Firmenich Leads the Future of Fragrance with a Bold Ambition to Conscious Perfumery

Geneva, Switzerland, March 14th, 2022 -

Firmenich, the world’s largest privately-owned perfume and taste company, presents its ESG 2030 ambition to be #1 in Conscious Perfumery with bold targets on fragrance biodegradability, renewability, carbon footprint, responsible sourcing, and transparency on environmental impact. Building on the Group’s industry-leading sustainability performance, this holistic set of targets supports and accelerates customers’ transformation for their brands, whilst driving opportunities for positive change.

"With our vision of Positive Perfumery, we want to lead our industry transformation. Our aim is to reduce our carbon and environmental footprint, and ultimately have a positive impact on people, nature and climate with our fragrances,” says Ilaria Resta, President, Global Perfumery, Firmenich. “Conscious Perfumery aims to combine the best of nature and science to create Conscious Fragrances, and their relevant claims, with our best-in-class sustainable palette of renewable, biodegradable and responsibly sourced ingredients, working with our partners in the full chain of fragrance development to drive best quality and high standards of socio-economic impact on communities.”

Firmenich’s leadership in sustainability is supported by its third-party ratings, with the highest ‘Platinum’ EcoVadis rating in the industry for social and environmental performance and a score of 88/100, as well as a Sustainalytics ranking as 37th out of approximately 15,000 companies rated worldwide. The Group is also one of only two companies in the world to have received a CDP triple “A” rating in climate, water and forests for four consecutive years. Firmenich is now driving its performance to the next level with ambitious targets for Perfumery.

Firmenich’s 2030 Conscious Perfumery ambitions are that:

• The fragrance portfolio will comprise 99% of ultimately or partially biodegradable ingredients, as defined by the OECD.

• The carbon impact of the perfumery business will be reduced by 25%¹.

• 100 % of fragrances will be renewable as defined by ISO 16128.

• Responsible Sourcing is reinforced with 90% of suppliers’ spend rated EcoVadis Silver or better.

• 100% of the fragrance portfolio will be assessed for environmental and social impact in order to provide fact-based transparency and drive constant improvement in formulations.

“We see a growing consumer demand to know ingredients are biodegradable, renewable, and that the sourcing of natural ingredients respects the environment, and supports communities,” states Michal Benmayor, Vice President, Conscious Perfumery Business Development, Firmenich. “With our Conscious Perfumery ambitions, we aim to drive innovation and creativity to advance the development of delightful and performing fragrances that are also more conscious and eco-friendly.”

For more information, please visit www.firmenich.com/fragrance/purpose

A more detailed press kit is available here.

Full details of the Group’s Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) performance, strategy and targets for 2025-2030 are available in the Firmenich ESG Report 2021 here.

⁽¹⁾ versus Fiscal Year 2020

Camille Le Gall
Camille.Le.Gall@firmenich.com
+(33) 6 14 71 41 21

• Discover more on the new era of Conscious Perfumery
• Read more in our press kit
• Read more in our 2021 ESG Report

About Firmenich

Firmenich is the world’s largest privately-owned perfume and taste company, founded in Geneva, Switzerland, in 1895 and has been family-owned for 126 years. Firmenich is a leading business-to-business company operating primarily in the fragrance and taste market, specialized in the research, creation, manufacture and sale of perfumes, flavors and ingredients. Renowned for its world-class research and creativity, as well as its leadership in sustainability, Firmenich offers its customers superior innovation in formulation, a broad and high-quality palette of ingredients, and proprietary technologies including biotechnology, encapsulation, olfactory science and taste modulation. Firmenich had an annual turnover of 4.3 billion Swiss Francs at end June 2021. More information about Firmenich is available at www.firmenich.com