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Climate Week at Campbell

Sustainability

At Campbell, we’re committed to reducing our carbon footprint through our environmental sustainability strategy.

Climate Week is a week of raising awareness for climate action, hosted in collaboration with the City of New York and the United Nations. As part of Climate Week 2020, we’re highlighting how we work to reduce our impact on the climate.

Reducing our food waste

The United States generates roughly 60 million tons of food waste annually, and nearly 40 million tons of that goes to landfill. About 25-40% of the food that is grown, processed and transported in the United States will never be consumed despite all the resources utilized in its production. To contribute to reversing this trend, we adopted the UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 in 2017 to cut food waste in half by 2030. So far, we’ve reduced food waste in our operations by 36%. Two examples of ways we do that are by reducing the amount of surplus food we make and by using food scraps for animal food.

Using renewable energy

soup plant

Our plant in Napoleon, Ohio

We completed our first solar project in 2012 at our Napoleon, Ohio location, where we make Campbell’s Soup, Prego sauce, Pace salsa and V8 beverages. The 9.8 MW solar array in Napoleon is still our largest. And we now have four other locations that produce renewable energy: two fuel cells and four other solar arrays. We source 10% of our electricity from renewable energy and expect to increase that amount in the coming years as part of our goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2025.

Making our packaging more sustainable

The choices we make about packaging can contribute to the carbon footprint of our products. The packaging materials we select, the percentage of recycled content in those materials, and the way we design packaging for recyclability, all make a big impact. Designing for circularity—to keep materials in use and out of landfills—allows our consumers to easily recycle their packaging after use, increasing the availability of recycled content for future packaging. With more recycled content available, we can further reduce our use of virgin materials. In 2020, we launched 4 new packaging goals to reduce the environmental footprint of our own products and support the recycling market.

Working with farmers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions

tomatoes on truck

Tomatoes at harvest

We work closely with farmers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that are related to growing food. One strategy is to encourage more efficient use of nitrogen fertilizer, which accounts for a significant share of U.S. agricultural production emissions. For example, our tomato growers adopted drip irrigation in 2012, leading to nitrogen-related emission reductions of more than 25%. In partnership with Truterra and agricultural retailers, we encourage wheat growers to adopt fertilizer management plans and technologies, along with other soil health practices, which are also helping to drive reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.

Combating deforestation

hands holding palm fruit

Palm fruit, which provides palm oil

Trees are one of the planet’s most powerful solutions to climate change because they capture and store carbon. However, deforestation and land use change accounts for 10% of the world’s global emissions and continues to occur at an alarming rate. Most of the forest clearing can be attributed to four crops: palm oil, beef, soybean, and paper and wood products. That’s why we’re working with our suppliers to investigate those supply chains and the origins of the materials we source.

In 2019, we confirmed that most of the beef and all the soybean-related ingredients we purchase are at low-risk for deforestation. We are committed to responsibly sourcing all of our palm oil and paper packaging by 2025. In 2013, we became members of the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), a global certifying body that works to reduce the negative impacts of palm oil production and have been sourcing 100% RSPO-certified palm oil since 2016. Since purchasing Snyder’s-Lance in 2018, we have been working to transition all of their brands to 100% RSPO-certified palm oil and will do so by end of 2021.

Those are just the highlights! Want to learn more about Campbell’s corporate responsibility? We encourage you to explore our Corporate Responsibility Report.

Interested in learning more about Climate Week? Explore Climate Week news, events and resources.

You can also hear from our very own Director of Corporate Responsibility & Sustainability Megan Maltenfort at Green Philly’s climate event this Friday.

Image of solar array at our first onsite solar project, completed in 2012 at our Napoleon, Ohio manufacturing site that produces Campbell’s Soup, Prego sauce, Pace salsa and V8 drinks.

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