The Hershey Company
USA – End user
19/27 total score, 11/12 high quality responses, 11/15 Strategic Aims met
The Hershey Company achieved a score of 19/27 and met the criteria of the Bonsucro Strategic Aims 11 times.
In 2020, 100% of its sugarcane sourcing from origins outside the United States was Bonsucro-certified, either via mass balance or credits. The company now commits to procuring all sugar, including US produced volumes, from sources certified or verified to a recognised sustainability standard at the farm level by 2025.
The chocolate manufacturer recently assembled a cross-functional sugar sustainability team to define a new
responsible sourcing strategy for 2021-2025, having met its 2016 strategy in 2020. The three pillars of this strategy are traceability, monitoring and verification, and transformation.
Hershey reported that 5,000 farmers participating in their farm-school ‘Learn to Grow’ programme in Belize and Mexico have benefited from increased yields and reduced environmental impacts. In addition, 3,300 participating farmers have seen an increase in their income thanks to better cane quality.
Alcoholes Finos Dominicanos
Dominican Republic – Distillery
9/15 total score, 3/3 Strategic Aims met, 3/7 SDGs*
Alcoholes Finos Dominicanos reported transparently on its plans for continuous improvement and ensure the protection of the environment, as well as healthy and safe work for all.
The sugarcane producer and rum distillery also outlined its production targets which included:
- acquiring new land to increase sugar cane production
- working with external suppliers to guarantee the quality of the raw material
- maintaining the stability and sustainability of production in the land already planted with sugarcane.
- improving the quality of life of its workers
This reporting was deemed to contribute to the three strategic aims, and SDGs 8 and 12.
Like many farmers, the company reported various challenges relating to COVID-19, including greater distance from producers, and a need for producers to be more ‘online’ than usual, which was challenging and time-consuming.
Considering the limited technological capacity of many of its farmers, Alcoholes Finos Dominicanos S.A. developed a plan to improve communication with producers, so that they have greater access to information in this new modality presented by the pandemic.
*2 points were granted for meeting SDG8 in a ’social’ and in an ‘economic’ capacity
PepsiCo
USA – End user
21/27 total score, 11/12 high quality responses, 13/15 Strategic Aims met
PepsiCo received the highest score of any Intermediary, Trader, or End User.
The global food and beverage corporation achieved 100% sustainable sugarcane sourcing in 2020 and is committed to continue sustainably sourcing cane sugar under its new Pep+ Positive Agriculture ambition.
PepsiCo provided details of its Coalition for Sustainable Sugarcane, involving partnerships with Grupo Azucarero Mexico, PepsiCo, Proforest, One Peterson, Bonsucro, and the University of Guadalajara, as an example of best practice in sugarcane sourcing and continued support for growing Bonsucro volumes
In 2018–2019, Grupo Azucarero Mexico (GAM), with the support of PepsiCo, certified their Tala Mill and its mill-run plantations, under the Bonsucro Standard. Since then, this partnership has actively engaged 25 Mexican smallholders in Tala Mill’s supply area to pilot the Bonsucro Smallholders Standard.
The company is also a member of the Alliance for the Sustainability of the Agroindustry of Sugar Cane in Mexico (ASACAM), which is a platform that seeks to promote increased engagement between the private and public sectors to find ways to address challenges to sustainability of the agroindustry.
In 2020, the alliance developed a labour compliance seminar series for 2021/2022, facilitated by Verite, with an aim of level-setting on the on-going changes in the regulatory environment on human rights due diligence, demonstrating the value of responsible recruitment and improved labor practices in future-proofing business, and strengthening a peer-to-peer network for sharing resources and best practices.
