Completes 60% of its long-range CSR goals; sets new environmental sustainability targets.

The Hershey Co. issued its third Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report, highlighting how the company has delivered substantial progress against its wide-ranging CSR goals.

From environmental sustainability to ethical sourcing, the company achieved many of its CSR goals years early. As a result, the company has set several new environmental targets in its third report. The company also announced its updated CSR framework to guide its CSR efforts in the future.

The report outlines how the company completed 60% of its published goals and discusses its progress against the remaining 40%, which are on track to be completed on time. Recent achievements include surpassing four environmental targets early and exceeding its year-one cocoa certification goal.

“Since our original goals were set, we have learned a lot about where we could make a difference and what would make the most impact where it matters,” said John Bilbrey, president and CEO, The Hershey Co. “Our CSR strategies have evolved, and the updated framework we share in this report reflects how our company values guide the way we work, and how our CSR efforts have matured, become more focused and better aligned with our business.”

As a result of the substantial progress made against our environmental priorities, the company has established new 2017 goals with 2013 as the baseline. Reducing the company’s environmental impact will play an important role in the company’s ability to achieve $10 billion in annual revenue by 2017.

Hershey’s new environmental targets to be completed are:

• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by an additional 10%
• Attaining zero-waste-to-landfill status at an additional two plants
• Attaining a recycling rate of 90%
• Reducing waste by an additional 5%
• Reducing emissions by an additional 15%
• Reducing absolute water use an additional 17%
• Competing a minimum of 25 packaging sustainability initiatives, resulting in the cumulative elimination of 16 million pounds of packaging material

Sharing Goodness
In the report, the company unveils its evolved CSR framework— “Hershey Shared Goodness: Good Business, Better Life, Bright Future.”

Hershey Shared Goodness guides the report and is built on the company’s belief that operating ethically and effectively is simply Good Business. The knowledge, capabilities and financial resources of strong and sustainable business operations enables the company to contribute to a Better Life for its employees, consumers, communities, and, ultimately, a Bright Future for children in need. The company’s newly focused CSR approach complements the company’s disciplined vision for business growth.

“Our bold, aspirational goals have enabled our people and business to grow significantly,” added Bilbrey. “The same can be said for CSR. It was time to evolve how we were managing our CSR initiatives and engaging our stakeholders. Hershey Shared Goodness directly reflects Milton Hershey’s founding principle of ‘doing well by doing good,’ and positions us for greater growth today and into the future.”           

At the core of The Hershey Co.’s strategy is the simple vision of bringing goodness to the world through great tasting snacks one smile, one moment and one person at a time. For more than 100 years, the Hershey name has meant more than a delicious treat, it has been a commitment to operating fairly, ethically and sustainably for consumers, customers, employees and the community.

Hershey has been recognized externally for its citizenship work. In 2013, Hershey was selected to both the Dow Jones Sustainability World and North America Index as one of only 13 companies from the Food, Beverage and Tobacco Industry in the World Index. The company ranked in at least the 90th percentile in each of the three categories of Economic, Environmental and Social Criteria.

Hershey’s new full CSR report follows the new GRI G4 guidelines. GRI is a widely used standard that provides companies and organizations with a common framework to measure and report on sustainability performance.