Hershey Releases 2024 Responsible Business Report

HERSHEY, PA / ACCESS Newswire / June 13, 2025 / The Hershey Company (NYSE:HSY) released its 2024 Responsible Business Report, providing an update on the company's progress towards business resilience. The report outlines how the company is implementing responsible and sustainable practices across its value chain, operations and communities.

"At Hershey, our vision of being a Leading Snacking Powerhouse is driven by our unwavering focus on creating moments of goodness for our customers and consumers, the communities where we work and live, and the planet that sustains us all," said Michele Buck, Chairman, President and CEO of The Hershey Company. "Bringing goodness to the world is what we are built to do, and we've been doing it for more than 130 years."

Building Resilience Throughout the Value Chain

Hershey is working with industry, civil society and government partners to build resilience throughout its value chain.

• Improving farmer livelihoods: The Hershey Income Accelerator Program expanded significantly in 2024, nearly doubling the number of farming families receiving cash incentives to 3,492, measurably reducing poverty, growing income and increasing the number of participants with savings according to an independent study.

• Developing long-term relationships with farming cooperatives: Hershey signed a groundbreaking five-year agreement with nine cocoa-producing cooperatives in Côte d'Ivoire aimed at partnering to improve cocoa farming by investing in community-based resources that improve household well-being, preserving the environment and strengthening farm resilience, and enhancing cooperatives' profitability and entrepreneurial skill building.

• Advancing living wage and income initiatives: Hershey advanced its living wage initiatives through new benchmarking partnerships and leadership roles in developing industry-wide wage mapping tools. These efforts aim to ensure fair wages for workers throughout the supply chain.

Operating Efficiently and Reducing Waste

Environmental stewardship is integral to Hershey's strategy, from driving operational efficiency and reducing greenhouse gas emissions to reducing materials and waste.

• Progress on Science-Based Targets: Hershey has achieved a total reduction of 1.6 million metric tons of carbon vs 2023 and a 33% reduction in forest, land and agriculture emissions from 2018.