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Firmenich celebrates 125 years of sustainable, inclusive, innovative business | World Finance - YouTube
Channel: World Finance Videos
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World Finance: I'm with Gilbert Ghostine,
CEO of Firmenich: the world's largest privately-owned
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perfume and taste company.
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More than half of the world's population interact
with one of Firmenich's products every single
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day; but it's still a family-owned company,
with sustainability at its core.
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Gilbert, why is sustainability such an important
principle for Firmenich?
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Gilbert Ghostine: Sustainability has been
ingrained in our history – and at the same
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time, in our DNA – as an organisation.
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When our founding fathers put together the
values of the company,
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sustainability was one of them.
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It is at the heart of our inclusive capitalism
business model.
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So this is part of our way of doing business.
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At the same time it is important for the planet,
because you need 3.5 tonnes of petal rose
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to make one kilo of rose essential oil that
we use in your soaps,
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in your perfumes, in your shampoos.
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So the only way is to harvest it in a very
sustainable way.
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World Finance: I'm really interested by this
inclusive capitalism concept; and you've identified
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three strands to that – people, planet,
and society.
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Tell me in practice what you're actually doing:
let's start with people.
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Gilbert Ghostine: I'll give you a few examples.
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First, Firmenich received back in December
2018 a global gender equality certification.
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It's not only about equal pay, it's at the
same time equal opportunities for coaching,
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for mentoring, for career progression in the
organisation.
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The other example that I will give you is
that over two percent of our colleagues around
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the world are people with different abilities.
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In the normal jargon these are disabled people;
yet for us, these are colleagues with different
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abilities, because they bring a different
skillset to our organisation.
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When some people lose a sense, they will develop
the other senses.
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And that's why we have visually impaired colleagues
on sensory panels all over the world.
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And that's a way of Firmenich embracing our
colleagues in a camaraderie spirit and a different way.
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World Finance: And how about planet –
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how does Firmenich ensure its business is environmentally responsible?
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Gilbert Ghostine: We participated as a company
at COP21 in Paris, back in 2015; and this
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is when we realised that incremental actions
on climate are not good enough.
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They need to be exponential.
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And we took the opportunity to announce from Paris the boldest environmental goals for our industry.
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One of the goals that we set ourselves is
that we will be running at 100 percent renewable
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electricity before the end of 2020.
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And guess what?
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Before the end of February, we will be able
to announce that we are running at 100 percent
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renewable electricity globally.
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Second, we managed to decouple our output
growth from our carbon emissions.
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Since 2015 we have grown our output by 18
percent, while reducing our carbon emissions
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by 30 percent.
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Back in 2018, Firmenich was one of only two
companies in the world out of the 7,000 that
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are assessed by CDP to receive a triple A:
A for climate, A for water, and A for forestry.
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And we are very proud that for the second
year in a row, in 2019, we are receiving triple
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A from CDP.
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World Finance: And your third strand is sustainable
growth for society; what innovations are you
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bringing to market here?
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Gilbert Ghostine: As a company, we leverage
our knowledge in science to help address some
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of the biggest societal challenges that exist
in the world today.
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We were approached by the Bill and Melinda
Gates Foundation back in 2014 to help address
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a serious sanitation issue in emerging markets.
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You know, 2.5 billion people on this planet
have only access to public toilets – and
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one of the challenges in these public toilets
is that most of the time they are dirty and
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they smell bad.
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Who understands the science of smell better
than anyone else in the world?
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It's Firmenich!
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Because we have been investing in understanding
the receptors in the nose and the science
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of smell since the 1930s.
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We managed to come with breakthrough technologies
that could neutralise these malodours; and
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they are available today in markets like Bangladesh,
India and South Africa.
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The other example has to do with wellbeing.
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One of the challenges that our generations
face today is this combination of obesity and diabetes.
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Firmenich came with a new technology called
TastePrint that could remove 100 percent of
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the sugar from the products that you eat, while maintaining the same taste and the same mouthfeel.
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And the last calendar year, in 2019, we removed
one trillion calories from the food that people consume.
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World Finance: Firmenich is celebrating its
125th anniversary this year – what's your
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vision for the next 125 years of the business?
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Gilbert Ghostine: Well, I can't have a vision
for the next 125 years, but I would say, knowing
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well our shareholders and the way they think,
they will always pride themselves on being
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a role model company in social, environmental,
and ethics.
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World Finance: Gilbert, thank you very much.
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Thanks for watching.
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Learn more at firmenich.com, and please subscribe
for the latest international business insights
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