Chocolate manufacturer Mars promises $1B to fight climate change

[DonViejo]

Source: The Hill



BY JOHN BOWDEN - 09/06/17 11:01 AM EDT

A major chocolate company announced Tuesday that it would spend close to $1 billion over the next several years to reduce its environmental impact and fight climate change.

Mars, Inc., which manufactures M&Ms, Skittles and other popular candies, told Business Insider that the company's goal is to reduce its carbon footprint by 60 percent by the year 2050.

"There are obviously commitments the world is leaning into but, frankly, we don't think we're getting there fast enough collectively. We're trying to go all in here," said Barry Parkin, Mars' chief sustainability officer.

The move is meant to spur other companies to take action ahead of the United Nations General Assembly and Climate Week taking place in New York later this month. Parkin said that Mars' decision ultimately came down to protecting the farmers who supply Mars with materials. "We're a food business, which is based on agriculture so we care a lot about the farmers who supply us around the world. It's towards 1 million farmers around the world who produce raw materials for us," Parkin said.



Read more: http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/349410-chocolate-giant-mars-pledges-1-billion-to-fight-climate-change

[edhopper]

1. Time to buy more

peanut M&Ms. How about people buy Mars candy for Halloween to support this.

They are privately held, so none of that shareholders excuses most corporations use.

Just put out a good product and do the right thing.

[forgotmylogin]

23. SWEET!

Mars Chocolate features 29 brands in total, including five billion-dollar global brands: M&M'S®, SNICKERS®, DOVE®/GALAXY®, MARS®/MILKY WAY® and TWIX®.

In February 2016, Mars stated that it would no longer be using artificial colors in each of its candy products.

I predict Halloween will be very chocolatey.

Many Mars products are household, famous-name brands. Some of these product lines are manufactured by Mars; others are manufactured by The Wrigley Company.

Products for human consumption

A Bounty bar
Galaxy Minstrels
3 Musketeers
Arj
Bounty
Celebrations
Cirku
CocoaVia
Combos
Dolmio
Dove
Ebly
Ethel M
FLAVIA
Fling
Flyte
Galaxy
Galaxy Bubbles
Galaxy Minstrels
goodnessknows
Kudos

A Twix bar
M-Azing
M&M's
Maltesers
Marathon
Mars
Masterfoods
Milky Way
Minstrels
Munch
Promite
Revels
Seeds of Change
Snickers
Topic
Tracker
Treets
Twix
Uncle Ben's Rice

Products manufactured by The Wrigley Company

5 gum cobalt packaging
5 (gum)
Airwaves
Alpine
Altoids
Big Red
Bubble Tape
Doublemint
Eclipse
Eclipse Ice
Excel
Extra
Freedent
Hubba Bubba
Juicy Fruit
Life Savers
Lockets
Orbit
Ouch!
Skittles
Spearmint
Starburst
Surpass
Tunes
Wrigley's
Winterfresh

Products for pet consumption

Pedigree dry dog food
ADVANCE (Australia and New Zealand only)
Aquarium Pharmaceuticals
Buckeye Nutrition
Cesar
Chappi
Dreamies
Eukanuba
Exelpet
Frolic
Good-o
Greenies
Iams
James Wellbeloved
Kit-e-kat
My Dog
Natura
Nutro Products
Pedigree
Optimum
Pill Pockets
Royal Canin
Schmackos
Sheba
Spillers
Teasers
Techni-Cal
Whiskas
Winergy
Wisdom Panel MX Mixed Breed DNA Test

[BumRushDaShow]

2. Bravo

With Hurricane Harvey having broken a number of records and now Hurricane Irma, right behind Harvey breaking a new set of records, the time has come to start acting.

[MGKrebs]

3. It's in their best interests.

At some point "melts in your mouth, not in your hand" wouldn't work anymore!

[LeftInTX]

14. LOL

[IronLionZion]

4. Mars is private, so it's the Mars family's own money

Good for them.

[karynnj]

15. Yep, when I lived in NJ, I knew people who worked for Mars

This is really good.

[hamsterjill]

5. They made a huge donation of pet food to the Houston area after Harvey.

I'm not a great fan of their products for pets, but I'm a big fan of generosity, so I commend them.

Would love to see more of this type of thing from other wealthy families. Are you listening, Walmart???!!!!

[mopinko]

6. self serving. the mars family is one of the evil dozen or so

rich families trying to ratfuck this country. they are pushing hard on ending the estate tax.

they just see the coming crisis in chocolate production. hoping to make some brownie points.
get back to me when they start buying fair trade chocolate.

[LanternWaste]

8. In 2015, Mars went into agreement to purchase Fairtrade-certified cocoa.

In 2015, Mars went into agreement to purchase Fairtrade-certified cocoa.

In 2009, Mars was the first global chocolate company to commit to certify its entire cocoa supply as being produced in a sustainable manner by 2020.

[edhopper]

9. Mars only spent $50,000

in 2016 on political donations. The MAJORITY of that money went to Hilary.

They spend a lot on lobbying, as all corps do.

[moda253]

10. Do you have anything to back this up?

Not saying that you are wrong but if you feel this strongly then you should back it up.

If not then it is pretty crappy to slam a company that is doing something good.

[mopinko]

24. they are extremely secretive, but

http://archive.fortune.com/2010/12/21/news/economy/estate_tax_lobby.fortune/index.htm

lists the families trying to sink the estate tax.
have an old grudge against the company for labor practices back, back in the day.

if there is a product that will feel climate change early on, it is chocolate.

[nycbos]

7. On issues like climate change the tide is turning.

Pun intended.

More and more large companies now see it in their interest to take action, which makes the deniers look even more foolish when they say "it will hurt business.

Even Exxon's shareholders voted to take action on climate change.

[truthisfreedom]

12. That's not realistic, but tech can be used to collect all

Of the methane generated by cows if someone really cared. It's been done effectively on pig farms and the methane was used for heat as well.

[IronLionZion]

17. People love milk chocolate

Americans love dairy products of all types. Good luck trying to tell Americans to stop eating yogurt, cheese, ice cream, and tall glasses of milk or to screw over the Americans who work in the dairy industry.

Even McDonalds was pressured by customers to add milk back into their artificial milkshakes.

I got tired of almond and soy and coconut milk after a few years and switched back to organic hormone free cow's milk a year ago. It's delightful and a great source of calcium and protein.

[IronLionZion]

19. Welcome to DU!

[IronLionZion]

16. Some dairy farms do that too, collect methane from cow manure

[pansypoo53219]

21. grain gives them gas too. feed them what they want. GRASS & hay.

[Eliot Rosewater]

22. Just when I thought I was out

Just when I thought I could quit these delightful candies

[Raine]

25. Good! nt

[flamingdem]

26. Some sweet news for a change

[BannonsLiver]

27. They should stop using palm oil in their products

Deforestation is a big reason why orangutan and Sumatran tiger populations are being wiped out. I avoid products with palm oil as much as possible.