General Mills Water Stewardship

General Mills: Water Stewardship and the Evolution of Business Imperatives

For a Big 10 food company like General Mills, of which Pillsbury is but one of many popular brands, a triple-bottom-line sustainability is mission critical in an increasingly resource-strained landscape, and water stewardship is a cornerstone of that mission. Future return on capital investment is fundamentally tied to the health of watersheds — a vital shared resource at risk of becoming a tragedy of the commons if not managed sustainably.

In the early 20th century, the “miracle” of the Haber-Bosch process ushered in the Green Revolution, turning Malthusian predictions of impending mass starvation on its head. With modern industrial agriculture now possible, the stage was set for the Great Acceleration that began with the post-war boomer generation. Expansion was the touchstone of responsible business. Convenience and variety revolutionized food production and consumption in the U.S. and across the developed world.

That was then, when there were four billion fewer people on the earth, when climate change was still something of an academic novelty, and “sustainability” was mostly an economic consideration. Times have changed. For a responsible agriculturally-based corporation seeking continued return for shareholders and the means to offer products to consumers, new definitions of sustainability and return on investment inform the evolution of business imperatives.

In fact, for General Mills, the seedlings of sustainability started in the 1930s with recycled paperboard packaging and crop-rotation methods for the company’s Green Giant brand. In the 21st century, this ongoing journey includes, among many other initiatives, a commitment to lead the effort with all stakeholders to develop, implement and monitor watershed stewardship plans throughout the regions in which the company operates.

“When we think about our work on sustainability, it is as a business imperative,” Jerry Lynch, chief sustainability officer for General Mills, told TriplePundit. “The reason why is that we’re highly dependent on Mother Nature continuing to work well.”

Bringing the “bounty of nature” to consumers is a privilege for General Mills, and with that privilege comes a global responsibility – to shareholders, customers, local communities and the environment alike. This is the context for Lynch when considering the ROI of sustainability. A relatively stable climate, healthy soils, proper hydration and functioning watersheds are the raw elements essential for business success, without which any economic concern of ROI fast becomes a moot point.

In 2014 General Mills published a new water policy statement, including the goal of reducing internal water consumption by 20 percent by the end of fiscal 2015. But to really move the needle on water stewardship requires looking outside its “own four walls.”

Watersheds in distress

A 2009 report from the World Economic Forum called Charting Our Water Future   warns that, given a business-as-usual scenario, freshwater demand will outstrip supply by as much as 40 percent between 2030 and 2035.

That is a “compelling fact,” Lynch said, and one that forces a tough, yet simple, question when considering water resource management: Will this watershed be able to support the human and commercial activity that’s already taking place and projected to take place in the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years?

In partnership with the Nature Conservancy (TNC), General Mills began work in 2012 to find answers to that question. A four-step process was developed, beginning with a top-level assessment of all the watersheds important to the company’s operations — ranking each one in order of risk. With this “to-do” of critical watersheds General Mills determined “where we’re going to go do work.”

Every watershed is unique

The need for freshwater is universal, but, as Lynch explained, every watershed presents a unique set of challenges.

“In no watershed are we to the monitoring stage, yet. But I can tell you a couple things that we know already: We know that every watershed is different, so it’s got to be customized per watershed, whatever that watershed is. So for instance, the issue in the Snake River of Idaho is not that there’s not enough water; it’s that it’s in the wrong place at the wrong time. It’s got a very different kind of underground geology than, say, Mexico does.”

Much work remains to address critical watersheds, but with key partners in place and increasing stakeholder engagement, General Mills brings to the table a leadership role for effective water stewardship, in Mexico and all its critical watershed regions, including those in drought-stricken California, where the sense of urgency is palpable.

“Essentially that’s what needs to happen in every high-risk watershed around the world, you could argue, but certainly in the ones where we operate and we have a vested interest. What the drought situation in California does is it puts a fine point and a high degree of urgency in getting those stewardship plans not only in place but acted upon.”

Source: Triple Pundit

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• Business Development
• Sustainability
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