The company partnered with Quantis to measure its impact on climate change, land and water use in a survey reviewed by the World Wildlife Fund and the University of Minnesota’s Institute on the Environment.
Select results
The survey found that 90% of the company’s carbon footprint came from outside its plants and office with 60% coming from farm commodities.
BakeryAndsnacks.com asked Kraft for a full copy of the survey but was told that its release “contains the level of detail that we're sharing outside the company at the moment”.
The results therefore only represent selected information that Kraft has chosen to publish.
The survey found that over 80% of the company’s land impact came from agriculture. Kraft said in its release that the impact from its manufacturing and offices was “negligible”.
Similarly, only 10% of the company’s water footprint came from manufacturing sites with 70% coming from growing raw materials.
Dave McLaughlin, vice president of Agriculture at the World Wildlife Fund said: “This study shows that in order to make meaningful change and conserve nature’s valuable resources, companies need to work with their suppliers to reduce the impact of producing raw materials.”
Sustainability goals
Earlier this year Kraft announced its sustainability goals for the next four years.
By 2015 it said that it aims to cut energy use by 16% and slash CO2 emissions 18% on 2010 levels.
It also hopes to reduce 80m km from its transportation network in the same time scales.
During the Easter period, Kraft and other large confectionery manufacturers received a warning from the UK’s Local Government Association (LGA) to cut the amount of waste which ends up in landfill coming from its seasonal products.
Kraft later announced that eliminating 50,000 metric tonnes of packaging material was among its sustainability goals.