CLIMATE CHANGE
We have the power to act now to prevent further climate change. As it stands now, the consequences are dire — changing rainfall patterns, floods, droughts and the spread of pests and diseases are putting whole habitats and communities at risk.
PRINCIPLES IN ACTION 2016 SPOTLIGHT: GREENHOUSE GAS TARGETS
In 2016, we cut greenhouse gas emissions by 4.8 percent compared to 2015, taking us closer to our 2020 goal. From 2016 onwards, our mighty new Moy wind farm in Scotland means that all our UK operations are run on renewable electricity. And we’ve got another project in the pipeline - a new wind farm that will provide 100% renewable electricity for our sites in Mexico.
2020 TARGET:ABSOLUTE GHG REDUCTION OF 40 PERCENT VS. 2007
PROGRESS: 29.2 PERCENT GHG EMISSIONS REDUCTION — ON TRACK
MARS, INCORPORATED GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS
To make a real difference, we have to focus on reducing greenhouse gas emissions across all our supply chains around the world. Using the Greenhouse Gas Protocol1 and other sources of data, we have calculated our emissions as follows:
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3 percent: scope 1 emissions from direct energy and fuel consumption in our factories, offices and vehicles
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3 percent: scope 2 emissions from purchased electricity used in our factories and offices
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96 percent: scope 3 emissions from purchased raw materials, packaging and other goods and services, plus other aspects of our value chain, such as transportation of raw materials and products, business travel, our products in use and waste generated in our operations
TACKLING SCOPE 1 AND 2 EMISSIONS
Our ambition is to eliminate our contributions to greenhouse gas emissions from all of our factories and offices by 2040. We achieved our interim target to reduce operational emissions by 25 percent by 2015 in absolute terms, from a 2007 baseline. Our next interim GHG target is a 40% reduction by 2020 as we continue to work towards eliminating them entirely:
- Our wind farm in Mesquite Creek, Texas, which opened in February 2015, generates electricity equivalent to 100% of the needs of our U.S. operations.
- Since May 2016, we have been purchasing electricity from the Moy wind farm in Scotland for all 12 Mars U.K. sites.
- In 2017, we will achieve 100% renewable electricity for our operations in both Mexico and Belgium.
- By 2020, we intend to implement on-site and off-site renewable projects in China, India and Australia.
TACKLING SCOPE 3 EMISSIONS
Agriculture is key to our business — making it more sustainable is key to protecting its future. Approximately 77 percent of our scope 3 emissions and 73 percent of our total greenhouse gas emissions relate to the production of the goods and services we purchase, and agricultural raw materials in particular. Agriculture releases these harmful emissions in many ways, including:
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Energy used during farming and the production of pesticides, fertilizers and animal feeds
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Methane and/or nitrous oxide from livestock, crops and fertilizer use
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Land use changes, such as forest clearance
Working together with scientific experts at UC Davis, The Sustainability Consortium, the Sustainable Food Lab, the Sustainable Agriculture Initiative Platform and the University of Cambridge, we’re finding lasting ways to reduce our emissions by developing a strategy for encouraging sustainable agriculture in our supply chain.
PRINCIPLES IN ACTION 2016 SPOTLIGHT: ENERGY EFFICIENCY TARGET
Energy efficiency is a no brainer for us – it’s cost effective and reduces greenhouse gas emissions! We’re measuring the efficiency of our current ways of working, investing in technologies that use less power, and encouraging all our Associates to reduce their energy use. We’ve set a goal to improve our 2020 energy efficiency by 10% compared to 2015 – equivalent to 2% a year. So, while we’re not quite on track, with an improvement of 1.2% in 2016, we acknowledge that several energy efficiency projects are long-term and require investment and behavior change over time. We’re focusing on putting the right systems in place to enable us to ramp up our efficiency improvements in the coming years.
2020 TARGET: ENERGY EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENT OF 10% VS 2015
PROGRESS: 1.2 PERCENT ENERGY EFFICIENCY IMPROVEMENT - WORK TO BE DONE
EFFICIENCY AND TECHNOLOGY
We love efficiency — it’s by far the most immediate and cost-effective way to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions. The less fossil-fuel energy we use, the fewer carbon emissions we produce. Here are some ways we’re working to become even more efficient:
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Measuring the efficiency of existing practices
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Investing in technology and processes that use less power
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Driving down energy use through changes in behavior
RENEWABLE ENERGY
Using renewable energy provides big benefits for our business, people and the planet — Mutuality in action. That’s why we’re constantly searching for opportunities to install renewable energy sources at all of our current and future operations. From locally sourced hydropower to installing solar panels on our roofs, our initiatives are already reducing energy use, emissions and costs across the globe. Here are a few examples:
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One Mars Chocolate and three Mars Petcare sites in Brazil use renewable energy from a supplier to meet their energy needs.
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Mars Petcare in Bokros, Hungary, uses local thermal springs as a renewable energy source of heating and hot water, cutting natural gas use by 80 percent and greenhouse gas emissions over time.
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Wrigley factories in Poznan, Poland and Porici, Czech Republic treat wastewater anaerobically, which provides renewable energy in the form of biogas.
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Mars Chocolate’s Henderson site in Nevada, U.S., installed a 4.4-acre solar garden that generates 1.25 million kilowatt hours of energy per year, supporting 100 percent of the site’s electricity needs on sunny days and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 867 tons per year.
MARS MASSIVE WIND FARM CREATES ENOUGH POWER FOR ENTIRE U.S. OPERATIONS
Our Mesquite Creek Wind project, a 200-megawatt wind farm, has 118 turbines, producing enough electricity to power over 60,000 homes — or all of our sites in the United States. This makes Mars the first major food business to source all of its electricity for its U.S. operations from renewable sources.
Learn more about our wind farms. »
MARS UNITES WITH GLOBAL FOOD COMPANIES ON CLIMATE ACTION
Alongside our partners in the food and beverage industry, we asked the United States and other global leaders participating in the 2017 United Nation’s Conference of Parties (COP23) to do more to combat climate change.