Campbell Soup Co. has been named to the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World in a ranking by Corporate Knights, a media and investment research company. Camden, N.J.-based Campbell is one of 10 U.S. companies, and the only U.S. food and beverage company, to make the Global 100. The Global 100 drew companies from 22 countries on six continents and inclusion in the top 100 puts the company in the top 2.5 percent of the 4,000 evaluated.
“The Global 100 recognizes how Campbell integrates corporate responsibility into business strategy,” said Dave Stangis, Campbell’s VP of public affairs and corporate responsibility. “We continue to strengthen our long-term commitment to creating value for our business and society as a sustainable and socially responsible company.”
Corporate Knights ranks the Global 100 using a two-step methodology, selecting companies on information such as sustainability disclosure practices, financial health and product types, then scoring them by sector-specific key performance indicators primarily related to energy, water, waste metrics and community engagement.
Key Campbell initiatives include:
• Sustainability investments across Campbell’s plant network over the past four years that have yielded savings of more than $42.5 million;
• A reduction in water use by more than three billion gallons, and energy savings resulting in the elimination of more than 280,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, since 2009, resulting in ongoing annual savings of more than $2.5 million;
• The construction of a 60-acre, 10 mega-watt solar field at Campbell’s largest manufacturing site where 24,000 sun-tracking panels generate 15 percent of the electricity to operate the plant, and a partnership to create a biogas power plant at the same site to generate renewable electricity from waste generated from product production;
• The redesign of plastic product packaging that saved more than 1.2 million pounds of plastic in fiscal 2012;
• The distribution of more than $40 million in product donations globally and sales of $3.9 billion of products with improved nutrient profiles; and
• The start of a 10-year, $10 million Campbell Healthy Communities program to reduce the rate of childhood obesity and hunger, and the donation of more than 23,000 volunteer hours in the U.S. and Canada to support local Campbell communities.
