As a Company that sources ingredients from all over the world, from vanilla in Madagascar to citrus in California, we take our responsibility to preserve biodiversity extremely seriously.
SDG 15 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals implores us to ‘protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss’.
Protecting our planet
We recognise the urgent need to protect biodiversity as the planet experiences an unprecedented rate of biodiversity loss, with direct consequences for humanity. We are actively working to reduce our impact or even nullify it by assessing and monitoring each step of our activity throughout the life cycle of our products.
Givaudan could not exist without a steady supply of more than 11,000 ingredients from across the globe, natural resources used in the creation of our products. Our activities depend on biodiversity, as do the many communities we work with and look to support. A combination of protection, sustainable management and, where necessary, restoration is then needed to ensure the future of a diverse, living planet.
We believe that our activities can have the greatest impact on biodiversity in terms of SDG 15, ‘Life on Land’, SDG 2 ‘Zero Hunger’ and SDG 17, ‘Partnerships for the Goals’.
Our efforts in biodiversity help protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems and promote food security and sustainable agriculture. Our partnerships serve to strengthen the means of implementation.
For more on our latest progress, read our 2021 GRI sustainability report.
Working together for change
Closely to our work to promote biodiversity, we’re continuing to evolve and strengthen our approach in helping to prevent deforestation. In 2020, we launched our palm position statement. In it, we emphasise our commitment to non-deforestation, including ‘No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation (NDPE)’ principles.
We co-fund projects which tackle sustainability issues at the beginning of our palm supply chains in Indonesia and Malaysia; for example through our work with the Earthworm Foundation; a non-profit organisation driven by the desire to positively impact the relationship between people and nature.
Supporting reforestation efforts through the Givaudan Foundation
The Givaudan Foundation has recently worked with clove growers in Madagascar to preserve natural resources and prevent the use of local wood as an energy source for the distillation of clove oil.
A recent initiative helped reduce environmental pressures on the local forest while ensuring more sustainable production. By the end of 2021, Givaudan and the Foundation had allowed for 800,000 trees of local varieties of acacias, grevilleas and clove trees to be planted.
Our efforts to protect biodiversity are closely connected to our responsible sourcing initiatives, which focus on promoting sustainable working practices and sourcing raw materials with maximum respect for the environment.
