All About Mars’ US$250m Sustainability Investment Fund

The Mars Sustainability Investment Fund is a step towards Mars’ journey to net zero, following the Sustainable in Generation Plan.

The announcement of the fund has been released alongside the company’s Mars Sustainable in a Generation report, and is mainly dedicated to tackling emissions created from agriculture, packaging and ingredients/raw materials.

Making agriculture sustainable is crucial in ensuring long-term food security, protecting the environment and promoting social equity. 

Along with tackling the significant sustainability challenges food packaging provides, single use plastics cause pollution from improper disposal, green house gas emissions from manufacturing and potential microplastic contamination. 

Alastair Child Chief Sustainability Officer at Mars says: “Societal impact goals have to be built into business decision making.”

Alastair is leading Mars on its journey to net zero, following the Sustainable in Generation Plan.

“It is imperative that we continue to perform on our promises and in doing so prove that sustainability is good for business,” he says.

How the fund impacts agriculture

Mars’ Sustainability Investment Fund will help reduce emissions linked to farming such as fertiliser and animal feed, by supporting technologies including:

• Digital tools and record-keeping systems to help farmers track practices, optimising resources and improving yields
• Satellite data and remote sensing technologies to monitor deforestation and land use changes
• Innovations to source ingredients in a climate friendly way, exploring regions and materials with lower GHG impacts

Purchased goods and services – primarily agriculture – currently account for more than 70% of Mars’s total greenhouse gas emissions.

How the fund impacts packaging and ingredients/raw materials

The fund will support the development of new ingredients and raw materials, focusing on low-carbon alternatives and improved nutrition.

Low-carbon alternative ingredients involve replacing animal products with plant-based proteins that are locally sourced and use less energy-intensive methods. 

One of Mars’s biggest challenges is replacing flexible plastic with a recyclable/compostable alternative. 

Flexible plastic is more challenging to recycle than rigid plastic, with many current recycling systems not being equipped to handle it.

Mars says that more than 60% of its customer facing packaging is now recyclable, reusable or compostable. This was achievable by increasing the use of paper and cardboard and phasing out certain plastics.

“Sustainability at Mars is part of our strategy and an intentional focus in our execution,” says Marc Carena, Regional President of Mars Wrigley Europe. 

“I’ve met many Associates who are deeply passionate about sustainability, and it is precisely this commitment to doing good while doing well that has helped us reduce emissions by 16.4% against a 2015 baseline.

“While growing the global Mars, Incorporated business 69% in the same period.”

What next?

Mars has extended its plans to make all packaging recyclable, reusable or compostable until 2030, in relation to broader industry struggles and delays in scaling up recycling infrastructure.

Alastair says: “We’re firmly committed not just to targets in a distant future but to delivering progress now. In order to do this, societal impact goals have to be built into business decision making.

“To continue to deliver progress consistently, we need systemic change across our supply chains, with governments, industry and farmers all playing a role.

“We know we can’t do this alone and so we want to bring our partners and peers along, as only large-scale change will deliver on our collective goals.”