Hershey, Penn.-based The Hershey Company released its 2021 Environmental, Social and Governance Report Tuesday, highlighting its progress in its priority ESG areas, including sustainability, responsible sourcing, and employee well-being.
According to the report, the company’s holistic ESG strategy, known as its Shared Goodness Promise, has guided the company in making a positive impact at scale and leveraging its business to advance more sustainable growth with socially conscious and responsible business practices. This year’s report moves the company from sustainability to ESG reporting.
“Hershey has been an integral member of the communities in which we live and operate since our founding,” The Hershey Company CEO Michele Buck said. “The culture that Milton Hershey created propels us to build on that legacy as we focus our efforts on integrating the important environmental, social and governance priorities throughout our business. We’ve made meaningful advancements on our global commitments, including our efforts to improve cocoa sustainability and support cocoa-growing communities. We’ve also made significant progress reducing our emissions in line with our science-based targets and were named by Forbes as the World’s Top Female Friendly Company.”
The company reported that it aims to improve farmer livelihoods in cocoa-growing communities through a $500 million investment by 2030 that will focus on nourishing children, empowering youth, prospering communities, and preserving ecosystems. The company has achieved a 68 percent cocoa sourcing visibility by volume in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana, with a goal of 100 percent sourcing visibility by 2025 to prevent, monitor, and remediate child labor and monitor deforestation. The company also announced initiatives to improve literacy in those areas and provide therapeutic foods for 45,000 children.
The company also reported that it is focusing on climate change and had achieved a 48 percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions as it works toward its goal of a 50 percent reduction by 2030.
The company also reported increased diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts through inclusive hiring and economic equality.