In 2008 I spent about one year working on a strategic partnership project for a 2nd generation biofuel in China. An LCA expert from McKinsey came to show their calculations on the environmental footprint of the biofuel from various raw materials, corn, tapioca, corn stalks, and etc. That was the first time I came across sustainability and environmental impacts in such a tangible way. However, at that time, I was in a sales role, ignoring all the significance of that but excited with the sales opportunities with my clients.
Then in 2012, I started my formal sustainability career at DSM, leading the sustainability program for the China region. My priority task was to engage with our own business leaders to integrate sustainability into their business agendas. It was never an easy process. I still remember clearly when a business leader told me sustainability was not even on his priority list. Although looking back, I’m very thankful I made that bold career choice, which opened a brand new world to me. After 6 years working for corporate sustainability, I moved to ANH last year hoping that sustainability could be rooted within the business. That’s why I feel so thrilled with the new strategic initiative on the six business drivers and when Ivo says that sustainability is in our DNA.
If you ask me what made me hold such an assertation, I think it is a journey from mind to heart. It was when everybody had to breath the smoggy air in China. It is when people start to think less is more. My personal touching moment was on Cherating Beach, Malaysia, in the summer of 2018. My family spent a nice vacation there and attended a turtle release activity. Turtles became less and less because of the human behavior and plastic pollutions in the sea. Volunteers set up hatchery farms on the beach to protect turtle eggs. The baby turtles were just hatched from the eggs. They strived on all their efforts and crawled to the sea. My elder daughter cheered them on their way home. Looking at her excited smiling face, I got an urgent calling to my heart that we must make it possible. No excuses at all.
The WE MAKE IT POSSIBLE new positioning supports our ambition to be the world leader in animal nutrition & health, providing tangible and measurable solutions to our customers so together we can tackle the biggest challenges facing society & the animal protein industry, making animal producers proud again of their efforts to feed the world. At DSM, we strongly believe in sustainable food systems and that the livestock industry can transform itself from within to be a part of the solution. We want to play a key role in this transformation and work at species and country level, with our partners, to provide tangible and actionable solutions to create brighter lives for all.
If not us, who?
If not now, when?
So, let’s make it possible!
Best Regards,
Echo Bao 鲍琼
Global CCI Manager
