We’ve set aggressive goals in each of these areas to be achieved by 2011, using 2005 as a base year:
- Reduce manufacturing energy consumption by 25%
- Reduce manufacturing energy-related CO2 Emissions by 25%
- Reduce manufacturing waste by 15%
- Reduce manufacturing water usage by 15%
- Eliminate 150 Million pounds of packaging material
Agricultural commodities-cultivating sustainable farming
For Kraft Foods, sustainability starts at the farm. Seed selection, water, fertilizer, labour practices, soil and waste management all contribute. The long-term viability of crops and the benefits realized by farmers and farm communities begin here.
That’s why we continue to support sustainable agricultural programs like:
Rainforest Alliance
In 2003, we collaborated with the Rainforest Alliance for sustainable coffee sourcing. Today, Kraft Foods is the largest buyer of coffee beans from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms and with nearly 34,000 metric tons purchased in 2009. Nine of our coffee brands around the world now carry the Rainforest Alliance seal, including the popular Nabob coffee in Canada. Nabob coffee contains 60% Rainforest Alliance beans*.
In 2005, we expanded our work with Rainforest Alliance to include cocoa. By the end of 2012, our Cote d’Or and Marabou brands have committed to purchase 30,000 metric tons of cocoa beans sourced from Rainforest Alliance Certified™ farms. Kraft Canada has introduced five varieties of Cote d’Or chocolate with 30% Rainforest Alliance Certified™ Cocoa Beans. Our purchases of cocoa beans from Rainforest Alliance farms in 2009 totaled 7,100 metric tons.
*except the Sumatra blend which only contains 45% RA beans.
Fair Trade
Cadbury has been an active member of the Ghanaian community for over a century. Cadbury’s commitment to Fair Trade will quadruple the sales of Fair Trade cocoa from Ghana under Fair Trade terms. Cadbury will launch Fair Trade products in five markets, including Canada. It will impact over 40,000 cocoa farmers and open up new opportunities for farmers to benefit from the Fair Trade system.
Fair Trade Certified Cadbury Dairy Milk bars are available in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and Canada in June 2010. On the 100th anniversary of the first full cocoa crop from Ghana, Africa, Cadbury Dairy Milk - one Canada’s leading chocolate brands - will carry the Fair Trade seal.
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Packaging -- doing more with less
Our goal was ambitious—by 2011, Kraft Foods would eliminate 150 million pounds of packaging material from our supply chain. This would be done by designing more efficient packaging and reducing the amount of packaging material needed for our products.
The great news--we reached our global packaging reduction goal two years early and by end 2009, Kraft Foods had eliminated 174 million pounds of packaging from our supply. Kraft Canada contributed to the global initiative in a significant way, saving more than 19 million pounds of packaging since 2006.
Nabob coffee has moved from steel to composite canisters, which contain a minimum of 50% recycled materials. The lighter canisters are easier to ship, resulting in lower CO2 emissions.
There is now 17% less plastic in the Kraft dressings bottle, which results in a savings of nearly 1 million pounds of plastic. This change means we can fit more bottles in every shipment reducing our carbon footprint. We also changed our Kraft Miracle Whip and Kraft Real Mayo packaging. In 2009, we moved from a glass to a plastic jar, reducing our packaging by 13 million pounds.
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Transport and distribution -- using less fuel, producing less carbon
We’ve made significant progress in reducing the amount of fuel we use by cutting down on the distance our fleets travel, partnering with third party logistics providers, industry, trade and government agencies and utilizing new technologies—all with the goal of saving fuel and reducing our CO2 emissions.
In North America, Kraft Foods is using software provided by Transportation/Warehouse Optimization at its 20 largest plants and distribution centers to optimize outbound truckloads, maximize weight and cube and put more products on fewer trucks. This effort has resulted in the equivalent of taking 1,500 trucks off of the road and more than a million miles off of the highway system.
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Energy -- using it more efficiently
Globally, we are taking steps to reduce our energy usage and identify other ways of meeting our energy needs. In addition to looking at our waste stream as a potential source of energy, we’re switching to more efficient lighting and exploring the use of solar and wind.
In Canada, we’re using Mega Fans in our distribution centres and warehouses to increase the overall energy efficiency. In summer, they work to increase air velocity, which creates a “wind chill” effect. In winter, they provide destratification driving warm air down, providing an energy savings of 25%.
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Water -- using less, more responsibly
Water scarcity and quality is quickly becoming the next climate-change issue. And this increasingly precious commodity is essential to our manufacturing processes. We are reusing and recycling water used in manufacturing and installing new or upgraded wastewater treatment equipment in some of our facilities.
Over the past three years, Kraft Foods has reduced water used in manufacturing processes by more than 3 billion gallons (nearly 12 billion liters) – enough water to fill nearly 5,000 Olympic swimming pools. That’s a 21 % reduction since 2005, exceeding our goal of 15% reduction, two years early.
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Waste -- making less and putting it to work
Our waste strategy focuses on developing practical and sustainable ways of generating less waste in our manufacturing processes and offices, as well as, new, creative ways of using it.
In 2009, Kraft Canada launched a partnership with TerraCycle, an upcycling company that takes packages and materials that are challenging to recycle and turns them into affordable, high quality goods. The partnership will help prevent a significant amount of packaging waste from going into landfills.
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