• Home
  • News
  • In-depth
  • Opinion
  • Energy
    • Wind
    • Marine
    • Solar
    • Biomass
    • Nuclear
    • CCS
    • Infrastructure
  • Policy
    • Politics
    • Legislation
    • Taxation
  • Management
    • Marketing
    • Risk
    • Skills
    • Incentives
    • Carbon Accounting
  • Technology
    • Waste
    • Recycling
    • R&D
    • Efficiency
    • IT
  • Investment
    • Carbon Trading
    • Offsets
    • Venture Capital
  • Net Zero Now
  • Events & Awards
  • SDG Hub
  • Industry Voice
  • Newsletters
  • Sign in
  •  
      • Newsletters
      • Account details
      • Contact support
      • Sign out
     
    • You are currently accessing BusinessGreen via your Enterprise account.

      If you already have an account please use the link below to sign in.

      If you have any problems with your access or would like to request an individual access account please contact our customer service team.

      Phone: +44 (0) 1858 438800

      Email: [email protected]

      • Sign in
  • Follow us
    • Twitter
    • LinkedIn
    • Newsletters
    • Facebook
    • YouTube
    • Instagram
  • Free Trial
  • Subscribe
  • Events & Awards
    • Upcoming events
      event logo
      Webinar: Net Zero Investment: What role do investors play?
      • Date: 13 Jan 2021
      • Online, Webinar
      event logo
      NZF Pathway - Finance

      This exclusive half day online event will investigate how all businesses can support and accelerate the transition to low and net zero carbon buildings, while maximising the financial and productivity opportunities that will result.

      • Date: 16 Mar 2021
      • Online Event
      event logo
      Net Zero Festival 2021

      Net Zero Festival is the world's first business festival dedicated to exploring, advancing, and celebrating the global transition to a net zero emission economy. Join us at BusinessGreen's Net Zero Festival – for leaders who won't wait until 2050 to build a better business, and a better world.

      • Date: 27 Sep 2021
      • Worldwide
      View all events
  • SDG Hub
Business Green
Business Green
  • Home
  • News
  • In-depth
  • Opinion
  • Energy
  • Policy
  • Management
  • Technology
  • Investment
  • Net Zero Now
 
    • Newsletters
    • Account details
    • Contact support
    • Sign out
 
  • You are currently accessing BusinessGreen via your Enterprise account.

    If you already have an account please use the link below to sign in.

    If you have any problems with your access or would like to request an individual access account please contact our customer service team.

    Phone: +44 (0) 1858 438800

    Email: [email protected]

    • Sign in
  • Hot topics
  • Green recovery
  • Net Zero Now
  • Net Zero Leadership
  • Net Zero Finance
Bg bnp hub ribbon
  • Supply chain

DSM on the SDGs: 'We can't be successful in a world that fails'

DSM executives visit AIF project in Rwanda | Credit: AIF Rwanda
DSM executives visit AIF project in Rwanda | Credit: AIF Rwanda
  • Isabella Kaminski
  • 24 December 2018
  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  • LinkedIn  
  • Send to  
0 Comments

The food supply giant has embraced five of the SDGs to drive its sustainability efforts, including SDG2's mission to eradicate hunger

As the world's largest food ingredient supplier and vitamin producer, Netherlands-based DSM has a clear interest in the subject of global nutrition. The company has long had an outward-looking approach to the subject, having signed a partnership with the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) back in 2007 and setting up its own Nutrition Improvement Program.

Since then its efforts to fight hunger and malnutrition have continued, with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) proving a particularly good motivator and rallying point for its post-2015 programmes.

Related articles

  • Why sustainability professionals have the edge on anti-racism work
  • Magnetic induction cooking can cut your kitchen's carbon footprint
  • What does the vaccine mean for cold chain sustainability?
  • BusinessGreen's most read stories of 2020

Fokko Wientjes is the company's vice president of nutrition in emerging markets and food systems transformation, a role that makes him responsible for developing, building and leading new nutrition consumer businesses in India and Africa, as well as managing large-scale public private partnerships with UNICEF and the WFP.

Wientjes recalls talking to people when the SDGs were still being developed at the UN. "It was all about 'give and take'," he says. "I was so concerned that the future of the world was being negotiated that I thought we have to put all our efforts into implementation."

He therefore became active in shaping DSM's approach to the SDGs. "Any uncertainty is bad for business," he reflects. "And we strongly believe that we can't be successful in a world that fails. So to get this agenda is a useful thing."

The company is targeting its efforts on the five goals where it can have the most impact given its expertise in health, nutrition, and materials. As such, alongside the obvious focus on sustainable food production and tackling hunger the company is also working to contribute to the closely interlinked goals covering climate, energy, and resources.

Its standout project linked to SDG2 involves Africa Improved Foods (AIF) Rwanda, which is a joint venture with the Rwandan government, the Dutch development bank, the DFID Impact Acceleration Facility, and the World Bank's investment arm.

AIF Rwanda sources crops from around 100,000 Rwandan smallholders, trains them to improve their yields, and employs local people in the factory that produces cereals fortified with vitamins and minerals.

Much of that food is then bought by the WFP and the Rwandan government to feed mothers and their young children nutritious porridge. It is one of Rwanda's main projects working to bring down the country's high rate of childhood stunting, where children are shorter than they should be due to malnutrition.

But as well as directly feeding two vulnerable groups of people, the project has a much wider impact.

Wientjes says DSM pays the farmers higher than market rates and the sale is guaranteed. As a result farmers' income has gone up by 30 per cent and that income is more reliable, leading to greater food security for farming families.

In parallel with this, agricultural yield has risen by 20 per cent as farmers are more invested and can plan better. And there has been a big reduction in crop contamination by aflatoxin, a fungus that raises the risk of liver cancer.

Wientjes explains that DSM buys the whole corn cob, not just the kernels. As well as giving better moisture control, the company can transport it to a central location to shell and dry it. That controls aflatoxin spores and allows farmers to get on with the job of planting and harvesting their goods rather than processing.

"We have seen the impact the project has, which goes beyond nutritious food," he explains. "There's money flowing through the value chain, which makes it more interesting for everyone."

DSM benefits commercially too by selling corn to the WFP and Rwandan government, while also selling any surplus on the standard market.

Crucially, DSM does not see the people it is working with as victims of famine, but as future customers. "We are investing in this," says Wientjes. "We don't give away anything." The project means food does not need to be imported unnecessarily into Africa and it is sowing the seeds of a large emerging market.

The company clearly considers AIF a success, having recently invested in a new food manufacturing plant in Rwanda that will have the capacity to feed two million people, and is not afraid to talk about it.

Wientjes says businesses have an important responsibility to raise awareness as they strive to make progress against the SDGs. "Strategy is agreed in the boardroom but the board forgets to tell the rest of the world," he argues. "Maybe the world doesn't need to know all the detail of the SDGs but it needs to know more."

  • Tweet  
  • Facebook  
  • LinkedIn  
  • Send to  
  • Topics
  • Supply chain
  • Technology
  • SDG Hub
  • food
  • agriculture
  • In-depth

More on Supply chain

Credit: Aveda
    • Supply chain
What we can learn from Aveda's blockchain vanilla traceability project
    • Supply chain
    • 08 January 2021
Green distilleries fund will help whisky production go green
    • Technology
Distilleries receive first phase of £10m green whisky fund
    • Technology
    • 08 January 2021
Nissan's Leaf (pictured) and e-NV200 models are both capable of vehicle-to-grid charging
    • BusinessGreen
Back two-way EV charging technology to slash costs and emissions, white paper urges
    • BusinessGreen
    • 08 January 2021
Air Protein uses innovative technology to create high-protein-content "meat" from elements in the air
    • Technology
Air Protein raises $32m to spur commercialisation of lab-made meat
    • Technology
    • 08 January 2021
Heat pumps are primed to play a critical role in decarbonising heating
    • Investment
Legal & General pumps up financial backing for low-carbon heat
    • Investment
    • 08 January 2021
Overfishing has driven a precipitous decline in the abundance of ocean life, experts warn
    • Supply chain
MSC: Over-fishing depriving 72 million people of food
    • Supply chain
    • 07 January 2021
Farmers on the truck at coffee plantation in Alfenas, the southern part of Minas Gerais state, the center of coffee production in Brazil | Credit: dolphinphoto
    • Climate change
Global coffee players brew up 2050 climate plan to slash 1.5 gigatonnes of CO2
    • Climate change
    • 06 January 2021
Domino's plant-based range now includes vegan nuggets and a chicken-alternative pizza | Domino's
    • Climate change
Veganuary 2021: Record 440,000 commit to plant-based diet challenge
    • Climate change
    • 05 January 2021

More news

Alok Sharma takes on COP26 Presidency full-time
  • Policy
Alok Sharma takes on COP26 Presidency full-time

BREAKING: Kwasi Kwarteng promoted to become Business Secretary, as Sharma to step up his focus on preparations for crucial Glasgow Summit

  • 08 January 2021
Global Briefing: China unveils long-awaited carbon trading market
  • Energy
Global Briefing: China unveils long-awaited carbon trading market

All the top green business news from around the world this week including China's ETS, Japan's fossil fuel car ban, and Enel's African green power push

  • 08 January 2021
Why sustainability professionals have the edge on anti-racism work
  • Management
Why sustainability professionals have the edge on anti-racism work

There are important parallels between tackling the climate crisis and overcoming diversity challenges

  • 08 January 2021
What we can learn from Aveda's blockchain vanilla traceability project
  • Supply chain
What we can learn from Aveda's blockchain vanilla traceability project

The beauty giant reveals how it is getting a better grip on its supply chain impacts

  • 08 January 2021
blog comments powered by Disqus
Back to Top

Most read

Back two-way EV charging technology to slash costs and emissions, white paper urges
Back two-way EV charging technology to slash costs and emissions, white paper urges
Ørsted secures green light for mammoth 2.4GW Hornsea Three offshore wind farm
Ørsted secures green light for mammoth 2.4GW Hornsea Three offshore wind farm
Reports: Sharma offers to quit BEIS for full-time COP26 focus
Reports: Sharma offers to quit BEIS for full-time COP26 focus
Distilleries receive first phase of £10m green whisky fund
Distilleries receive first phase of £10m green whisky fund
Global coffee players brew up 2050 climate plan to slash 1.5 gigatonnes of CO2
Global coffee players brew up 2050 climate plan to slash 1.5 gigatonnes of CO2
  • Contact Us
  • Marketing solutions
  • About Incisive Media
  • Terms and conditions
  • Policies
  • Careers
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Instagram

Incisive Footer Logo

© Incisive Business Media (IP) Limited, Published by Incisive Business Media Limited, New London House, 172 Drury Lane, London WC2B 5QR, registered in England and Wales with company registration numbers 09177174 & 09178013

Digital publisher of the year
Digital publisher of the year 2010, 2013, 2016 & 2017
Loading