Cereal Titan Kellogg Steps Up to The Plate

You guessed it...Kellogg has grrrrrrrreat sustainability initiatives."As a company, and as individuals, we are passionate about enriching and delighting the world through foods and brands that matter.  We understand that people care about how the foods they eat are grown and produced.  That's why environmentally sustainable practices are such a crucial part of ensuring our brands remain relevant with consumers".Let's take a look at 2014.February: Kellogg, one of the largest palm oil purchasers world-wide, announced its commitment to source 100% deforestation-free palm oil by Dec. 31, 2015.March: Kellogg becomes the first U.S. food company to use GreenPalm certificates equivalent to the amount of palm oil it is using until it is fully able to buy deforestation-free palm oil.August: Kellogg announces two new sustainability commitments - a focus on delivering grain from responsible sources and conserving natural resources.And most recently, Kellogg has announced its intentions to mandate its entire supply chain to calculate and disclose its greenhouse gas emissions.  The company additionally stated that they would articulate a greenhouse gas reduction target for all suppliers by the end of 2015."We recognize that upstream agriculture emissions are the single largest source of emissions in our value chain and will focus our efforts on achieving agricultural emissions reductions".By 2020, Kellogg aims to significantly decrease plants sending waste to landfills, use 100% timber-based packaging from recycled or certified sustainable sources, source fully traceable sustainable palm oil, reduce greenhouse emissions, increase use of renewable energy, reduce its water use, implement water recovery projects in 25% of its plants, minimize the raw materials in its packaging, and increase its focus on women and smallholder farmers.Looks like our beloved cereal brand will be quite busy over the next five years. Let's hope the Frosted Flakes still crunch.By and large, consumers more consciously purchase food (a direct input into the body) than anything else. Think about it. You would likely care a whole lot more about eating badly prepared food than buying a shirt or a refrigerator from "environmentally-unfriendly" companies. Why? The negative effect of the former directly affects you - and more immediately.Albeit late to the game (General Mills and Mars already announced similar efforts), Kellogg has recognized the true need of aligning environment friendliness with its brand. Why? A growing body of consumers simply won't accept anything less.