Global food manufacturer Mars is “taking a climate leadership role: we are fully convinced of the science behind climate change, and the direction is pretty unambiguous,” says Kevin Rabinovitch, Global Director of Sustainability for Mars, in The Climate Group’s latest Climate TV interview.
“The reason why we became part of RE100 is that there is a real problem, and we’re pretty clear on what the cause of the problem is – greenhouse gas emissions.”
The company is reducing emissions in its own operations by gradually increasing renewable energy supply to its sites worldwide. Through RE100 it has set a goal to be 100% powered by renewable electricity by 2040, and it has an interim target to reduce its carbon emissions by 25% by 2015.
“One of the first and more important things we can do, based on the sort of business we are, is to shift our factories’ energy sources from fossil to renewable and low carbon energy sources,” underlines Rabinovitch.
Mars operates according to five principles: quality, responsibility, mutuality, efficiency and freedom. “Sustainability – and renewable energy as a subset of that – really plays across several of these principles,” says the Director.
“The efficiency principle is an obvious one, which we accomplish by using resources at their full and wasting nothing,” expressed in the company’s focus on energy efficiency. Renewable energy, he says, “speaks to a couple of other principles, particularly mutuality, which is to do what is right not only for ourselves but for our business partners and our extended supply chains.”
On why a global company such as Mars decided to invest so much in tackling climate change, Rabinovitch explains: “We have two fundamental choices. Either we can prepare for a low carbon economy, or we can prepare for the consequences of a high carbon economy.
“Our view is the things we can be doing now to move toward a low carbon economy are not only easier and less costly, but frankly they are more fun than some of the consequences of not taking action.”
One of the first companies to join RE100, Mars continues to highlight the importance collaborative climate action among forward-thinking businesses. Rabinovitch says: “We just need to change the momentum, the trajectory, not just of the leading businesses and the leading states and regions, but of everybody. The challenge is not sufficient, if we are the only one doing it.”
Explaining why companies are increasingly taking climate action, he says: “They are seeing more and more examples of others doing it, and it’s helping people mentally break through the feasibility barriers.”
"Sustainability is really one of the big reasons we’ve started to talk more vocally, and our work on climate is a great example of that. RE100 is a great platform for us to amplify that message, and to help provide that sense of comfort for other companies and other entities that this is a problem that can be solved, an opportunity we can deliver against.”
With the crucial international climate talks starting in less than a week in Paris, corporates have a critical role to play in showing how business can influence the international dialogue around climate change.
“At some level, policymakers are maybe hesitant about making commitments consistent with the science,” says Rabinovitch, “either because they don’t believe there is economic feasibility and a rational behind some of those policies, or even if they believe there is economic rationality they are worried about constituents not feeling the same way.
“The more we as corporations, and ultimately we as citizens, can send the message to the policymakers that actually we welcome these changes, the more this can strengthen the role of RE100 and all the other commitments.”