Campbell's Decreases Water Use, Increases Energy Use

Cambell’s, the company best known for its soups, released its second corporate social responsibility (CSR) report recently. The report (titled Nourishing: Consumers, Neighbors, Employees, Planet) includes gains made by the company in making its products healthier over the last year. Cambell now offers 90 soups at “healthy sodium levels,” over 85 products certified by the American Heart Association, and over 100 products with Canada’s Heart & Stroke Foundation Health Check’s Joined the Health Weight. Making its products healthier is important considering that the number of U.S. states where at least 30 percent of the adult population is obese tripled to nine in 2009 from three in 2007. Ten years ago no state had an obesity rate of 30 percent or more. No state met the Healthy People 2010 goal to lower the obesity rate to 15 percent. Decreases in some areas, increases in others Cambell’s decreased its water use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 2008 to 2009, but energy use and its waste disposal rate increased:

• Water use decreased slightly from 7,829,355 gross gallons in 2008 to 7,050,749 gallons in 2009
• Water use by cubic meter/ton of food produced decreased from 10.33 in 2008 to 9.35 in 2009
• GHG emissions (one million metric ton of carbon dioxide, or mmtCO2) slightly decreased from one 899,537 mmtCO2 in 2008 to 879,084 mmtCO2 in 2009
• GHG Emissions (mmtCO2)/ton of food produced decreased slightly 0.313 in 2008 to 13 0.308 in 2009
• Increased from 10,239,864 British Thermal Units (mmbtu) in 2008 to 10,276,947 mmbtu in 2009
• Increased energy use mmbtu/ton of food produced from 3.57 in 2008 to 3.60 in 2009
• Waste disposal rate increased by 15 percent despite saving over 4.5 million pounds of steel, plastic and paper packaging materials in 2010

Supply Chain, Logistics, and Transportation Using lighter equipment in the U.S. saved the company 230,000 gallons of diesel fuel and eliminated over 1,000,000 miles traveled. In Canada and Australia, redesigning product cases and pallet patterns resulted in reducing over 500,000 pounds of cardboard, and eliminated over 100,000 truck mile. Inter-modal transportation (truck and rail) reduced fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions up to 50 percent, reduced the amount of trucks used, and saved about 2,100,000 gallons of diesel fuel. Campbell's long term sustainability goals Campbell’s titles its sustainability goals for the long term future, 2020 Environmental Sustainability Destination Goals. The goals focus on reducing water, energy use and waste generated, and producing product packaging from sustainable materials. The goals include:

• Reducing its product portfolio’s portfolio in half (water and GHG emissions)
• Reduce energy use by 35 percent, and source 40 percent of the energy used by the company from renewable or alternative energy sources
• Recycle 95 percent of waste generated globally
• Produce 75 of product packaging from sustainable materials (renewable, recycled, or from recycled content)
• Reduce water use by 20 percent and energy use by 30 percent per tone in the company’s top five agricultural ingredients

"Across the Campbell organization we continue to demonstrate progress toward our 2020 goals," said Dave Stangis, Vice President-CSR. "We have updated the online report to reflect performance from fiscal 2010, which represents important information for both our external and internal stakeholders. More clearly than ever we can show that our efforts are delivering measurable results and value to our business and societal stakeholders."