Campbell Among 100 Most Sustainable Corporations

The Campbell Soup Co. has been included among the Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World, a ranking from Toronto-based media and investment research company Corporate Knights. Camden, N.J.-based Campbell is one of 10 U.S. companies, and the only U.S. food and beverage company, to appear in the ranking. The Global 100 includes companies from 22 countries across six continents.

According to Dave Stangis, Campbell’s VP, public affairs and corporate responsibility, the listing “recognizes how Campbell integrates corporate responsibility into business strategy. We continue to strengthen our long-term commitment to creating value for our business and society as a sustainable and socially responsible company.”

To assemble the Global 100, Corporate Knights employs a two-step methodology: selecting companies based on such information as sustainability disclosure practices, financial health and product types, and then scoring them by sector-specific key performance indicators mainly related to energy, water, waste metrics and community engagement.

Among Campbell’s sustainability initiatives are investments across its plant network over the past four years that have yielded savings of more than $42.5 million; a reduction in water use by more than 3 billion gallons, and energy savings resulting in the elimination of more than 280,000 metric tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, since 2009, resulting in ongoing annual savings of more than $2.5 million; the construction of a 60-acre, 10-megawatt solar field at its largest manufacturing site, where 24,000 sun-tracking panels generate 15 percent of the electricity to operate the plant, and a partnership to create a biogas power plant at the same site to generate renewable electricity from waste generated from product production; a product packaging redesign that saved more than 1.2 million pounds of plastic in fiscal 2012; and the rollout of the 10-year, $10 million "Campbell Healthy Communities" program to reduce the rates of childhood obesity and hunger.

Campbell’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies encompass four key areas: consumers, the planet, employees and the community.