MNN - Mother Nature Network

A combination of Campbell's Soup's sustainable environmental practices and their social responsibility initiatives have earned the company the title of one of the 100 most sustainable corporations in the world.

 

The honor came from the Global 100, "the most extensive data-driven corporate sustainability assessment in existence." Each year, the Global 100 names the most sustainable corporations, and of the ten U.S. companies that made the list, Campbell's was the only food compay.

 

When most people think of Campbell Soup, they think of the red cans of cream of mushroom, tomato and chicken noodle, and they might wonder what's so sustainable about those products. It's not what's inside the soup cans that got the company on the list; it's the company's operations and involvement with local communities that's being recognized.

 

According to the Courier Post, the company has saved itself $42 million in the past four years with its "green" initiatives. Those initiatives include a "redesign of plastic product packaging, which saved more than 1.2 million pounds of plastic in fiscal 2012," and a 60-acre solar field that was constructed at its Napoleon, Ohio manufacturing site. The field generates 15 percent of the power needed to run the site.

 

Campbell's has also reduced water usage by 3 billion gallons in the past four years. That initiative has eliminated "more than 280,000 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions."

 

The company also donated $40 million worth of products last year to needy communities and has begun a "10-year, $10-million program to reduce the rate of childhood obesity and hunger in the communities it serves."

 

I know that Campbell's Soup is a very active partner of The Food Bank of South Jersey. In addition to the product it donates, last year, the company helped to create Just Peachy Salsa. The food bank said they wanted to do something with the edible, but imperfect New Jersey peaches that ended up in a landfill every year. Campbell's jumped at the opportunity to work with the food bank, helping it with every step from developing the recipe to making the salsa to jarring it to hand labeling 42,000 jars to getting it on retail shelves. All of the proceeds from the sale of Just Peachy go directly to the food bank.

 

I live very close to the community of Camden, N.J., one of the poorest communities in the country. Campbell's has kept its world headquarters in the city when almost all other big companies left over the past 50 years. The company is very active with education and community gardens in the city. The company's presense and involvement are incredibly important to the community.

 

I'm glad to see that Campbell's is being recognized for all that it does sustainably and socially.