The Hershey Company is a company that stands for goodness. The Hershey Company has worked hard to establish and maintain a good reputation for their confections, as well as for what they do. Milton Hershey, its founder, donated the majority of his fortune in order to establish The Milton Hershey School. The school is a private school designed to provide stability and top-quality education for children from low-income families. They have also established a code to conduct that gives them the tools and information necessary to be responsible, ethical, and transparent with their customers. The Hershey Company’s global expansion is expected to continue to maintain the vision of its founders and foster goodwill within the communities that are involved.
Hershey’s 2017 Social Corporate Responsibility Report broke down the company’s goals into four segments. These were “Our Shared Goodness Promise:” shared worlds, shared planets and shared businesses. Shared Futures involves investing in children’s education and accessing nutrition. Shared Planet is focused on climate change and reducing greenhouse gasses, total and packaging wastes, as well as water consumption. Shared Business is focused on sustainability sourcing, transparency in ingredients, nutrition in labeling, as well as driving purpose across the brands. Shared Communities is the last segment. It focuses on sustainable sourcing, transparency of ingredients and nutrition in labeling and driving out purpose throughout the brands. Hershey’s believes in equal opportunities for all children. They recognize that children cannot focus on learning if they are hungry. Their partnership with multiple programs has allowed them to feed one million children. Hershey proudly provides ViVi, which is a vitamin-fortified snack, every day to 50,000 students in Ghana. This gives them the energy they need and allows them to maximize their education. The organization works with West Africa’s small food producers to expand their supply of nutritious foods. They also work with international experts in the food industry to provide advice and connections for local entrepreneurs. This can improve access to nutritious food across Africa.
Shared Planet promotes sustainable practices and goals. Hershey’s aims to eradicate deforestation through the planting of trees, reducing their greenhouse gas emissions, addressing future agricultural risk, eliminating waste, rethinking their packaging, and using data to constantly improve. Hershey achieved a 2.7% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, exceeding their target of 25% by 2025. The company changed the frequency of their emissions audits from quarterly to annual. This allowed them to be more focused on their operations and to make rapid changes. They also reduced their packaging waste by 18.5million pounds. Their goal is to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by 25 million pounds by 2025. This was achieved by eliminating junk mail. They also made the switch from diesel cars to cleaners that are more environmentally friendly. Hershey, Mexico’s two largest natural gas conversion plants, was able to save 17.938 tons CO2 alone. Their plants regularly exceed 85% recycling rates and have no waste sent to landfill at thirteen of their locations. Hershey will construct a new wastewater treatment station to help reduce the use of freshwater.
Shared business focuses on consumer demand for healthier snacks and transparent labels. Hershey’s philosophy emphasizes high-quality ingredients sourced ethically and that consumers feel good about. SmartLabels packaging is also a commitment by Hershey to use only simple ingredients. This allows consumers to quickly find nutrition information, allergens, GMO status, and other details about their favorite snacks. They also promise that less than half of their single-serve products will have 200 calories. Hershey will not do business with any company that exploits children, uses forced labor or trafficking. Hershey’s suppliers and employees must be treated with dignity. They should also receive a fair wage, as per applicable law. The Concern Line is an independent organization that encourages employees to report misconduct in operations without fear of reprisal. Hershey also pledged to source 100% of its sugar from sustainable and responsible sources by 2020. To ensure compliance with the Supplier Code of Conduct, Hershey will incorporate third-party evaluations into their supply chains of Mexican sugar suppliers. 75% also certified their cocoa as sustainable in 2017.
The Shared Community program focuses on three key areas: helping people with basic needs, educating tomorrow’s workforce, and investing in economic and community development. The Hershey Company uses cocoa as its most important ingredient. It is therefore vital that it is available and the wellbeing of those who grow it. Hershey imports cocoa form West Africa. This has led to the company putting a lot of emphasis on improving lives for cocoa farmers and their families. The Learn to Grow farm training program was started by The Hershey Company. This program is designed to help farmers improve their livelihoods. Hershey created a robust training infrastructure to help increase efficiency in cocoa farms. It includes one Cocoa Center, 55 demonstration plots and 989 farmer-field schools. CocoaLink, a low price mobile technology from Hershey, provides weekly tips for farm modernization and information regarding safety, labor, and health.
Hershey also opened a primary education center and a West African health clinic. The school’s primary classrooms are outfitted with solar-powered lighting fixtures. In addition to a water well and infirmary, the cafeteria offers sponsored meals. It also houses teachers and medical personnel. A partnership was formed with cocoa suppliers in order to build a community-based health center in Cote d’Ivoire. This will offer basic health services like maternity facilities, laboratory testing for AIDS, malaria, and vaccines for polio and tetanus. This center would mean that families living in this area would be forced to live without medical treatment, or to travel great distances to receive it.
