Ladies and gentlemen, dear friends, dear shareholders, it's always a pleasure for me to welcome you to our annual general shareholders meeting. I'm even more so this year, as 2023 will undoubtedly be a milestone in the history of our group. I would like to welcome you all. Welcome to the familiar faces I see in the room, those I do not yet know, as well as the remote participants, of which there are many again this year. Welcome. Welcome all. I would like also to acknowledge the presence of our honorary president, whom I would like to thank for his constant support. I was just mentioning familiar faces, I think that those who regularly grace us with their presence have been with us for over a decade.
They've heard me insist a number of times on the implementation of three guiding principles, which I consider to be essential.
Where crisis, upheavals, and paradigm shifts follow one another at a staggering speed. Solvay must of course be agile and able to adapt very quickly. Agility and flexibility are n ot enough. We must constantly show our willingness to go beyond, to anticipate our customer needs, to offer them new solutions. We do this through innovation and continuous improvement. In short, through our passion for progress. We express this through the words we have chosen to describe who we are, progress beyond.
I'd like to insist on the imperative of economic performance, for it is by performing well that we are able to generate value for shareholders as well as for all of the stakeholders. It is thanks to our robust results that we are able to withstand shocks and weather storms while continuing to invest in order to remain agile and prepare for future performance. This is how the virtuous circle is set in motion, or rather, our upward spiral. I've repeatedly mentioned the importance of our values and historical roots that guide our actions, our behavior, as well as our interaction with the world around us. We've taken the time to formulate and to come up with the right wording for these values. We wish to further strengthen these values by uniting all our teams around one common goal.
We live these values every day, we live every day with these values in mind. They form the basis of our code of integrity and ethics. These values nurtured the quality of our social relationships; these are values which motivate us and our commitment to sustainable development. More recently, these values led to the creation of the Solvay Solidarity Fund, to which shareholders have so generously contributed. In all circumstances, our historical roots and values have enabled us to remain true to ourselves while remaining relevant in a world that is constantly changing. The reason I mention these three golden threads, ladies and gentlemen, is because they have materialized with unprecedented force in 2022. We've had a truly fabulous year, and this is what we're going to discuss together in this meeting.
Since I took over as the Chairman of the Board of Directors in 2012, we have often looked back on a year that was somewhat mixed. Some years, I remember, we were proud of our agility. At other times, we liked to emphasize our identity, and at other times, we posted strong results. This is actually the very first time since I've been speaking to you as Chairman of the Board of Directors, that these three clusters, agility, performance, and values, have been as strong as each other and have come together to form such a resounding success with record results across the board. Ilham, I'm sure, will come back to this.
The stars were aligned last year, and this did not happen by chance, but rather it was a result of a coherent, logical approach highlighted by decisive strategic decisions that we have taken over the past decade. Remember, back in 2009, we took the decision to sell the pharmaceuticals business in order to refocus on the businesses we knew best. We sold it well, and the proceeds from this sale enabled us to acquire Rhône-Poulenc's Chemicals, which had recovered impressively after a somewhat difficult period. In 2012, we were leading a new and promising group, which, however, still had structural flaws. First, complexity. We had no less than 26 different highly diversified businesses, which often confused our investors. We enjoyed a strong presence in Europe, about 60% of our sales. Three-quarters of sales were basically commodities and low value-added product.
We were very cyclical, with an EBITDA that could reach EUR 300 million one quarter, only to plunge into the red by EUR 100 million the next quarter. In terms of profitability and value creation, our performance lacked far behind that of our competitors. We rolled up our sleeves to unlock the potential of our group. We divested our most cyclical businesses. We rebalanced geographically. We invested in high value-added activities. We were on our way when Ilham joined us, but we still had some important weaknesses. Firstly, we were way too complex and difficult to understand, both for our own teams and for external stakeholders. Secondly, our organic growth was stalling. We had done a lot of mergers and acquisitions, but this was still not enough. We still had to learn organic growth again on our own.
If you remember, we could not turn our EBITDA into cash, which significantly limited our resources and restricted our ambitions. Finally, all this resulted in insufficient value creation and a low CFROI . The rest is probably more familiar to you. From 2019 onwards, a new wind started to blow through Solvay. We re-strategized all our businesses without exception, and the new group management gave each one a clear mandate, depending on its specificity: to grow, to build resilience or to optimize. They all had to learn to win, to win more across our different markets. You will certainly recognize these words growth, resilience, optimize and win. These are the initials which make up the acronym GROW. This is the strategic plan from which we are now reaping the rewards despite the successive crisis and 3 years ahead of schedule.
This rapid implementation naturally led us to consider the next step in our strategic plan sooner than we had originally planned. As our businesses progressed in line with their respective mandate, as we were reinventing our business model to enhance their performance, two distinct industry profiles became clear, each with its own ambitions.
Essential chemicals with a business model focused on resilience, operational excellence and profitability. Specialty businesses driven by innovation and anticipation of unmet needs. To continue growing at the pace of ever-changing customers, the specialty businesses must be able to take agile and ambitious initiatives. The essential businesses, on the other hand, must be able to further strengthen their leadership while continuing their progress towards carbon neutrality. In both cases, strategic and operational decisions are required and specific needs are merging that can only be met within the framework of two independent structures. As you know, this is the spirit of our Power of Two project. It is in this spirit that we are working hard to create the conditions to present to you in December a project that should lead to the creation of two champions.
Two public, independent, strong companies, both with a solid shareholder base that will allow us to serenely prepare a promising future for each of them, SpecialtyCo and EssentialCo.
I'm pleased to see that our performance and our plans seem to inspire the financial markets since our share price has significantly outperformed the chemical sector of the STOXX 600. Over the past year, we've done better than the STOXX 600 by 5% and the chemical sector by about 10%. If we look at the beginning of 2022, it is even more pronounced, +8% for Solvay, -10% for specialty chemicals, and almost -30% for diversified chemical groups. These spectacular results achieved in 2022 allow us to propose at this year's annual general shareholders meeting a growth dividend of EUR 4.05 per share, which is an unprecedented increase in our history.
Let me emphasize that in this exceptional year, we've created value for all our stakeholders, including our employees, whom we've also supported to better cope with inflation. We also launched an employee share purchase plan, which has been more successful than the norm for similar projects. Of course, we've created value for our customers, but also for future generations whom we serve through groundbreaking innovations. I think here in particular of the reinvention of the soda ash production process that bears the name of our founder. I'm also thinking of new non-fluor surfactant manufacturing processes that will help create a cleaner and safer future. Before concluding, I'd like to briefly mention a few points related to the governance of our group.
In order to continue to raise the bar, the board of directors last year carried out an in-depth evaluation of the functioning of its board under the guidance of GUBERNA, the benchmark for good governance in Belgium. The conclusions of this audit have just been presented to the board. Even though they are very flattering for Solvay, GUBERNA suggests a few areas for improvement, which of course we intend to implement with all due diligence. These include, for example, the need to clarify the activities of our ESG committee in relation to the finance committee and the audit committee, or to maintain a focus on new issues and societal trends such as cybersecurity and digitalization. As for the board of directors, you will soon be asked to vote on the renewal of the terms of office of Mrs. Marjan Oudeman and Mrs. Rosemary Thorne.
It is also at the end of this meeting that the resignation of Mrs. Laurence Debroux takes effect, motivated entirely by the increased and competing demands on her schedule that would prevent her from fulfilling her role as a member of the board in the future. On behalf of the board, I would like to take note of her decision, and I duly respect this decision. On behalf of the board, I would like to thank her for her contribution. The term of office of Mr. Charles Casimir-Lambert, a member of the board of directors since 2007 and member of the finance committee, and previously member of the audit committee, expires at the end of this meeting. On behalf of all of us, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to him for his dedication and hard work.
Throughout these years, Charles' voice has been one of the most distinctive, strong and assertive, and always constructive. It has greatly contributed to putting sustainability and the long-term vision at the heart of our group's concern, and I would like to thank him very warmly for that. Following these changes, the board of directors will be made of 13 members, including six women and nine independent directors. As I mentioned, our 2022 results have been spectacular. We have set the bar very high, and that makes the comparison all the more challenging. Ilham will report in more detail on the first quarter of this year, in which Solvay delivered another strong quarter of performance, raised the EBITDA and cash flow forecast for the year, while accelerating investment for sustainable growth.
Illustrates the need to continue the strategic trajectory begun a little over a decade ago, with the next step being the creation of two powerful companies with strong management and solid prospects for the future. We intend to achieve this while remaining true to ourselves, to who we are. We will pass on 160 years of history and values to those two new companies, champions carried by the women and men who are driving our group today.
I'd like to conclude by expressing my gratitude to our teams. I would like to thank them for their unwavering commitment quarter after quarter in an uncertain world, and as Solvay tirelessly implements with enthusiasm and determination all the changes that we deem necessary to remain relevant and successful. My special thanks go to Ilham Kadri, our CEO, who has managed to set the pace and inject new energy into our group to achieve unprecedented results. Finally, I would like to thank you, ladies and gentlemen, as well as all of the shareholders for placing your trust in us. I'm delighted to share with you at this meeting the enthusiasm that we all feel here at the idea of making history. Since she arrived in 2019 concerning transformation.
[Foreign language] let me first extend a warm welcome to all of you, and happy birthday to Solvay.
There are not many companies in the world that have reached the 160-year mark. I invite you to make yourself comfortable as I propose to do something very unique in a life. I propose to leaf through the family album. At age 21, Ernest started his first test on ammonia saturated waters at his uncle's factory. Just 2 years later, he filed his first patent, which was, by the way, rejected. This didn't stop the young Ernest. At age 25, he wrote actually a much better articulated second patent. Although all the experts in the industry promised failure, he set up Solvay and Company on December 26, 1863. This is our birth date, our kilometer 0 in a way, of what would become a great adventure. An adventure full of surprises, shocks, failures and successes, an adventure full of humanity.
Throughout this fragile startup time, Ernest could rely on indefectible support of his younger brother, Alfred, who was, by the way, commercially savvy and a social-minded leader. They were not alone. Next to the duo, the business angels, Nellie Grinage , and Lambert, stood firm during difficult times and maintained their trust in the venture until its full success. Solvay process. I personally learned it as many scientists and chemists at school. It was a technological breakthrough, by the way, much more environmentally friendly than an existing process called Leblanc process. It produces soda ash that was used to manufacture glass, soap, and paper, bringing light, purity, and stories to our world. In a typical startup mode, the Solvay brothers boldly invested every penny available to them, leading to the first production plant in Belgium. It was not walk in the park, it was not easy at all.
They never lost faith, and every setback only increased their resolve, their determination, and this fueled their ability to continually innovate, scale up, and create the largest chemical company in the world, post-World War I. Imagine now. Imagine we are in the early 20th century. Ernest, surrounded by talented technicians, chemists, engineers, who developed the Solvay process, which quickly, by the way, started maturing and durably overpassed all competitors. Solvay was less than 40 years old, and it was already a pioneer in the way it treated all its workers. Believe it or not, it implemented healthcare for all, pensions for its workers, 8-hour working day regime, paid holidays, and a housing program for its staff. In brief, a culture of caring. In addition, the company invested to improve the urban landscape for employees and for local communities.
These foundations placed Solvay at the forefront of socially responsible capitalism. Now, as we mark our 160-year anniversary, we celebrate our long-lasting legacy in science. The Solvay Conferences are an endless source of inspiration, and not just for scientists. It all started in 1911 when Ernest accepted to host the very first Solvay Conference with the greatest minds of the time. Amongst many others, you know them. Albert Einstein, Max Planck, Marie Curie participated. Those are my favorites. The conference paved the way to the birth of modern physics or quantum physics, as you know. Since this iconic photo was taken, 28 conferences on physics and 20 conferences on chemistry have taken place. If you Google described the photo as the most intelligent picture ever taken in human history, with 17 Nobel Prizes winners out of the 29 attendees.
Amazing, isn't it? 86 years later, in 2013, our company initiated the biannual Solvay Prize to recognize major scientific discoveries with the potential of advancing human progress. Two of the five Solvay Prize laureates were subsequently awarded the Nobel Prize. Did you know that? I like to think that the Solvay Prize is for the Nobel Prize, what the Grammy Awards are for the Oscars. Joke aside, Carolyn Bertozzi and Kati Karikó, good friends of mine, the first two women winners of the Solvay Prize, I have nothing to do with that, have been profiled in a book called Adèle and the Women of Solvay, alongside 22 other women who shaped Solvay's history. The benefits will be donated to charities dedicated to girls' education.
In the expectation that many of you will want to make your contribution to this worthy cause, you can pre-order it here, in the reception hall. Ladies and gentlemen, do you realize that we have been trained throughout the past 160 years on transmission? We are good at that. We transmit the heritage of previous generation and the legacy that we keep on building through disrupting and reinventing progress. Transmission is what ties our past to our future. Transmission to the next generation or next gen of shareholders, many of them are attending today. Thank you for joining us. Transmission to the next generation of employees, including those joining us and those leaving us. They all remember Solvay. They remember its values, its passion for science. Transmission ensures we are part of a chain that's bigger than us.
Indeed, I would like to thank all my predecessors, some of whom are with us today, physically or virtually. Transmission from one generation of leaders to the most recent, like myself and the executive leadership team on the podium today. Our team's pride and legacy over the past 4 years combines a solid financial performance and accelerated progress on the One Planet sustainability roadmap, while equally advancing equity and inclusion at the service of diversity. The progress that has been revealed in the last years would not have been possible without the collective wisdom, support, and counsel of our board of directors present here, and in particular, our Chairman, Nicolas Boël, a great partner in this journey.
The strong bond that we have forged has helped all of us at Solvay to navigate uncertainty, overcome challenges, take some tough decisions, and helps us to be a better version of ourselves. Remember, 9 months after I joined the company, we launched the growth strategy. This enabled us to realign our businesses into 3 segments: materials, chemicals, and solutions. Each one of them with a distinct strategic mandate and a customized allocation of resources. These past 4 years have been exceptionally intense, to say the least, by the way. We steered the company through a global pandemic, a geopolitical crisis, and a raging war just next door, as well as macroeconomic turmoil. In those ever-changing circumstances, what did our people do? They adapted. They proved their ability to navigate challenging environments and delivered our growth strategy 3 years ahead of time. We over-delivered on EBITDA growth.
We also did well on cash conversion. We exceeded our expectations on returns, and we more than delivered on our promises in every respect. In fact, over the past 4 years, Solvay became stronger and better. As our president said, 2022 was our best year so far. You may not know, but we launched a global commercial excellence training for all commercial teams in 2021. Little did we know that our talented commercial teams would barely have the time to practice their skills before they were asked to overcome last year unprecedented inflationary environments. They delivered. In fact, they delivered a net pricing of EUR 1 billion in 2022 without losing market share. The combination of strong pricing and volume increase allowed us to deliver 26% growth in net sales with every business contributing.
EBITDA was up 29% organically from 2021. We were happy to pass the mark of EUR 3 billion for the first time in the company's history. Our margins reached 24% in 2022, which is higher than most of our peers. Interestingly enough, we also became a billionaire in free cash flow. I like that. Remember, cash was one of my first priorities when I joined the company. I can assure you that we have structurally improved cash generation. Last year's quarter four was the 15th consecutive quarter of positive free cash flow, reaching a total cumulative of EUR 3.5 billion in cash we generated since 2019. Now my favorite, the most difficult one, return on capital employed.
It's important because it helps explain how efficiently we are using the capital that you have been entrusted with, we have been entrusted with, and you have given us. The fact speaks for themselves as we doubled the ROCE, return on capital employed since 2019. This improvement is the culmination of upgrading our operational performance, optimizing our industrial footprints, shutting down unprofitable capacity, improving the quality of our portfolio of businesses, and it is despite the fact that we invest significantly more in our future than before. I'm also particularly proud of the speed and the magnitude of our deleveraging. Our debt ratio in December 2022 was 1.1 x, the lowest ratio since 2015. In fact, our net debt has gone down EUR 1.8 billion, as you can see, since 2019.
We also made substantial voluntary contributions to reduce our pension liabilities, which have been a nail in the shoe of Solvay since a long time, which are now about EUR 1.6 billion below 2019. My dear shareholders, as a result of this strong performance, we recommend a dividend increase of EUR 0.20 for a total dividend of EUR 4.05 per share, which if approved, would be our highest increase to date. Now you may wonder, how does Solvay compare to its peers? Look at this. Our EBITDA growth has been trending positively in the past years, Solvay is now in the top quartile. Our margins were never weak, we've taken off. This is a real case of raising the bar. Finally, as cash and returns are concerned, it's worth simply noting the progress from laggards to leaders.
While we became a billionaire in cash, we also became a billionaire in our investment to build now the future. I like that because we have great projects. We accelerated and invested in large projects to unleash our growth and empower our energy transition. This is so instrumental for the future success of EssentialCo and SpecialtyCo companies. We have many e-examples, but amongst many growth organic investments, last year, we expanded our PVDF line in China to support the high-end electrification automotive markets. We also increased our sodium bicarbonate capacity in Bulgaria to meet the growing demand for removing pollutants from industrial flue gas. We also invested in rare earth capabilities in France to support Europe's growing demand for more sovereignty, as you know, in the permanent magnet sector. Quarter one.
In quarter one this year, we have maintained strong momentum with another decent set of results, to say the least, beating consensus, raising full year guidance for profit and cash while keeping investing in sustainable growth. Our net sales grew 2% organically to EUR 3.2 billion, driven by higher prices, which more than compensated for decline in market demand. We grew EBITDA by 22% to EUR 839 million and generated EUR 125 million in free cash flow despite higher investments in working capital and in CapEx, capital expenditures. As you have heard, we also sold our 50% stake in RusVinyl, the Russian vinyls joint venture. You will remember that Solvay stopped cashing in dividends from RusVinyl after the attack on Ukraine.
We have now pulled out completely from Russia. We used the proceeds to reduce our net debt with a new historical low ratio of 1x . Finally, we again improved our return on capital employed or ROCE to reach a record of 16.7%. Moving on to our outlook. We're raising our 2023 guidance for profits and cash. We now estimate EBITDA in a range between +2% and -5% on an organic basis, and we're increasing our full year 2023 free cash flow guidance to deliver around EUR 900 million. Ladies and gentlemen, the future we transmit to our new champion companies to future generations can only be as strong as the foundation that have been created today and yesterday. As you have seen, the financial foundations are deep and strong. There is more to that.
We firmly believe that the present and future of science are green. Sustainability became mainstream at Solvay. We will be transmitting a strong foundation framed by our bold, ambitious, holistic One Planet around climate, resources and better life people. By the way, we report every year on our progress. We ensure that key facts are audited. More importantly, to make sure that we fulfill our ambitions, our progress on the extra financials impacts employees' pockets. Variable pay at 15% for the whole group, including our manufacturing associates. Remember, in 2019, we joined the Paris Agreement. We aligned our trajectory with the well below 2 degrees Celsius goal. Since then, we announced plans to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 for the soda ash activity and by 2040 for the rest of our activities.
More recently, you may have read it in the press, we committed to reducing our Scope 3 emissions, which are the indirect emissions up and down the value chain by 24% by 2030. By the way, we are one of the very few companies in the chemical sector to have set such a target approved by SBTi, the Science Based Targets initiative. Over the past four years, we have made sure to translate these goals into actions and results. Let's have a look. As we speak, we have 15 line projects are underway to accelerate our energy transition. When completed, this is the equivalent of taking around 2 million petrol cars off the road every year. On phasing out coal by 2030, we are on track wherever alternatives are available.
Rheinberg was the first soda ash worldwide to be powered by biomass based on non-recyclable wood waste. Dombasle, another one. Dombasle site will introduce energy with industrial and household waste, your waste, your bins from 2024 onward. It is the first and the largest project of its kind in France and probably in Europe. By the way, the Dombasle site is hosting one of my favorites, our most disruptive process innovations we undertook last year in the group. Its nickname, Ernest 2.0. If successful, it will become the new Solvay process, brushing up the old one with some sizable improvements in CO2 emissions, reduction in water, salt, and limestone consumptions, and can accelerate our carbon neutrality. Last year, we also announced the first step in our largest European site in Devnya, Bulgaria, by converting a boiler to biomass, this time based on sunflower farming waste.
We are also investing in methane abatements by implementing an innovative new technology to cut emissions at our Green River, Wyoming site in the United States of America. We have also accelerated our shift to renewable electricity. Look at this. In the United States of America, almost all our plants are now fully operating on green electricity. Did you know that? In China, 100% of our operations are now supplied with the renewable electricity. Moving to Europe, our Voikkaa peroxide site in Finland will operate entirely on wind energy by the end of this year. By 2025, a new solar facility will provide green electricity for Tavaux and Chalon plants in France. Of course, we will not stop there.
In 2022, as you can see, we reduced our structural Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas emissions inside our walls by 15% structurally compared to 2018, delivering almost twice the target set by Paris Agreement in just 3 years. We also reduced our structural Scope 3 reduction by 18% over the same period of time. Today, I'm not just hopeful optimist. I am confident that we will drive progress relentlessly until we reach our goals for the planet and its people. As I like to say, chemistry is the mother of all sciences. Yeah, I'm biased. I'm chemist by background.
The chemical industry is the mother of all industries, and it has a key role to play in helping us transition to a circular economy by reinventing the way we think, the way we innovate, the way we manufacture products from sourcing to end of life, I should rather say a new life. Look at this. Our circular business reached 9% by shifting to recycled biomaterials and renewable feedstocks. Also last year, we launched a new baby, our fourth platform focused on renewable materials and biotechnology. Now, more than 200 Solvay researchers in Brazil, in the United States of America, in Europe, in India, are working together to accelerate the integration of sustainable renewable feedstock into our own products, reinventing chemistry. We are a market leader with the sustainable guar feedstock used in hair and body care formulation, as you may know.
We are a market leader of natural vanillin biosourced from wasted rice bran we throw in the bin and used in your tasty macarons, probably in flavors and fragrances. Last year, by the way, we further invested in the vertical integration of natural vanillin biofermentation in Portugal. We are also teaming up to work on the recycling of single-use surgical instruments molded in Ixef, that's the brand name, our glass fiber-reinforced polymer. We launched last year 2 new high-performance biosurfactants made from 100% bio-based ingredients. I can go on and go on. Simply outstanding. Let me now move to who is making it happen, move to the people's agenda before concluding. At Solvay, the best talent to join us, to stay with us, to stick with us, to grow with us.
We want them to bring their whole selves at work. Many people got their first job at Solvay, and then gradually ascended up the ladder. Someone even started as an intern at 20, and then became a CEO. Not a joke. It's me. 22,000 employees have chosen our purpose. We bond. We bond people, ideas, and elements to reinvent progress. In 2022, we gave our employees a special inflation bonus to help more those who were hit the hardest. We also increased our global performance sharing plan, this is for non-executive, to EUR 15 million. As our president say, 2022 will be remembered. We will be remembered as the year of the employee shareholding program. By the way, the first of its kind since the company went public in 1967.
Today, 5,000 employees at all levels have skin in the game and decided to become shareholders just like you. With higher participations from our manufacturing site workers and our Asian colleagues, I would like to salute today, including our representatives, by the way, from the European Works Councils and IndustriALL, who also joined us just like they did last year. Thank you. Ernest was in my heart and mind, and was in our hearts and minds when we decided to extend the parental leave to 16 weeks. To any co-parent, by the way, regardless of gender and sexual orientation. This is not an anecdote. Look at this. Over the past two years, 642 Solvay babies enjoyed their father, mothers, or co-parents worldwide. Undoubtedly, more are on the way. Think about it.
If you want to help a woman to reach the top, help their spouses during critical periods of their family lives, called maternity. Last year, we made compelling progress on our Solvay One Dignity roadmap with plenty of initiatives and achievements. Amongst many, you can see here in the slide, and for the first time in our history, we did our coming out. Never late to do it. Published the results of the gender pay gap in our annual report. I'm very pleased, and we will not stop here. Far this year, we have taken 951 corrective measures. When there is an injustice, you should fix it, and we will not stop there. Now at Solvay, we reset what leadership is. A great leader is a great team player.
We tell our leaders to be more present and attentive, to be grounded and balanced, that's our vocabulary. To better listen to the needs of others while fostering a safe environment for giving and receiving feedback. At Solvay, feedback is a gift. We ask our people to bring their whole selves to work. Therefore, we trained ourselves on unconscious biases because we all have one. We just want to track them down and effectively root them out. As you may have heard, at Solvay, we are not just customer intimate, we are customer obsessed. We want to be the one our customers call first when they have a problem. We want to sell our value proposition rather than selling our products. It looks simple, but I can tell you, this is a real change of mindset.
Our sales academy is an e-learning and instructor-led training school supporting our commercial teams with a curriculum inside our walls in order to upgrade their skills from negotiating tactics to strategic key account management. We are building up a team of hunters. One thing which is worth more than 1,000 words, even if I already probably hit the 1,000 words by now, is our engagement score. 79% according to the latest Pulse survey. 75% of our employees are satisfied and proud to be employed by Solvay, at Solvay, and 70% would recommend the company as a good place to work. I know I would. We are managing the others. Now look at our very first wall of fame in our history. Love these pictures. Some of our 59 commercial and performance winners. They are our heroes.
By the way, I know many are joining us online, some are with us today in the room, right? Let me ask you to stand up, please. Do we have people in the room? Go ahead. Don't be shy. Yeah, go. All the others, please give them a warm applause. 59 who got the Solvay CEO Awards, and I tell you, we would not have done the performance last year without these people and all the others. Congratulations again. Our efforts are getting recognized by ESG institutions, rating agencies, and of course, we continue raising the bar. Nicolas said it very well, the Solvay Solidarity Fund continues to act in caring for workers in need and local communities suffering in hardship. Thank you. Thank you for your generosity.
With your generosity, we already donated close to EUR 10 million to thousands of families around the world that were affected by the pandemic, with initiatives such as urgent healthcare needs. We provided mental health support to caregivers, for example, and assistance in school. We also supported families and kids suffering from the Ukrainian War, unbearable war. We supported flood victims near our home here in Belgium, or those who were in hardship due to the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, for examples. Those are just few examples. Examples say a lot about us, the caring and bonding which brings out the human in all of us, and it gives hope. I'm gonna tell you a story with a customer. When we were working on our purpose, one of our customers told me that Solvay is a workhorse aspiring to be a racehorse. Stuck with me, you know.
I tried to understand what he was meaning. We wondered with the team, how does our magnificent and massive global enterprise become a racehorse? Solvay covers so much ground these days, so many different specialties. What do we favor in terms of resource allocations? Our essentials that have been steadily delivering for the past 160 years, or our breakthrough technologies in the growth, materials, resource, and customer segments. The truth is simple. The truth is that each entity deserves to grow, leveraging on its uniqueness. Combined with our progress in recent years, we now have solid foundations and the ability to make choices between you and me that were not available few years back.
Why, why one Solvay works amazingly well, as we've shown, with two Solvays, two industry leaders with their own resources, their own strategies, their own markets, their own operating models, their own stakeholders' priorities, we can fully unleash their full potential. I will tell that customer that we could finally become not one, but two racehorses. Let's have a look now on what our people tell about transmission to EssentialCo and SpecialtyCo.
What I want to pass on to the 160 years old, 2 new startup company is our Solvay One Dignity culture.
To pass on our focus on people and diversity, equity, and inclusion, that I've seen so far during my time at Solvay to make sure we continue to do the best we can.
We hope to pass on community involvement and engagement to the companies because we're all part of the communities that we work in.
We thought that the older workers will pass on their knowledge to the younger, so you have more of a mentorship thing going on. There's a lot of knowledge.
Mentor and coach young people to help them reach their highest potential.
I would like the two champions dare to make sustainability a reality.
I would encourage all to be resilient.
Our message to both EssentialCo and SpecialtyCo is to continue the deeply rooted social dialogue we have built in Solvay and which has proved to be on numerous occasions beneficial to both employees and the company.
Work together to achieve common goals and educate on how Solvay is a part of everyday life.
Pursuing the diversification and creating the inclusive environment to further unleash the potential of the local organization.
I want both champions to see sustainability as the opportunity to build the company that everyone wants to work for, everyone wants to buy from, everyone wants to invest in.
Enable the local organization to win the local market.
I like the cultural diversity we have now and the cultural events we have, like our cultural, culinary event we had at the operetta cycle.
To carry on with the proud history that we've established and to embrace boldly the new opportunities to come.
I'm sure it resonates. Social care, transmission, that's what our employees are telling us. They're not afraid. Ladies and gentlemen, we are the builders of cathedrals. By the way, the construction of the great Gothic cathedral spanned over generations. Does the building of Solvay. Each generation responsible for delivering its parts while participating in a project that far outlives it. Over the past 160 years, we have strengthened the foundation of our cathedral. We have strengthened its finances. We have strengthened its culture. Today, we want to assure you that there won't be a clean break between the old and the new, not at all. We want to assure you that we are preparing the split and all the while conducting business.
This is not either/or, but simply both, which is why we choose to have one team dedicated to the split, a project management office that's up and running while everyone else continues to focus on their work to ensure business continuity. We're not closing up shop. We are not packing and going. On the contrary, our plants, our products, everything we've built so far, everything is here to stay and to improve even. Our teams are here to stay, to continue to do what they do best, keeping the creative cogs turning and thinking up new projects. Our customers are here to stay, and we want to remain their preferred partner. We are actively preparing the future following the timeline we shared with you a few months ago. I'm pleased to tell you that we are on track.
EssentialCo generated EUR 25.5 billion of net sales in 2022, well-balanced across the globe. It operates in 45 countries globally. As you know by now, EssentialCo is a world leader in essential chemical products and services, providing technologies to attractive end markets, including building, automotive, food, or healthcare industries. It is devoted to maximize cash generation and enhance cost leadership through one service, lean, operating a frugal model with a strong pricing discipline, focusing on process innovation and operational excellence in everything it does. Very simple. It will pursue its decarbonization commitments, exiting coal latest by 2030, wherever renewable energy is available. It will reach carbon neutrality latest by 2050. Let's move now to SpecialtyCo. It generated EUR 7.8 billion of net sales in 2022.
It's also well-balanced across the globe as it operates in 68 countries. North America, by the way, being the largest region of sales. SpecialtyCo is a pure-play world leader in materials at the service of megatrends, such as lightweighting, electrification, and digitalization, which supports growth in markets, including automotive, electronics, and healthcare. Its second leg, consumers and resources, provides the world with specialized formulations for beauty, food, fragrances or mining applications. SpecialtyCo is devoted to achieve a bold market growth and strong returns through superior spending in products, research and innovation while being very much application-driven with flexible assets responding to customer needs and admin needs. By the way, those customers are ready to pay for customization and differentiation. It will, of course, pursue its own One Planet decarbonization plans and will reach carbon neutrality latest by 2040.
The manifestos I'm going to show you are a very important step in the construction of the identities of Solvay future companies, EssentialCo and SpecialtyCo. We have interviewed our employees, more than 600 external stakeholders, our leaders, to better understand how they perceive us today, their needs and met needs, so we can propose two identities which match expectations. There is a lot to take in. I show you now two videos, and I invite you to settle. Please listen not only with your head, but more importantly, with your heart as well. Ready? Let's go.
Life is made of elements coming together. We are mastering the elements. Over the past 160 years, our obsession to reach excellence has been driving us to achieve mastery of our processes. Invisible and yet so vital. Our products are at the heart of everyone's life. The essential solutions of continuous progress for our planet and its people. Generation after generation. We are Eco, mastering the elements essential to our world.
Like a heartbeat. Let's pause for a few minutes. Let this sink in. I don't know about you, but I love the notion of mastery for 160 years. This reflects perfectly the skills, the technology, and our market leadership in essential co-businesses. Make sense? Ready for the second manifesto? Let's go.
The future is rich with unexplored possibilities. We are explorers. People from many horizons who dream the impossible, solve the unsolvable, partnering to pioneer the future of science. Because a sustainable future starts with our commitment. Our solutions and innovations are the catalysts that open new frontiers for the planet and its people. We are ESCO, explorers creating breakthroughs that advance humanity.
Like a heartbeat. Take a moment to gather your thoughts and more importantly, your feelings. Explorers, like the brilliant minds remember whom Ernest Solvay once gathered to advance humanity's knowledge. Mastery and exploration. They're not just exciting words on a slide. They give us and you a foretaste of what the company's purposes will be. Our work and intent is to unlock value by moving with this separation into 2 independent, publicly listed company designed to sharpen the strategic focus, optimize the growth opportunities. EssentialCo being an essential chemicals leader with resilient cash generation, while SpecialtyCo being a pure-play specialty leader with an accelerated growth potential. I hope that you can see the differences between the 2 identities, the 2 operating models, the 2 business profiles. I'm really looking forward to the next steps of this fantastic journey.
Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you appreciate the progress that we have made in the 4 recent years. That story, by the way, is already written in our history. We are not here for closing the album, this album. In fact, we are at the cusp of starting two new chapters, and I'm so excited by the fact that the best is ahead of us. Inspired by Ernest's passion for science and his social conscience, which, as you know, is deeply embedded in our DNA. Here is to another 160 years of Solvay and then some. Our science-loving legacy is continuing to live through our next generation to come.