US – Leading food companies Mars Incorporated, PepsiCo and McCormick have come together and in partnership with sustainability consultancy firm Guidehouse, formed a new coalition to help drive industrywide action against climate change.
Known as the Supplier Leadership on Climate Transition (Supplier LoCT), the coalition aims to mobilize collective climate action by providing suppliers with resources, tools, and knowledge to support their own climate journeys.
In its first year, the program will focus on helping suppliers understand the foundations of greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions in their businesses, including core knowledge of how to calculate their GHG footprints and to set their science-based targets.
These targets will be set to align with the overall goals of the Science Based Targets initiative and RE100 to limit global warming to be consistent with the established goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Leveraging suppliers to meet climate targets
Matthew Banks, communication director of Supplier LoCT and associate director in Guidehouse’s ES&I segment says the new collaboration with suppliers is timely as “Suppliers play a critical role in combatting climate change and in helping brands reach their climate targets”.
Mars has already made steady progress to cut emissions in its operations by switching to renewables – which now accounts for 54 percent of its global electricity use and is now on track to reach its interim 2025 target early.
Mars is focused on engaging its largest 200 suppliers to maximize impact and catalyze change through its broader supply chain.
So far, 23 of its major suppliers have set science-based targets or joined the RE100, and Mars has since engaged another 30 suppliers to set their climate targets or enroll in the Supplier LoCT program.
McCormick & Company on the other hand, is committed to reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 20 % by 2025 from a 2015 base year and to reducing absolute scope 3 GHG emissions 16% by 2030 from a 2017 base year.
PepsiCo says it is committed to reducing absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 75% and scope 3 GHG emissions 40% by 2030 from a 2015 base year.
“Our suppliers’ climate action is critical to achieving our goal, and it’s collaborative efforts like these that will help ensure what we’ve learned is shared with our entire supplier base,” said Roberta Barbieri, vice president of Sustainability at PepsiCo.
Barry Parkin, chief procurement and sustainability officer at Mars, on the other hand, hopes that by forming this partnership and actively engaging its suppliers on sustainability Mars can drive “significant, global impact.”
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