When you look into your morning bowl of cereal, do you consider its impact on the climate?

General Mills, maker of brands such as Cheerios, is taking action to reduce its carbon footprint – the amount of carbon pollution emitted when making its products.

Lynch: “When we look at the carbon footprint of our full value chain, nearly two-thirds of that footprint is upstream of our own operations, and most of that’s in agriculture.”

That’s Jerry Lynch, Chief Sustainability Officer for General Mills. The company has pledged to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from its own supply chain by 2020 and sustainably source ten priority ingredients, including oats, wheat, corn and dairy.

General Mills will work with the World Wildlife Fund to assess, transform, and monitor their supply chain to make sure their ingredients come from suppliers who continuously improve their environmental performance. Lynch says environmental sustainability is just good business.

Lynch: “And so if the engine of Mother Nature breaks down, our business model runs into trouble.”

Reporting credit: ChavoBart Digital Media.
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