Goals
General Mills made substantial progress on achieving our environmental sustainability goals during fiscal 2010, along with developing expanded and more aggressive sustainability goals for our manufacturing facilities by fiscal 2015.
As of the close of fiscal 2010, our global operations had achieved the following sustainability indicators, which apply to our wholly-owned manufacturing facilities:
- A 33 percent reduction in our solid waste generation rate – more than twice the 15 percent goal set in fiscal 2005.
- A 9 percent reduction in our water usage rate – nearly twice the 5 percent goal set in fiscal 2006.
- An 8 percent reduction in our greenhouse gas emission rate – about halfway toward the 15 percent goal.
- A 6 percent reduction in our energy consumption rate – short of our 15 percent goal.
The company has also set new, expanded environmental sustainability goals (using fiscal 2005 as a baseline). We’ve set targets to reduce our:
- Energy usage rate by 20 percent by fiscal 2015.
- Greenhouse gas emission rate by 20 percent by 2015.
- Water usage rate by 20 percent by 2015. (From a fiscal 2006 baseline.)
- Solid waste generation rate by 50 percent by 2015.
In addition, the company has set a transportation goal for North American operations to reduce the fuel used to ship a pound of product by 35 percent by fiscal 2015, using fiscal 2009 as a baseline. Achieving this goal would reduce our greenhouse gas emissions generated by shipping products by 35 percent.
We’ve also established a 2015 goal to reduce the environmental footprint of the packaging used to protect and sell our products. Our goal is that 40 percent of our global product volume will be sold in packaging that has been improved over the baseline year of fiscal 2009. Four key indicators will be used to assess improvement: packaging weight, recycled content, renewable content, and truck loading efficiency.
