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Meals To Be 'Greener' As Kellogg's Announces New Initiatives

By Edward Cardenas

BATTLE CREEK (CBS Detroit) - Kellogg's announced Wednesday new sourcing commitments and conservation goals which stretch from the company's Michigan headquarters to farms around the world.

The efforts include responsibly sourcing its top 10 ingredients and material by 2020, assist agricultural suppliers to optimize water use and develop programs to improve the livelihoods of women workers.

"This company was founded on the belief that there's an inherent goodness in grains and that continues to hold true today," said John Bryant, Kellogg Company chairman of the board and chief executive officer, in a release. "We are committed to nourishing families so they can flourish and thrive.  Our new sustainability goals will help us do this by delivering high-quality grains in a responsible way that enriches the lives of consumers and agricultural growers around the world."

These efforts are not new, the company states. More than 100 years ago W.K. Kellogg started using recycled materials in the first cereal boxes and currently the Eggo bakery in San Jose recently installed fuel cell technology which generates approximately half of the facility's annual electrical consumption.

Other efforts Kellogg's will undertake, according to the company, include:

  • Continue to provide resources and education to key agricultural suppliers, millers and farmers to help them increase their resilience to climate change; optimize their use of fertilizer inputs; reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in their agricultural practices; optimize water use and enhance watershed quality; and improve soil health.
  • Build programs to help small-scale farmers improve their livelihoods by adapting to climate change and improving their agronomic practices and business skills.
  • Identify areas within Kellogg's supply chain with a high prevalence of women farmers and workers and develop programs to provide resources and education that improve the livelihoods of these women, their families and their communities.
  • Expand use of low-carbon energy in plants by 50 percent by 2020.
  • Support watershed quality, implement water reuse projects in 25 percent of plants by 2020, and further reduce water use by an additional 15 percent (per metric tonne of food produced) from 2015 performance.
  • Increase to 30% the number of plants sending zero waste to landfill by 2016.
  • Ensure that 100 percent of timber-based packaging continues to be either recycled or from certified sustainable sources, while implementing resource-efficient packaging, as measured by improved performance for recycled content, recyclability and food-to-package ratios.

"We're making progress but also recognize the need to drive change, which is why we're stepping up our plans now with new goals for 2020," said Diane Holdorf, Kellogg Company chief sustainability officer, in a release

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