Why I joined DSM

Why I joined DSM? Coming from an environmental NGO like WWF that is a question I am getting from people every day since my move was announced.

First, it is important to say why I have been working on food sustainability, more specifically focused on animal proteins. I strongly believe we can feed humanity with animal proteins in a sustainable way: protecting the planet, being socially responsible and economically viable. That's why I do what I do. And I have seen several examples around the planet showing that it is possible, that it can be done. From carbon neutral beef produced in Brazil without any deforestation to ASC certified salmon produced in Norway with low impact and zero use of fish meal and oil. From a huge and very traditional poultry and pork operator embracing sustainability, measuring their impacts and setting up aggressive targets and actions to improve them to the largest fast food chain in the world making a public commitment to zero deforestation, to beef and poultry sustainability and revolutionizing the relationship with their supply chain and civil society to make it happen. From a small farm in Swaziland producing eggs to improve the nutrition and immunological system of thousands of orphan kids with AIDS in the country, to the largest grain traders and meatpackers in the world getting together to adopt a satellite monitoring system to monitor and reduce deforestation from happening in their supply chains.

I got attracted to sustainability when, working in global marketing, I had the opportunity to travel the 4 corners of the world visiting and talking to farmers, processors and retailers in the animal protein value chain. I saw in loco and listened directly from them all the challenges they were facing. In many cases they wouldn’t use the term sustainability but they would show me and describe the huge impacts of droughts, fires and floods on their businesses; the difficulty to make a profit when your animals get sick or are not performing at their best; the lack of interest from their kids in remaining in farming; the high cost to treat manure and fines they were getting because of contamination to water and soil; the need to monitor and stop deforestation in their operations and value chains and be trustworthy about it; the damage animal welfare activist campaigns were doing to their reputation; the difficulties to show results and capture value when you don’t have traceability and the list goes on and on. I’ve never forget the dairy farmer I witnessed in France crying like a baby as he had to throw away all his milk in the drain because of economic issues nor the Indian family collecting buffalo dung for living after they lost their father to suicide because they didn’t have any more ground water at their property to irrigate their crops and feed their animals. I learned that sustainability footprints connected to animal production were for sure impacting the planet, but first and foremost the people producing them.

Joining WWF, I had the chance to work directly with all these issues (and many more) and I learned a great deal from very bright and experienced people I had the pleasure to work with but also from the day-to-day practice. My work and of my team were very much focused on generating awareness about the sustainability issues connected to animal production and in influencing their largest producing, processing and retailing companies, sectors and sometimes entire markets to embrace sustainability, developing targets, commitments and sustainability plans and initiatives to tackle the biggest issues of our time. That was all great and we made huge progress (not without huge challenges…), but in the last 5 years I didn’t have the chance to implement any of the plans I helped create. It was just too much ground to cover and too many influencing work to do that it was impossible to get any deeper on anything. So, I was missing the action, I was missing the “getting my hands dirty” part and wanted to get more focused and tangible in implementing sustainability all the way to the ground.

Here is where DSM gets into the story. I had the opportunity to learn some about the company when a few years ago I was invited to be an advisor to the Clean Cow project, now Bovaer. It called my attention a company investing millions of dollars in the development of a product focused only in reducing the methane emissions of ruminants. It was also interesting to see their business and R&D people not only interested but talking about sustainability in a high level even to sustainability specialists I knew. All of that, coming from a company in the very traditional feed sector, made me very curious.

In investigating and digging more about the company, I learned that DSM had not a brilliant past when it comes to sustainability, but with recent changes it turned it around and, refocusing on nutrition, health & sustainable living with a strong science-based approach, it became a true purpose led company. With the purpose of creating brighter lives for all, they committed themselves to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and set an aggressive GHG reduction commitments to the Science Based Targets in both scopes 1,2 and 3. They actively joined the Carbon Pricing Leadership Coalition with the World Bank, the Low Carbon Technology Partnerships Initiative with WBCSD, the Powering Past Coal Alliance with global governments and companies, the World Economic Forum CEO Climate Leaders initiative, the We Mean Business movement, the Carbon Disclosure Platform and the list goes on. All of that led by our CEO, Feike Sijbesma, who has a very inspirational message worth linking here

But I really got hooked and things became real and concrete to me when I had the chance to visit the company and talked to several people within the Animal Nutrition and Health department. At first, I learned that Sustainability is not a side department subjected to the corner of the office just focused on putting sustainability reports together and in talking to NGOs. No, it seats front and center in the global business unit and reports directly to the president of the division. It is responsible for the development and implementation of the ANH Sustainability Strategy at a global, regional and local level. Also works in close connection with almost all functions like Marcom, Global Species, Category Marketing Managers, Global Innovation, R&D teams and other functions. It is a strategically important position that has the goal to exert significant influence by installing sustainability as a business driver in ANH by leading and coaching sustainability in the ANH Marketing & Sales community, by building strong collaborative networks with key sustainability opinion leaders through the animal protein value chain and by supporting customer engagement on sustainability with business teams worldwide. All of that to help its customers and stakeholders to make animal proteins more sustainable, positioning DSM as the leading company globally in sustainable animal production. So they (now we) are really serious about it.

I also saw an intense work to measure, understand and improve the sustainability impacts of all current solutions in connection to one or more of the six sustainability platforms embraced by the company: tackling antimicrobial resistance; reducing our reliance on marine resources; reducing livestock emissions; efficient use of natural resources; safe, quality nutrition with less food loss and waste; lifetime performance and welfare. On point and very much connected to the major challenges I had the chance to experience in animal proteins globally. And all the new research and innovation developed by the company must address at least one of those six platforms or it cannot even be brought up.

Now that I am here at DSM and learning more about its portfolio, I am impressed by the capacity and by the great potential of precision micro-nutrition and feed additive solutions (enzymes, probiotics, eubiotics, vitamins and others), working in connection with best practices and other solutions, to address the biggest sustainability challenges facing animal proteins and its players. So, I am excited and very humbled by the opportunity to work along such creative, motivated and experienced professionals in animal nutrition like the ones I’m finding here at DSM to take these solutions to the field and, along with our customers and partners, make them a win-win reality at scale. Reducing drastically the environmental impacts of animal proteins, improving the profitability of farmers and of the entire value chain at the same time enhancing the welfare of animals and of the people working with them. I am super happy and excited to “get my hands dirty” with that.

More on DSM – Bright Science. Brighter Living.?

Royal DSM is a purpose-led global science-based company in Nutrition, Health and Sustainable Living. DSM is driving economic prosperity, environmental progress and social advances to create sustainable value for all stakeholders. DSM delivers innovative business solutions for human nutrition, animal nutrition, personal care and aroma, medical devices, green products and applications, and new mobility and connectivity. DSM and its associated companies deliver annual net sales of approximately €10 billion with over 23,000 employees. The company is listed on Euronext Amsterdam. More information can be found here: