General Mills To Sustainably Source 100% of Key Ingredients By 2020

MINNEAPOLISGeneral Mills has committed to sustainably sourcing 100% of 10 priority ingredients by 2020, representing 50% of the company's total raw material purchases. The priority ingredients include oats, wheat, corn, dairy, fiber packaging, cocoa, vanilla, palm oil, sugar (cane) and sugar (beets).

To achieve its 2020 goal, General Mills will follow a four-step sustainable sourcing modelassessment, strategy formation, transformation and monitoring/evaluation.

General Mill's has worked with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) since 2010 to integrate sustainability into the companys supply chain, conducting a supply risk analysis of the companys agricultural sourcing and water risk assessment. This assessment prioritized raw materials which were analyzed against dozens of potential risk categories such as human rights, deforestation, economic sustainability, fertilizer (nitrogen) use, GHG emissions, soil loss, water quality and water use.

 General Mills is committed to creating long-term value for our business, and our society," said Ken Powell, chief executive officer of General Mills. Producing enough food to feed an increasingly hungry world will require not only innovation and dedication, but also careful attention to the impact of agriculture on our environment."

Nearly two-thirds of General Mills greenhouse gas emissions and 99% of water use occur outside the companys operations, primarily in agriculture. Therefore, the company will work with industry partners and non-governmental agencies across the supply chain to identify new solutions.

The opportunities for each ingredient are unique and geographically specific, which require General Mills to pursue a range of sustainable approaches including certification, verification, continuous improvement and origin-direct investment. Specific commitments by ingredient area to be achieved by 2020 are: