Traditionally, the phosphorus-containing waste water produced in its manufacture was incinerated, but now it is sent to an external waste water treatment plant for reclamation. By recycling the waste water we have achieved a zero waste process with an overall reduction of 32% CO2.
And improved production methods, a shorter transport route and reduced weight and packaging have reduced the carbon footprint for our PARSOL® UV filters, as well.
Measures like these can help in other ways, too. For example, reducing weight and packaging positively affects people’s work load, while lower material, disposal and transport costs contribute to our final aspect of sustainability – profitability.