Mars on pace to meet 2025 emission reduction goal

Mars, Inc. is on track to achieve its 2025 greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction goal, according to the company’s “2023 Sustainable in a Generation” report. By the end of 2023, Mars reduced total Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 34% compared to 2015, bringing the company closer to achieving its 2025 goal of reducing 42% of Scope 1 and 2 emissions by 2025. Mars also reduced 16% of total emissions across its business from its 2015 baseline by the end of 2023. The company said these reductions primarily derive from renewable electricity, energy efficiency and thermal energy programs. These achievements are part of Mars’ comprehensive Net Zero Roadmap.

“Recognizing the urgent need for clear, global action on climate change, we leveraged decades of experience working on GHG reductions to develop the Net Zero Roadmap, a pragmatic yet ambitious plan to cut emissions 50% by 2030 compared to 2015 on our journey to net zero GHG emissions across our full value chain by 2050,” the company said. “This roadmap outlines the strategies and changes to our business operating model that will make halving our emissions by 2030 not only possible but also affordable.”

Similarly, Mars redesigned its supply chains in 2023 to fight deforestation and natural ecosystem conversions. The company manages five raw materials identified as having the greatest impact: cocoa, soy, beef, palm oil, and pulp and paper. According to the report, Mars mapped more than 310,000 total cocoa plots, mapped 91% of direct soy volumes at low risk of deforestation and conversion, mapped 99% of global beef volumes as being at low risk of deforestation and conversion, mapped 100% of palm kernel oil as deforestation free, and mapped 95% of pulp- and paper-based packaging as responsibly sourced.

“Like all businesses, our operations and activities across our value chain impact the environment and communities where we live and work,” Mars said. “Our land use position statement outlines our ambition to maintain a flat total land area associated with our value chain in our fast-moving consumer goods business, with the goal of ensuring that our activities across our value chain do not contribute to agricultural expansion into natural ecosystems. To further help protect natural ecosystems, we apply a ‘map, manage and monitor’ approach to address deforestation and conversion in the regions where we source cocoa, beef, soy, palm, pulp and paper.”

Mars is also working to create a circular economy where packaging material is recyclable, reusable or compostable. As part of this long-term waste reduction goal, the company said it uses a variety of packaging materials such as glass, cardboard, paper and plastics.

“Removing problematic content is an important first step in our packaging strategy,” Mars said. “For example, we have removed 99% of PVC9 from our packaging as of the end of 2023. Redesigning packaging is another focus, with almost half of our packaging portfolio undergoing redesign or elimination to fit with current and future recycling infrastructure. Today, 61% of our consumer-facing packaging (excluding transport and tertiary materials) is designed for circularity.”

Some other listed achievements in this area include transforming 75 million bags made of multiple plastic materials to monomaterial polypropylene across Iams, Nutro, Pedigree and Whiskas brands; turning flexible plastic snacking packaging into paper-based packaging; launching paper wrapped Mars, Snickers and Milky Way bars in Australia that are recyclable through curbside recycling; managing additional paper wrapped Kind bars (United States), Mars bars (United Kingdom), Juicy Fruit gum (Kenya), and M&Ms (China/United States); launching a limited-edition compostable M&Ms bag in the United States’ West Coast; and transitioning lids for Snickers, Dove and M&Ms (216-gram canisters) to 100% rPET in China.

“We are investing millions of dollars to improve the recyclability of our packaging, increase the amount of food-safe, recycled content and to reduce the use of virgin plastic,” Mars said. “The share of our packaging that is designed for circularity has gone up from 57% in 2022 to 61% in 2023, so we are making good progress, and we would expect that to continue to accelerate. However, the design and infrastructure changes needed are taking longer than we anticipated when we signed the Ellen MacArthur Foundation Global Commitments, and we are unlikely to fully meet them by the end of 2025.”