Food Giants Urge Climate Change Action

Posted

Ceres food and beverageGlobal food companies have pledged to accelerate business action on climate change and urged governments to do the same by forging an international agreement this December at the Paris climate negotiations.

CEOs of Mars, General Mills, Unilever, Kellogg, Nestle USA, New Belgium Brewing, Ben & Jerry’s, Clif Bar, Stonyfield Farm and Dannon USA released a joint letter to US and world leaders, an effort coordinated by nonprofit sustainability advocacy organization Ceres. Companies signing the letter are members of Ceres’ Business for Innovative Climate and Energy Policy (BICEP).

Many of the companies have set targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and driving sustainable sourcing in their supply chains. Mars, Unilever and Nestle, for example, have each pledged to achieve 100 percent renewable energy across their operations, through RE100.

Additionally:

Mars has pledged to eliminate all fossil fuels from its operations by 2040. The company is on track to achieve a 25 percent reduction in its carbon emissions by the end of 2015, in comparison to 2007.

Unilever, as part of its Sustainable Living Plan, has set a goal to halve the greenhouse gas impact of its products across the lifecycle by 2020.

Nestle has set targets to reduce direct greenhouse gas emissions per ton of product by 35 percent since 2005, by 2015.

General Mills has committed to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 28 percent across its full value chain over the next 10 years. The company says its commitment was calculated using science-based methodology to achieve a level of emission reductions that science suggests is necessary to sustain the health of the planet.

Kellogg’s 2020 sustainability goals include expanding use of low-carbon energy in its plants by 50 percent and reducing energy and GHG emissions in our plants by an additional 15 percent (per metric ton of food produced) from 2015 performance.

Environment + Energy Leader