Dear Stakeholders,

Our continued success relies on our entrepreneurial spirit to examine market forces and identify services that respond to changing customer and societal needs. During the year we acquired outstanding businesses and in parallel developed new services in the areas of hydrocarbon fingerprinting, specialized seed testing under drought conditions, eco-fuel testing, compressed natural gas cylinder inspections, used oil testing, soil and ground water screening, integrated forest control services and a forest plantation standard. It is this responsiveness to customer needs coupled with our responsible business approach that enabled us to be recognized as a sustainability leader. For the second consecutive year SGS has been included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Europe Index, the most prestigious equity index for companies judged best in class in sustainable business management. This achievement would not have been possible without the talent and dedication of our teams around the world.

The leadership team has developed targets that will ensure we achieve our sustainability goals in line with business growth. Over the next three years we will focus on ‘doing more with less’; improving the energy efficiency of our offices and laboratories and ‘greening’ our global systems for IT, car fleets and procurement. We will also need to ensure that we have the right mix of technical skills and competencies in the business by advancing our programs on leadership, personal development, sustainability awareness, equal opportunities, human rights and community engagement. These initiatives form our core global sustainability programs which are fully owned by the functions and complement the many initiatives inspired by employees in our local operations which already contribute to sustainable development.

As we embark on this endeavour we will maintain our commitment to corporate sustainability and use our growing network to expand our reach further than ever before.

Chris Kirk
Chief Executive Officer