Sustainable investing

Sustainability strategy and targets

For Chr. Hansen, sustainability is not a stand-alone discipline. It’s the foundation of our business model. And because it’s an integral part of what we do, we don’t have a separate sustainability strategy. Instead, our corporate strategy captures the full potential we see across our business areas Food Cultures & Enzymes and Health & Nutrition.

As a global bioscience company developing natural solutions for the food, nutritional, pharmaceutical and agricultural industries, we have an important role to play in creating a food system that is resilient and prepared to feed a growing population while also minimizing its adverse climate impact.

UN Sustainable Development Goals product mapping

At Chr. Hansen, we have worked strategically with the UN Sustainable Development Goals since 2016. We focus on goals no. 2, 3 and 12 about sustainable agricultural practices, good health and less food waste, and have set ambitious targets to guide our work. Each year, we assess the percentage of our revenue that comes from products supporting one or more of the three UN Sustainable Development Goals. As per 2019/20, our contribution to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals is 81% of our total revenue.

Non-financial ambitions until 2024/25

As part of its 2025 Strategy, Chr. Hansen has set the following sustainability targets until 2024/25:

PRODUCTS: Chr. Hansen aims for more than 80% of its gross revenue from sustainable products to contribute to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals 2, 3 and 12. Furthermore, we have a target to reach 25 million hectares of land with our biological plant protection and silage inoculant solutions, have 200 million people consume our probiotics sold as dietary supplements or in foods and reduce 2 million tons of yogurt waste.
PLANET: As part of its commitment to limit global temperature rise, Chr. Hansen aims for 100% renewable energy, circular management of biowaste and recyclable key packaging materials.
PEOPLE: The Company aims to have introduced 100% of its new employees to its culture model, have a 1:1 equal ratio between female employees and women in management, have a top 25% score in its employee engagement survey and reach a lost-time incident frequency of below 1.5.

For more information on the targets and progress, please refer to our Annual Report 2020/21 and the Sustainability Data Sheet 2019/20.

Sustainability Board

The Sustainability Board is responsible for ensuring ownership, involvement and commitment from the entire business in defining, prioritizing and executing Chr. Hansen’s sustainability objectives and activities. The Sustainability Board is chaired by the CEO and its members are representatives from all three business areas as well as central functions such as HR, Sourcing and EHS. The Sustainability Board meets three times a year.

Governance

Chr. Hansen aims to maintain an effective and transparent corporate governance framework which ensures that the company is managed and monitored in a responsible manner. For more information on our management structure, Board of Directors activities, remuneration policies and AGM matters, please refer to Governance section.