Eat Chocolate For A Cause: Mars Has Pledged $1 Billion To Fight Climate Change

Mars wants to save our planet. The company is a behemoth, raking in over $35 billion a year — across brands like Snickers, Skittles, Uncle Ben’s, and Pedigree pet food. Now, the company has gone “all in” on reducing their carbon footprint by 2/3 by 2050, in accordance with the settled climate science community’s consensus and recommendations. To chase this goal, Mars is setting aside $1 billion to invest in completely overhauling the company from top to bottom. They’ll be investing in a program called Sustainable In A Generation. The docket will focus on renewable energy, sustainable and ethical farming, and cross industry action groups to get other major corporations on the road to a sustainable future.

Barry Parkin, Mars’ chief sustainability officer, told Business Insider that Mars, Inc.’s move was based on the company’s frustration with the speed in which the United States is acting on climate change in the face of unassailable scientific evidence. Mars, of course, is hugely reliant on the developing world’s agriculture and society. So, supporting communities in high-risk climate change areas is of paramount importance to the company’s plans. “Climate science says many of those [farmers] are going to be challenged as the world gets warmer. We care about this both on a societal level but also on a business level,” Parkin reported. He continues, “It’s time for companies to accelerate their game and work together, and work together with governments and civil society. This is a world issue, and it requires all actors to work together.”

It’s heartening to see a major corporation take steps to address real issues instead of talking the ‘Old Man Yelling At Cloud‘ meme approach that most of the right and especiallythe far-right is taking. Mars has an uphill battle as Trump’s administration is literally removing science from government institutions and pundits are calling real life hurricanes left-wing conspiracies. But, when 2020 comes around, at least Mars, Inc. will be ahead of the game instead of trying to play catch up with the rest of the world.

(Via Business Insider)