Royal DSM, the global Life Sciences and Materials Sciences company headquartered in the Netherlands, has continued again its number one position in the chemical industry sector in the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index published last week. Since 2004, DSM has been named six times the worldwide sustainability leader in this sector and twice ranked amongst the very top leaders in the sector.

Feike Sijbesma, CEO/Chairman of the DSM Managing Board, said: "We are very proud to be listed again as the leader in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. This is a recognition of our continuous efforts in this field. Sustainability is one of our core values and increasingly one of our key business growth drivers. We continuously strive for sustainable solutions that create value for society, customers, our employees and shareholders."

DSM uses its unique capabilities in Life Sciences and Materials Sciences to address three key global societal trends: Global Shifts, Climate && Energy and Health & Wellness. The main underlying drivers of these trends are the world's population growth and increasing life expectancy on the one hand, and increasing economic prosperity in the high growth economies on the other. The three trends are creating new needs for millions of people across the globe. DSM aims to meet these needs by providing innovative and sustainable solutions.

This year, DSM once again took concrete steps to actively reduce not only its own but also its customers' carbon and ecological footprint with innovative products and processes. In the first half of 2011, 87 per cent of DSM's innovation pipeline were ECO+ solutions. In addition, DSM announced that it will open a new commercial scale bio-based succinic acid plant in Italy, in cooperation with Roquette, and strengthened its yeast technology leadership for second-generation biofuels by acquiring the C5 Yeast Company.

DSM also further built its successful and long-standing collaboration with the United Nations World Food Programme and increased its advocacy and implementation activities to fight hidden hunger and malnutrition around the world through a partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to collectively work to meet the nutritional challenges presented in the developing world.