DSM

Royal DSM N.V.
Quick Facts
Type	Public
sector	Chemistry
Headquarters (Benelux Organization)	Heerlen, Netherlands
Year of Origin	1902
Emissions (All Scopes)	13.24 megatons of CO2 (2020)
NCI assessment	Moderate
Total Revenue	9.2 billion EUR (2021)
Stock Exchange	Amsterdam
Key People	Geraldine Matchett (Co-CEO & CFO) Dmitri de Vreeze (Co-CEO & COO)
Number of Employees	23127
Subsidiaries	DSM has 89 associates and 4 joint ventures

Royal DSM N.V., stylized as DSM, was originally established in 1902 by the Dutch government to mine coal reserves in the Southern Province of Limburg. Nowadays, DSM is a science-based company specializing in Nutrition, Health and Bioscience. In 2020, their total Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were 13.24 megaton. Their energy efficiency improved by 5.7 percent. At the time, their revenue was 8.1 billion euro’s. Compared to 2019, their net profit reduced from 764 million to 508 million in 2020. DSM has received an A rating for their climate change strategy from CDP. Worldwide, DSM employees work at over 200 sites in almost 50 countries. In 2020, the company employed a total of 23 127 people. DSM's balance sheet value was 14.4 billion euro in 2020. Its shares are listed on Euronext Amsterdam. DSM is currently headquartered in Heerlen, Netherlands but will move to Maastricht, Netherlands at the end of 2023. On May 31st 2022, DSM released that it would merge with Swiss-based company Firmenich to become the "leading creation and innovation partner in nutrition, beauty and well-being".

Company Structure

Koninklijke DSM N.V. (Royal DSM) is a company limited by shares listed on Euronext Amsterdam. It is managed by a Managing Board together with an Executive Committee and an independent Supervisory Board. Members of the Managing Board and the Supervisory Board are appointed (and, if necessary, dismissed) by the General Meeting of Shareholders. Owners of DSM shares are primarily USA, UK or European-based.

DSM's sectors include nutrition, materials, innovation and corporate activities. DSM was originally founded by the Dutch government and has remained a Dutch company ever since, which is why it is headquartered in the Netherlands.

Board of Directors

Managing Board

Name	Function	Remuneration x1000 EUR
Geraldine Matchett	Co-CEO & CFO	1,003,625
Dmitri de Vreeze	Co-CEO & COO	1,003,625

This number excludes the value of shares owned by both Co-CEOs. Together, Geraldine and Dimitri hold about 136,891 euro worth of DSM shares.

Executive Committee

Executive Committee

Name	Function
Philip Eykerman	President DSM Food Specialties and Corporate Mergers & Acquisitions
Helen Mets	President Materials Cluster
Patricia Markeley	President DSM Innovation Center
Cristina Monteiro	President Group People & Organization

In the case where the management board works with an executive committee, the first should inform the supervisory board about the remuneration of the members of the executive committee. However, it seems like this information is not accessible in DSM's annual report.

Supervisory Board

Supervisory Board

Name	Function	Remuneration x1000 EUR (2021)
Thomas Leysen	Chairman	113.33
John Ramsay	Deputy Chairman	101.17
Rob Routs	Chairman	53.65
Pauline van der Meer Mohr	Deputy Chair	41.15
Eileen Kennedy	Member	98.75
Carla Mahieu	Member	49.73
Erica Mann	Member	91.75
Pradeep Pant	Member	101.75
Frits Dirk van Paaschen	Member	99.71

Accountant

The external auditor of DSM is KPMG.

They state there there are no going concerns. However, they have assessed some presumed fraud risks. They do have a segment regarding climate-related risks. Here they state that

The evaluation of the effectiveness of Royal DSM's strategy against internal or external goals set is not in scope of our audit of the financial statements.

However, they do consider the effects of climate-related risks on the accounts and disclosures. In order to assess this, KPMG communicates about DSM's strategy with the Managing Board and the Supervisory Board. The internal audit report doesn't provide any insight on what the outcomes of these discussions were.

Main Activities

DSM business groups are divided in Nutrition, Materials and Innovation Center. Nutrition comprises Animal Nutrition, Human Nutrition, Food and Beverage, and Care and Health. The Materials cluster comprises Engineering Materials and Protective Materials. DSM innovation center is a science-based research center focusing on long-term innovations outside the scope of current mainstream business. DSM specializes in fine chemistry and bioscience.

Government

DSM has a royal status. DSM did not receive government implemented NOW-support during the corona-crisis.

Paris Agreement until Today

In 2019, DSM set themselves the goal to reach net -zero GHG emissions across its operations and value chains by 2050.

According to DSM, their scope 1 & 2 market-based GHG emissions improved by 25% compared to their 2016 baseline. The year by year GHG efficiency improved with 8,6% in 2020. However, in the same report it is visible that scope 3 emissions have actually increased since 2019.

In 2021, the Koninklijke DSM received an A for both their progress on Climate Change and on Water Security. In order to obtain this rating, DSM had to meet several criteria including the verification and reportage of both Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions. Reporting on Scope 3 is not one of the main criteria.

Financial Results since 2015

This table shows the financial situation of DSM since 2015.

Financial situation

Year	Revenue	Profit	Dividend
2015	8.9 billion EUR	92 million EUR	297 million EUR
2016	7.9 billion EUR	629 million EUR	296 million EUR
2017	8.6 billion EUR	1.8 billion EUR	320 million EUR
2018	9.3 billion EUR	1.1 billion EUR	365 million EUR
2019	9 billion EUR	764 million EUR	414 million EUR
2020	8.1 billion EUR	508 million EUR	423 million EUR
2021	9.2 billion EUR	1.68 billion EUR	421 million EUR

Current Emissions

DSM total emissions in all scopes over 2020 were 13,2 megaton CO2. 1,24 megaton of this belong to scope 1 and 2, and the remaining 12 megaton can be accredited to scope 3. DSM's goal for scope 3 is an 'intensity reduction' of 28% by 2030. DSM wants to improve energy efficiency by at least 1% annually until 2030. In 2020 their energy efficiency has improved by 5,7%.

Scope 1 & 2 market-based GHG emissions improved by 25% compared to the 2016 baseline. As mentioned, their total scope 1 & 2 emissions were 1,24 million tons CO2eq in 2020. This was an increase in comparison to 2019 due to inorganic growth and increased production volumes. The year by year GHG efficiency improved by 8,6% in 2020. Contrarily to their plans, DSM's scope 3 emissions rose in 2020 by 0,4 megaton. This was due to increase in purchasing volume and a shift in more carbon-intense raw materials.

DSM improved performance in volatile organic compound (voc’s) to air emission by 74% in 2020.

Total emissions since 2015 (in megaton CO2-eq.)

Year	Scope 1	Scope 2	Scope 3	Total
2015	0.6	0.5	14.9	16
2016	1	0.5	19	20.5
2017	1.5 (1&2)	Unknown	21	22.5
2018	1.23 (1&2)	Unknown	11.3	12.55
2019	1.17 (1&2)	Unknown	11.6	12.77
2020	1.24 (1&2)	Unknown	12	13.24
2021	1.21 (1&2)	Unknown	11.7	12.91

Despite the targets set, emissions increased from 2015 to 2017. In 2018, emissions for end-of-life treatment of products (scope 3) decreased drastically, without much explanation.

DSM's main emission sources are derived from purchased goods and services and end-of-life treatment of sold products, accounting for almost 90% of total scope 3 emissions. End-of-life emissions increased due to increased sales volumes. DSM does not give in-depth information on all the scope 3 downstream categories and groups nine of them together under the heading "other downstream categories".

Climate Policy and Plans

DSM tries to decouple emissions from economic growth and is committed to reach NetZero GHG emissions across value chains by 2050. DSM wants to improve energy efficiency by at least 1 percent per year. Since 2019, business growth projects must be GHG-neutral or else be compensated within the same business.

DSM has the ambition to cut 30 percent of absolute emissions by 2030 (vs. 2016, scope 1 and 2) and reduce value chain emission per ton of product by 28 percent by 2030 (vs. 2016, scope 3). DSM plans to do this by 1) improving their operations, enable customers and partners to deliver sustainable solutions and advocate for the future they believe in, under the guise of their CO2REDUCE plan. Also, 2) DSM plans to implement an internal carbon price of 100euro’s per ton of CO2. Thirdly, 3) through animal nutrition solutions DSM seeks to help with reducing direct and indirect GHG emissions. More specifically, DSM wants to apply an internal carbon tax of 100EU/t CO2eq to key investments, acquisitions and in management reporting. Additionally, DSM wants to purchase 75% of all its energy used by 2030 from renewable sources.

However, one has to place footnotes to two of these initiatives. Firstly, carbon pricing alone is not sufficient to mitigate climate change. Indeed, carbon pricing faces a multitude of major issues that prevent it from achieving sufficient decarbonization. Additional, internal carbon prices, also known as a shadow price in the case of DSM, are simply incentives and there is nothing actually holding the company accountable to follow these regulations. On top of that, according to a study conducted by Planbureau voor de leefomgeving, carbon prices per ton need to be at least 175 euro, which is 75 euro more than DSM's internal carbon tax. However, it is important to note that DSM's internal carbon price is higher than what the High-Level Commission on Carbon Prices recommended in 2018.

Secondly, reducing methane emissions of the existing cows instead of drastically reducing the amount of cows and finding different and more encompassing solutions to GHG emissions released by livestock, is not enough.

DSM commits to five drivers of circularity in order to reduce their scope 3 GHG emissions. * Reduce use of critical resources * Replace scarce, hazardous and potentially harmful resources * Extend the lifetime of products * design for recyclability * recover waste streams.

As mentioned, DSM has set up a CO2REDUCE plan to tackle upstream emissions in the value chain. DSM recognizes that only together with their partners they can reduce their scope 3 emissions. Currently, the CO2REDUCE plan includes alternative feedstock, sustainable products, supplier selection, energy efficiency, renewable energy, end-of-pipe solutions and circularity of the materials chain. It is uncertain whether these plans are sufficient to adequately address DSM's target goals.

NewClimate Institute (NCI) Report

DSM scores reasonably on transparency and moderately on integrity.

With regard to tracking and disclosure of emissions, DSM provides a detailed breakdown for scope 3 emissions across upstream and downstream categories starting 2021. Its net-zero emissions target explicitly covers the entire value chain. It does however use 2016 as its base year without disclosing the exact emissions levels of said year. DSM plans to take responsibility for their unabated emissions by providing climate contributions beyond value chain mitigations. Additionally, it will not rely on offset credits toward attaining its 2030 target, but instead it opts to use technical options for CO2 removal. Accordingly, this approach constitutes good practice in taking responsibility for its own emissions. Hence, besides committing to achieving its net zero pledge by 2050, DSM has also committed to reducing its emissions to at least 90% across its entire value chain. DSM has also stated that they would commit to the concept of "highest impact contributions outside its value chain", thus funding climate mitigation and nature-based solution projects outside its own value chain.

However, DSM could improve with regards to scope 3. Their current intensity target remains non-quantifiable as absolute emission reductions are left out, and only certain scope 3 emissions categories are selected. Whereas DSM argues to cut down scope 1 and scope 2 emissions by 50% below 2016 levels, it does not set the same targets for scope 3 emissions despite these accounting for about 90% of DSM's GHG footprint. Additionally, DSM could provide more information on the scale and the estimations of their emissions reduction measures, in order to provide insight into whether the interim targets will be met. The NewClimate Institute further notes that whilst DSM can improve its transparency regarding its renewable energy procurement, the institute does consider DSM"s finalization of "new higher-quality power purchase agreements (PPA)", as a positive development.

NCI evaluates DSM’s interim reduction targets to have ‘low integrity’ as their absolute interim emissions reduction target for scope 1 and scope 2 equals just about a 4% emission reduction by 2030 belo 2019 levels across the entire value chain.

Due Diligence

Due Diligence

DSM's participation in ABDUP

ABDUP is one of the Netherlands' oldest lobby-clubs. Its participants are AkzoNobel, Shell, Unilever, Philips and DSM. Despite acting under the radar for the most part, a 2019 Wob-request showcased that ABDUP still very actively lobbies in favor of certain laws. Most specifically, research conducted by journalistic platform Follow the Money found that DSM is amongst one of the commissioners and financers for a 2018 report influencing the abolition of the dividend tax. In the report itself, this wasn't explicitly mentioned, despite that being against the Dutch Code of Conduct for Academic Practices.

What still went wrong in ...

Yearly, DSM publishes a report outlining 'what still went wrong in [year]'. In their 2021 report, DSM outlined multiple incidents that occurred. These include incidents involving falls, incidents during process interruptions and maintenance work, incidents due to flash fires/explosions, other health and safety incidents, incidents involving personal data and security incidents. DSM provides transparent data on these recordable injuries and reports the steps they took to respond to them.

Scandals and controversies

Controversy DSM's food-supplement and methane-reducer 'Bovaer'

In 2019, DSM proudly introduced their product Bovaer, a food-supplement for cows with which their methane emission reduces by ~30%. Considering the fact that the agricultural sector is responsible for 10.3% of the emissions in the EU, and 70% of that originates from livestock farming, this invention comes at a good time. However, critics fear that the implementation of Bovaer will prove very costly to farmers. Additionally, using Bovaer to reduce existing methane emissions instead of actually drastically lowering the amount of livestock in the European Union seems like a short-term solution. Besides that, the emission of nitrogen will continue, as well as the deforestation resulting from the soy-plantation for cow feed. Additionally, the problem of reducing biodiversity will not be addressed.

DSM finances climate skeptic Frits Böttcher

DSM is found to have financed the climate skeptic and professor emeritus Frits Böttcher. In total, DSM donated an amount of 85,000 guilders to him. With this money, Böttcher constructed a 'fierce attack' on the preserving climate science thinking at the time. This attack is referred to as his CO2-project which lasted from 1990 to 1998.

Conclusion

DSM is a Dutch bio-chemical company specializing in health, nutrition and bioscience. DSM makes a profit of over 500 million euro’s a year. Remuneration of top management is fairly higher than companies with similar revenue and profit numbers. The majority of emissions from DSM are in scope 3. DSM is invested in reducing their emission numbers and has made notable progress in scope 1 & 2.

DSM is committed to the targets in the Paris Agreement of 2015 but its scope 1, 2 and 3 targets fall short of 45% reduction by 2030 and its total emissions have risen between 2019 and 2020 instead of following a sharp reduction path that is needed to keep in line with the Paris Agreement.