Dive Brief:
- Hershey has come out ahead on key environmental sustainability goals set in 2012, achieving better numbers than it aimed for two and three years ahead of its estimated time frame.
- Hershey's goal was to convert five plants to zero waste to landfill (ZLF) by 2015 and reach an 85% recycling rate. By the end of 2013, it had already converted six manufacturing facilities to ZLF and achieved a recycling rate of 86.6%.
- Hershey planned to reduce water consumption per pound of product by 10% by 2015. It surpassed that goal at the end of 2012, when it cut down on water use by 58%.
Dive Insight:
Terry O’Day, senior VP and chief supply chain officer said, “as a global company, we are conscious of our impact and the changes we can and must make to be a more sustainable organization.” He added that Hershey is not going to just rest on its laurels: “Given our faster-than-expected progress, we are pushing ourselves even harder and will set new environmental goals in our next CSR report using our 2013 numbers as our baseline.” That's good news for those who care about sustainability, and even better news for Hershey's public image.