Targets versus achievements - this article compares what a company said it would do with what it has actually achieved. This time, the focus is on Mars - meeting current certification targets is not evidence of building a truly sustainable supply chain, the business admits. So, where does it go from here? Taken from Innovation Forum's new Supply Chain Risk & Innovation publication, published ten times a year on a subscription basis. The publication brings together concise, practical insight into global supply chains. Required reading for senior management, buyers, business sustainability professionals and all who advise them, Supply Chain Risk & Innovation distils all the myriad information, data, research and comment, presented it in a clear, analytical format. Find out more here: http://innovation-forum.co.uk/supply-chain-risk-innovation.php

1. PAGE 11
PAGE 11
TARGETS VERSUS ACHIEVEMENTS
Marstoreview‘modest’sourcingtargets
In this section we compare what a company said it would do with what it has actually achieved. This time, the
focus is on Mars – meeting current certification targets is not evidence of building a truly sustainable supply chain,
the business admits. So, where does it go from here?
Essential insight
• Mars is on track to meet
the targets it set to source
five key raw materials from
certified sources.
• It met its palm oil and coffee
goals early and is set to easily
meet 2020 goals for fish, tea
and cocoa.
• Mars' CSO Barry Parkin says
that the goals to buy certified
raw materials is modest
and is not evidence of true
sustainability.
• Now, it will set new, beyond
certification goals against
23 raw materials – with a big
focus on tackling greenhouse
gas (GHG) emissions, water
use, land use, farmer income
and human rights.
• 93% of Mars’ GHG emissions
are created within its
extended supply chain.
TARGET PROGRESSRAW MATERIAL
ACHIEVED
Done. As of 2014, Mars
purchased 100% of its coffee
beans from certified sources
100% CERTIFIED
Purchase 100% of coffee beans
from certified sources by the
end of 2013
FISH
NOT THERE YET
As of 2014, Mars purchased
30% of its fish and seafood
products from sustainable
sources
100%SUSTAINABLE
Purchase 100% of fish and
seafood products from
sustainable sources by
the end of 2020
NEARLY THERE
As of 2014, 84% of the palm
oil Mars sources can be
traced back to a known mill
FULLY-TRACEABLE
To develop a “fully-traceable
pipeline back to known palm oil
mills” by the end of 2014 PALM OIL
NOT THERE YET
As of 2013, Mars purchased
30% of its cocoa from
certified sources
100% CERTIFIED
Purchase 100% of
cocoa from certified
sources by 2020
COCOA
NOT THERE YET
As of 2014, Mars purchased
32% of its black tea from
certified sources
100% CERTIFIED
Purchase 100% of
black tea from certified
sources by 2020 TEA
COFFEE
CORPORATE INSIGHTSUPPLY CHAIN RISK & INNOVATION

2. PAGE 12
INNOVATION FORUM COMMENTARY
ENGAGING BIG AND SMALL SUPPLIERS ALIKE
As a global confectionery and petfood business, Mars has a big and
complex supply chain with numerous challenges in attempting to source
sustainably-produced commodities. Its latest Principles in Action report
highlights the progress it is making in sourcing more responsibly, with a
focus on the five key commodities of palm oil, cocoa, tea, coffee and fish
which make up the majority of its products – from Mars chocolate bars
and Dolmio pasta sauce, to Whiskas cat food.
Certification focus
Acknowledging the uphill struggle it faces in helping to shift large-scale
agricultural markets to produce more with less, the family-owned
business has focused its efforts on purchasing raw materials from
sources that adhere to the standards set by the big certification bodies,
such as Rainforest Alliance, UTZ Certified, Fairtrade International and the
Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO).
With commodities most widely served by certification – palm oil and
coffee – it has unsurprisingly made strong progress. And with targets to
purchase 100% certified tea, cocoa and fish by 2020, the company is on
track to meet those targets fairly easily.
Supporting smallholders
Its biggest challenge – like many big corporates – is in supporting the
more than one million smallholder farmers that supply the business,
many of which are the some of the poorest people in the world. Its
scientific research programmes, like the Cocoa Genome Project which it
launched with IBM and the US Department of Agriculture to sequence,
assemble and annotate the cocoa genome – will be crucial in helping
these farmers to identify traits of disease resistance, boost their yields
and incomes, and improve water and nutrient efficiency.
As Mars’ global sustainability director, Barry Parkin says, in terms of
tackling its big supply chain impacts and risks, the business has barely
scratched the surface. And it is not alone.
MARS COMMENTARY
TARGETS NOT THE END POINT
BARRY PARKIN, GLOBAL SUSTAINABILITY DIRECTOR, MARS
We’re bang on track towards meeting all of these targets. With something
like palm oil, the RSPO certification system means that we achieved this
early. But certification doesn’t necessarily mean sustainability. We set
these initial targets based on existing certification systems, knowing that
it was a step in the right direction, but that it wasn’t the end point. Yes,
we feel good that we’ve made these certification targets, but we know we
have a lot more work to do.
Beyond certification
All of the responsible companies operating in palm oil have pretty
much achieved RSPO certification – but they have also set themselves a
standard that is higher than that. The same is true with cocoa, with the
industry working together to set out what truly sustainable cocoa looks
like, with a focus on farmer productivity and community development
work. Certification is helpful, but not sufficient. We know that achieving
our certification goals is not an issue, and we want to challenge ourselves
by looking at some new long-term goals.
Critical impact areas
So, we are looking at our critical supply chain impact areas and are going
to set three environmental goals – for greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions,
water usage and land usage – and two socio-economic goals – for basic
human rights, and income levels. These are five impact areas we should
be taking responsibility for in our extended supply chain.
Wehavemappedourentirerawmaterialsupplychainforthe50different
rawmaterialsthatwebuy–whichhasledustotheconclusionthatthere
are23criticalrawmaterialsthathavematerialimpactinoneormoreof
thosefiveareas.Wewillbedevelopingnewtargetsandstrategiesforall23.
Certificationwillbeusedsomeofthetimeasausefultool.Butweneedmany
otherstrategiestooifwewanttoboostthesocio-economicsituation.
Modest commitments
What we have committed to so far is modest. We are going to be looking
at fives times as many materials, with much more challenging targets
and goals. And next year you will see that emerge.
We have been through this process to tackle our own operational impacts.
For instance, we have a target to reduce our GHG impacts to zero by
using more clean energy and improving efficiencies within our factories
and offices. And now, we will be applying a similar process across our
extended supply chain, which accounts for 93% of our overall GHGs. It’s a
monumental challenge. But you won’t find any corporates that have set
truly sustainable targets for dealing with their supply chain impacts. ★
BIGGEST CHALLENGE:
supporting one
million smallholder
farmers.
CORPORATE INSIGHTSUPPLY CHAIN RISK & INNOVATION