的 联合国粮食系统峰会 marked an inflection point for food companies and their role in the 自然的积极 agenda. With food production causing a third of global emissions and agriculture directly responsible for the risk posed to 86% of threatened species, 毫无疑问，有必要改变粮食的生产方式. 食物 companies are increasingly aware of the critical role they need to play to mitigate climate change, 纠正对自然的破坏, 与日益严重的全球肥胖流行病作斗争，消除饥饿, 7亿人每天面临的挑战是什么.
对于食品公司来说, there is an additional pressing reason to lead this transformation: security of supply. 我们提供的一切都来自大自然. As we’ve started unpacking our big sustainability commitments like achieving net zero emissions, we’ve come to understand that some of the linear ways we’ve been engaging with nature can have a big impact, not only on climate but also on the health of the soil that we rely on for all production and supply of food commodities.
We’ve also realized that there’s a disconnect between our collective global net zero ambitions and how things happen on the ground. To close this gap, we need to shorten the value chain and focus on localization of sourcing. We need to better understand the predicted impact of climate change in the places where we source ingredients, 采取适当的策略, including diversifying our sourcing regions to increase the resilience of our supply, implement concrete actions for both climate change mitigation and adaption and protect biodiversity. 这不是一项简单的任务.
As companies move toward regenerative agriculture and purchasing ingredients with embedded carbon removals, there is increasingly a requirement to have a direct line of sight from the head office to the farms and growers. This is a change from the norm in the food industry and requires a need to forge a much closer connection with those on the ground.
因为我们公司的传统, 在卡夫亨氏, we’re fortunate to be able to learn from parts of our business that have continuously operated in this way. 当亨利·亨氏在19世纪创立他的公司时, 他在俄亥俄州开始了一个研究农场项目, 这种方法至今仍在蓬勃发展. 它生产了全球40%用于种植加工番茄的种子. 正因为如此, we can trace the tomatoes in any bottle of Heinz Tomato Ketchup right back to their farm of origin. 的 challenge is to scale this clear line of sight – and the certainty it gives us about the quality, integrity of production and impact of our practices - across all our product lines and multiple geographies. 我们不需要拥有农场, but knowing our suppliers well is going to be essential in understanding where opportunity lies.
的 food sector must positively impact more than climate change and biodiversity. Seventy percent of all packaging originates in the food sector; one in four workers globally work in food-related jobs; two-thirds of child labor is estimated to occur in this sector; and the global health of consumers is at risk. Embedding responsible choices and sustainability into our decision-making will open the doors to countless possibilities to positively impact these areas and more.
然而，这是复杂的. My background in leading supply chains and commercial teams within the business gives me a broad perspective to link ESG to business priorities and processes. 的re are four ways that I’ve found helpful to influence business decisions to prioritize ESG factors:
- 参与高层领导: Many people find it daunting to start the journey to embed sustainability into their business – be prepared to share your knowledge and bring leadership along with a strong business case for how this change drives brand value.
- 从最重要的事情开始: 从对你的业务最重要的问题开始, that will matter to the greatest number of people and empower teams to be part of the change. 激情加上目标会带来进步.
- 使用你已经拥有的数据，不要等待完美: This is particularly true when looking at your carbon footprint, including the use of secondary data. Start with a small number of important things you can already measure and focus on how you can see if things are moving in the right direction, you can build up your data collection for more detailed measurement over time.
- Pivot from “cost” to “ROI:” I have found this to be crucial to build a business case for committing resources to help address ESG factors to focus on ROI – what will be the value generated for the business? Our ESG framework guides our decisions and allows for this value to be captured in capital expenditure decisions.
我最重要的建议是不要单打独斗.’ 的 key to driving progress forward is to build strong internal and external communities of “critical friends.” I’ve found there is a lot of positivity and collaboration around sustainability issues. 通过参与联盟建立强大的网络, trade associations and investor relations and acknowledging that this work is a marathon, 不是冲刺, 你会抓住这个机会吗, 确定更好的解决方案并推动变革.
