Global food company Mars, Incorporated is committing US$1 billion within the next three years to cut 50% of its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. This follows a target to cut 100% of its emissions by 2050.
Prior to this, the company revealed limited progress toward meeting a previous emissions reduction target of 27% by 2025. At the time of reporting, Mars has only reached an 8% reduction against a 2015 baseline, with emissions peaking in 2018. During this time, the business grew by 60%.
The $1 billion investment will see a transition towards 100% renewable energy, with the company changing how it powers factories, offices, and veterinary hospitals. It will also look into energy used by farmers, the sourcing of ingredients, and those used by customers and consumers as well as pet owners at home.
Other efforts include redesigning its supply chain to curb deforestation, scaling up climate agriculture, optimizing recipes, improving logistics, and incorporating climate action into the business.
“I hope our roadmap clearly and powerfully demonstrates what Mars is doing and, critically, what we believe needs to happen at scale to help tackle the worst impacts of climate change.”
Its greatest challenge will be in decreasing Scope 3 emissions — which, like many food manufacturers, accounts for the largest portion of Mars’ footprint. More than 80% of total emissions come from the goods and services bought by Mars, Mars’s chief sustainability and procurement officer Barry Parkin told the Financial Times.
“Huge amounts of this is about raw materials and agriculture,” he explained. “We have to change what we buy, or where we buy or how we buy it.”
Mars purchases raw materials from 100 countries around the world, he added.
The company is aiming to reduce 80% of its emissions within its own value chain. According to Parkin, the rest would be offset through the carbon credit market.
“In effect, it’s the net of net zero,” he explained. “The net part for us will be about 20% and we’ll use those when we run out of other options down the road.”
Mars will only be using “reduction credits from very high-quality products”, Parkin said in response to the criticism of the carbon credit market. A number of tree protection projects within the market failed to deliver the emissions targets as promised, as reported by the Financial Times.
Achieving Net Zero by 2050
With an emissions footprint of a country the size of Finland, Mars is doubling down on efforts to cut emissions by introducing its Net Zero Roadmap, which aims to achieve net zero by 2050.
This follows recent revelations from UN-backed sources that it is “now or never” to take drastic action on climate change. An Ipsos survey commissioned by Mars further found that on average, 69% of adults across the world’s seven largest economies believe businesses should put equal or more focus on tackling climate change over economic challenges.
“The Mars Net Zero Roadmap includes details about how we believe net zero is achievable for Mars and serves as an open-source strategy companies across sectors can use to implement meaningful net zero action immediately,” Parkin said.
“This means including all emissions, prioritizing performance over promises, advancing progress with real milestones, making decisions today that reverberate tomorrow, and covering what can’t be cut with high-quality carbon credits.”
CEO Poul Weihrauch added that investing in emissions reductions is “sound business policy” and is “achievable, affordable” and “absolutely necessary”.
“We cannot wait for the economy to improve; we must push forward with investments that protect our business today and in the future,” he said. “… Profit and purpose are not enemies. Investment in climate is not a trade-off between planet and productivity, or between environment and employment. Consumers and our associates clearly want both — and so do we.”
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