Mondelēz outlines progress against 'Snacking Made Right' ESG goals
CHICAGO — Mondelēz International Inc.'s 2021 Snacking Made Right report reveals progress against its short-term and long-term environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals for both the business and its stakeholders.
The Chicago-based company remains focused on leading in areas where it can help deliver more positive impact — including helping to build a thriving cocoa sector, reducing packaging waste, and reducing its environmental footprint.
ESG priorities remain a long-term value driver at Mondelēz. The report, released May 12, cites measurable progress against key areas of focus, including:
- Sustainable Ingredients: Reaching 209,954 Cocoa Life registered farmers (exceeding the 2022 goal of 200,000 program-registered cocoa farmers);
- Climate & Environment: A 21% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 CO2e emissions (baseline 2018);
- Packaging: 95% of packaging designed to be recyclable (up 1 percentage point since 2020);
- Employee & Community Well-being: 39% of women in executive leadership, exceeding the goal to double by 2024 (baseline 2018); and,
- Snacking Mindfully: 18% of packs feature Snack Mindfully portion icons (up +4 percentage points since 2020) and 17% of snacks net revenue from portion control snacks (up 1 percentage point since 2020).
"A sustainability mindset has long been integrated into our business growth strategy as we continue to create value, make our business more resilient and accelerate our ambition of building a more sustainable snacking company," said Dirk Van de Put, chairman and CEO of Mondelēz International.
"I am proud of the strong progress our company has made against our ambitious ESG goals, which are integral to the long-term success of our business and help us address some of the key issues facing the world at large," Van de Put added.
The company's ESG strategy and goals prioritize delivering lasting change at scale through innovative and holistic approaches, collaboration for sector-wide transformation, and adoption of measurable solutions. Also core to the company's purpose is empowering people to snack right by delivering the right snack, at the right moment, made the right way, according to Mondelēz.
"This year's report documents important milestones marking 10 years on our sustainability journey, in which we've achieved scale in our signature ingredient sourcing programs Cocoa Life and Harmony Wheat," said Christine Montenegro McGrath, senior vice-president and chief global impact and sustainability officer at Mondelēz International. "With Cocoa Life, we have built the largest cocoa sustainability program and have achieved the goal we set in 2012, investing more than $400 million in the program to support farmer livelihoods, reaching almost 210,000 cocoa farmers and, more importantly, seeing positive impact at scale.
"The issues we are tackling are systemic, requiring supply chain and business transformation. That's why our integrated approach is not only designed to tackle root causes, but also embedded into our business growth strategy. We are committed to measuring our impact and investing in scalable solutions and innovation so we can drive lasting change," McGrath added.
Beyond progress against 2025 goals, the company continued to demonstrate an ongoing commitment to advancing its ESG agenda with more ambitious goals, investments, and financing to tackle issues like climate change and packaging waste, including:
- Setting a long-term goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050;
- Investing in the Circulate Capital Ocean Fund to support the collection of more plastic waste than the company currently produces in India and South East Asia; and,
- Issuing the company's first green bond in September 2021- at the time the largest issuance in the packaged foods and consumer goods industry.
Mondelēz is known for many global and local snack brands including Oreo, belVita, Cadbury Dairy, Sour Patch Kids candy, and Trident gum. As part of its new growth strategy to expand its core snack categories, the company recently unveiled its long-term vision to generate 90% of revenue in chocolate and biscuits, including baked snacks. Last week the company announced plans to divest its gum business.
