General Mills Issues Its 2014 Global Responsibility Report

General Millsjust issued its 2014 Global Responsibility Report. I received an advanced review copy and spoke with Chief Sustainability Officer Jerry Lynch to get his perspective. The 121-page report is organized into five major sections: Health, Environment, Sourcing, Workplace and Community. These are consistent with the company's mission of "Nourishing Lives- making lives healthier, easier and richer - for 147 years."

Triple Pundit:One statement in the introduction really impressed me. "Our business depends on the availability of natural resources and the strength of the communities where we operate."This neatly sums up the reason why companies should care about and invest in corporate social responsibility and sustainability. It's the awareness that companies do not exist in a vacuum, and that in fact all of their inputs (raw materials) and outputs (sales) are in constant interaction with ecosystems that are subject to continuous change and are sensitive to factors that they themselves can have a significant impact upon.

Jerry Lynch:Thank you.We take the output of Mother Nature, then add value to it for our consumers. So if the front end of that business model breaks down, we're in a world of hurt. The focus of our work is to conserve and protect our natural resources and the communities that our business depends on. So it's really a hard-nose business imperative behind this.

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• Corporate Social Responsibility
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