Mumbai – Mondelēz International, Inc. (Nasdaq: MDLZ) has published its Fiscal Year 2022 Snacking Made Right Report, advancing progress against its Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) priorities and delivering on the company’s mission to lead the future of snacking.
The report is part of the company’s wider goal to provide transparent, measurable information to its stakeholders on its ESG goals, policies, initiatives and programs, while seeking to amplify and accelerate the company’s sustainability vision of helping to create a future where together people and the planet thrive.
Last year, the company elevated sustainability as the fourth pillar of its long-term growth strategy. This report illustrates Mondelēz International’s achievements thus far in building a more sustainable snacking company that will help to enable innovation and accelerated long term growth, grounded in the best interests of its stakeholders.
“As we continue confidently into our second decade as a responsible, high-growth, pure-play global snacking company, we are prioritizing key areas of Snacking Made Right so we can drive innovative, more sustainable growth the right way for people and the planet,” said Mondelēz International CEO & chairman Dirk Van de Put. “I am proud that at Mondelēz International we are making progress toward achieving our vision at a time of considerable change and challenges. We are demonstrating our clear commitment to leading the future of snacking.”
This year’s Snacking Made Right report illustrates the company’s progress toward its 2025 goals, including sourcing more sustainable ingredients, helping reduce climate change, improving packaging, advancing diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) initiatives, and supporting customers, colleagues and communities.
The brand’s strategy focuses on Sustainable packaging, Sustainable Ingredients, Social Impact, Climate & Environment, DEI, Consumer Well -Being and Employee Well Being as its key focus areas central to supporting growth around the world and creating long-term value for both the business and stakeholders.
Below is a quick snapshot of key India highlights –
Social Impact
In India, we have supported a women led NGO, Hasiru Dala, for Project Wealth out of Waste Boards ( WoW) that aims to transform multi-layered plastic packaging waste into construction materials. Wealth out of Waste Boards (WoW Boards) uses technology from a female-led start-up, TrashCon, in India. Since 2021, we have been supporting a waste picker managed centre with a capacity for handling 600 MT/year plastic waste. At the centre, the MLP waste is repurposed to make WOW Boards. In 2022, more than 100 units of desk and benches made out of WOW Boards were provided to 4 schools. These WOW boards have also been demonstrated for two other use cases for making roof of worker shed and benches in parks
Climate & Environment
In 2022, two sites in India – Induri ( Maharashtra) & Baddi ( Himachal Pradesh) moved to securing 100 per cent of their electricity from renewable sources
We succeeded in saving approximately 29,000m3 of water in our manufacturing processes (vs. 2018). This was primarily achieved through technological advancement projects to improve water management, including permanent magnet technology, recovering up to 85% of condensation, and numerous other enhancements to reduce, recycle, and reuse water. We also harvested 98,000m3 of rainwater
Sustainable Packaging
Through our Sustainable Futures impact investment platform, we have partnered with the Circulate Capital Ocean Fund (CCOF), a fund dedicated to addressing India and Southeast Asia’s plastics challenges. The investment will help CCOF support scalable business solutions to help develop infrastructure for the collecting, sorting, and recycling of plastic waste, including flexible films. We are working with Ricron Panel, who are part of the Circulate Capital Ocean Fund. We are using their innovative, strong, and durable recycled panels made from hard-to-recycle, multi-layered waste plastic in a number of ways, for example for furniture and pallets.
2022 saw a massive drive to reduce our plastic footprint with a strong focus on recyclability. It involved taking ownership of the product to the end of its lifecycle by successfully executing 100% Extended Producers Responsibility for post-consumer plastics. Our plastic recycling efforts in partnership with plastic waste management agencies and plastic waste processors have enabled us to recycle up to 75 per cent of our post-consumer plastic in 2022. This is almost a 10 per cent increase in recyclability compared to 2021. Initiatives included less packaging, for example with the elimination of single-use plastic, including with the overwrap film on Cadbury Celebrations Gift packs, better packaging, such as recycle-ready packs; and the introduction of post-consumer recycled PET for Cadbury Rich Dry Fruit Collection Celebrations packs and Cadbury Lickables spoons
Sustainable Ingredients
We have distributed millions of saplings across the country over the last three years, and provide Cocoa Life farmers with planting materials, guidance and training and are now innovating to improve digital access to farming expertise and collaborating to improve farm productivity. We have worked with partners to enable farmers with access to a Cocoa Digi-App, giving them easy up-to-date access to knowledge on good agricultural and environmental practices
Through the app, farmers can also access information on cocoa pest and disease controls based on weather patterns, scientific knowledge and biodiversity protection. Another example is our 38-year partnership with the Kerala Agriculture University, which enables the application of world-class research to local cocoa farming productivity
Helping to Empower Women and Children in India : In 2022, the Cocoa Life team in India undertook an initiative to help empower women and children in nearby areas of cocoa-growing regions. Events were conducted in rural communities, focusing on education, health, hygiene, and women empowerment, covering topics ranging from financial literacy to safe working environments. In addition, the school infrastructure development project in the states of Andhra and Kerala benefited with provisions such as classrooms, dining halls, bathroom, toilets, and drinking water facilities across these schools.
Helping to Protect Landscapes Where Cocoa Grows: In India, cocoa farming is seen as an additional source of income for farmers who practice intercropping with other crops such as coconut or areca nut.
Colleague and Community Wellbeing
In India, through our Good Luck Girls Program, we work with parents and other community stakeholders to support adolescent girls to engage in sports, play in public spaces, and aspire to pursue sports as a career. We also encourage them to participate in different sports-related activities. Donating sports kits is a key component of the program, and our colleagues have participated enthusiastically in this through the year. The program has reached over 50,000 girls across four locations through the activities implemented over the year 2022
During 2022, Mondelēz International continued leading in helping to make cocoa right through Cocoa Life – our signature global cocoa sustainability program, with over 230,000 farmers participating as of the end of 2022. The company also announced the next phase of Cocoa Life, backed by an additional $600 million through 2030, for a total of $1 billion investment since the start of the program, to increase its cocoa volume scale, aim to work with nearly 300,000 farmers by 2030, and accelerate its impact.
“At Mondelēz International, we are wholeheartedly committed to going further and faster in terms of sustainable growth and impact,” said Mondelēz International senior vice president and chief global impact and sustainability officer Christine Montenegro McGrath. “Building on our 2025 public goals, we have bold and targeted long-term ambitions which help us focus, accelerate and scale our efforts, and we are also putting a longer-term focus on working toward our 2050 goals of net zero carbon and packaging waste by supporting circular economies.”
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