Thinking Ahead - An ongoing conversation about soybeans and sustainability

Campbell Soup Co. recently released an update to its corporate social responsibility report outlining steps it has taken in CSR and identifying the goals it has set to achieve by 2020.

Among its CSR Corporate Imperative 2020 Destination Goals, are to cut the environmental footprint of its product portfolio in half as measured by water use and CO₂ emissions per ton of product produced.

This destination goal has a series of supporting goals which include:

• Reducing energy use by 35% per ton of product produced and sourcing 40% of the energy used by the company from renewable or alternative energy sources;
• Recycling 95% of waste generated on a global basis;
• Eliminating 100 million pounds of packaging from Campbell products;
• Delivering 100% of global packaging from sustainable materials (renewable, recyclable, or from recycled content);
• Reducing water use by 20% and energy use by 30% per ton in its top five agricultural ingredients.

Campbell Soup Company approaches CSR with a four-pronged, “nourishing” approach. Not only is it “Nourishing Our Planet” by cutting the environmental footprint of its product portfolio in half, as measured by water use and CO₂ emissions per product, its other initiatives include “nourishing” customers, neighbors and employees.

It plans to do this by increasing the nutrition and wellness profile of its products, achieving 100% employee engagement in CSR and sustainability and by “measurably improving the health of young people in their hometown communities by reducing hunger and childhood obesity by 50%.”

Integrating sustainability into the entire company and community creates a framework where all stakeholders become aware of corporate social responsibility and sustainability initiatives and presumably will consider those when making purchasing decisions.

How are your employees engaged in sustainability?

¹http://www.campbellsoupcompany.com/csr/pdfs/Campbells_2011_CSR_Report.pdf