Michigan cereal maker Kellogg announced a broad initiative today to tackle a number of environmental issues.
The company says its efforts will be focused in two areas:
- Responsible sourcing, and
- Conserving natural resources.
The company says it will “responsibly source its top 10 ingredients and materials by 2020, and validate compliance across all direct suppliers by 2015.”
They also say they will work to be more efficient with their packaging materials and will continue to work on reducing how much energy is used in making their products.
You can read more about all their “Global Sustainability 2020 Commitments” here.
Diane Holdorf is the the company's chief sustainability officer.
The company plans to educate and give resources to its suppliers to be more energy efficient as well as reduce water use and maintain healthier soil.
"We're really trying to look very holistically at the business and what makes sense, not just for us and what's right for the environment and society, but also for our consumers, our customers and our other stakeholders, knowing that not only is it what we expect of ourselves, but it's what others expect of us as well," Holdorf said.
More from John Flesher of the Associated Press:
Under the plan, the Battle Creek-based food products manufacturer will require key suppliers such as farms and mills to measure and publicly disclose their greenhouse gas outputs and targets for reducing them. The company said it will report annually on those emissions and include climate and deforestation policies in the company's code of conduct for suppliers.
Earlier this year, Oxfam International was critical of food companies for not doing enough to combat climate change. They called the Kellogg Company and General Mills "climate laggards."
Oxfam praised this latest effort by Kellogg.
– Alyse Guenther, Michigan Radio Newsroom
*This post was updated.
