Everyone loves chocolate right? Well I definitely do so when I saw that Mars (Twix bars are one of my favourites) was launching a new sustainability plan as well as creating an M&Ms campaign focused on renewable energy I was intrigued. These initiatives seem to be as a result of the Paris climate deal and somewhat in backlash to Trump pulling the USA out of it.
I’m not going to lie, when I go to the store to buy chocolate, I don’t think about the company and whether its sustainably manufactured so I don’t really have a good background of the whole chocolate industry in terms of sustainability. However, upon further research into Mars, they appear to definitely have vastly increased their interest in sustainability and renewable resources in the last year or so. CEO, Grant F. Reid, said in an interview by The Guardian: “Mars has been in business for four generations and intends to be for the next four generations. The only way that will happen is if we do things differently to ensure that the planet is healthy and all people in our extended supply chains have the opportunity to thrive.” He clearly understands that in order to remain in business in the future, sustainability needs to be at the forefront of Mars’ mission, vision and values.
Mars’ plan is to invest $1bn into cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 67% by 2050, generating poverty reduction and sustainability programme for farmers and suppliers, as well as increasing their efforts surrounding food safety and security. I was also surprised to find out that they use 100% renewable electricity for their operations in Belgium, Brazil, Lithuania, the United Kingdom and the United States. This is definitely an amazing step in the right direction and I think if they continue to meet their goals they have set up for themselves they will definitely be around four decades from now.
Here are some video links for their initiatives that do well to summarize a lot of the information:
https://youtu.be/02D3O2EHw2A
https://youtu.be/LHkZz2nay04
I definitely recommend looking further into their website as they have so much information and transparency regarding their plans and current/future initiatives. Next time I go to buy a Twix bar it will make me feel even better because I know I am supporting a corporation that has sustainability at the forefront of its mind.