Every Molecule Counts
Optimistic about the potential of our planet and its people
The world today faces great challenges. Yet at Tessenderlo Group, we are optimistic. Optimistic about the potential of our planet and its people. And optimistic in our belief that prosperity and sustainability can go hand in hand. That is because we are driven by a simple but powerful conviction:
Every Molecule Counts
We believe in the power of smart industry to create positive impact: our group is built with a clear focus on agriculture, food, water management, specialty upcycling, and energy. And in everything we do, we seek to further valorize the resources at our disposal. This counts just as much for the end products we make, which we constantly optimize, as for the by-products from our processes, which we consistently seek to repurpose as best we can.
Every Molecule Counts is a pragmatic, self-evident approach to sustainable manufacturing and business, ingrained in our DNA. Our group started off over 100 years ago, processing simple raw materials, such as sulfur, sodium, and potassium salts to manufacture sulfur-based fertilizers. To this day, we are still continuously improving these fertilizers, and proudly so, to help feed the world’s growing population as effectively as possible. But there’s more. When making sulfur-based fertilizers, side-streams of hydrochloric acid and chlorine are released. Contrary to the ways of working at the time, our founders did not want to let these side-streams go to waste, so they sought and developed new applications for them. That is how we started to make gelatin and collagen for use in food and health applications, for example. Or how we got to making ferric chloride for water treatment, supplying the city of Paris with fresh drinking water.
We are constantly transforming, optimizing processes, adding value, and upcycling materials that in many cases might otherwise have been discarded. That is how we make the most of our planet’s resources. Every Molecule Counts conveys our belief that any action, however small, can play its part in changing the world. This vision is tangible in our company culture today, and we owe that to our people, who make it count, pushing the needle, every single day.
