General Mills Makes Meaningful Global Responsibility Progress to Shape the Future

General Mills (NYSE: GIS) today released its 2021 Global Responsibility Report, which highlights social and environmental progress made in the 2020 fiscal year, ending May 31, 2020. The annual update, which marks 51 years of reporting for the company, features actions and outcomes across four areas: Food, Planet, People and Community.

“Everything we do at General Mills connects back to our purpose of making food the world loves,” said Jeff Harmening, chairman and CEO, General Mills. “The events of this past year – COVID-19 and the racial injustice and social equity movements – reaffirmed our belief that our scale brings opportunity and responsibility. We can and are doing good things that impact our people, our planet and the communities we serve.”

In 2020, General Mills continued to make food with passion for families around the world, achieved sustainably sourcing 100 percent of its top ten priority ingredients, advanced regenerative agriculture practices on farmland, reduced its greenhouse gas emissions footprint, enabled 7 billion meals around the world through philanthropic partners and food donations during a heightened time of need, and deepened inclusion and diversity commitments inside-and-outside the company’s walls.

“Our business is rooted in the earth and in order to make food for future generations, we believe we can no longer simply sustain earth’s resources, we need to regenerate them,” said Mary Jane Melendez, chief sustainability and social impact officer, General Mills. “In the past year, we accelerated farmer adoption of regenerative agriculture practices on more than 70,000 acres in key regions where we source ingredients – getting us closer to our 1 million acres commitment by 2030 – and measured positive environmental, social and economic outcomes.”

Food: Making food the world loves (and needs)

As the COVID-19 pandemic increased food insecurity around the world and at-home food demand elevated, General Mills’ purpose, in effect, expanded to ‘making food the world loves… (and needs).’ The company innovated within its food portfolio to delight consumers and meet their diverse interests and needs – representing nutrition-forward options, affordability and accessibility. Progress includes:

• General Mills is now the largest provider of natural and organic packaged food in the U.S.
• The company led with safety – both in the workplace and food production. Ninety-six percent of the company’s production facilities are Global Food Safety Initiative certified.
• Forty-three percent of General Mills’ global volume met the company’s nutrition-forward foods criteria.

Planet: Regenerating our planet and supporting farmers