Adam Grant, General Manager, Mars Wrigley UK has announced in a letter on their website that the iconic Mars Bar will be carbon neutral by January 2023, copied below.
Today we have announced that all Mars bars sold in the UK and Ireland will be certified as carbon neutral by 2023.
That’s over 200 million bars sold in the UK and Ireland every single year that will be carbon neutral. This is expected to be roughly equivalent to charging more than 13 billion smartphones, or the same amount of carbon sequestered by around 135,000 acres of forest in a year. To give you a bit of context, Hyde Park is 350 acres.
Our new pledge, which also includes Mars bars sold in Canada, represents tangible climate action less than a month after we announced our commitment to achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions across our full value chain by 2050.
At Mars, we are committed to taking the critical actions needed to address the health and sustainability of our planet, and firmly believe that engaging you – the consumer – in the fight against climate change is an imperative.
How are we going to make the Mars bar carbon neutral in the UK and Ireland?
We are deeply committed to operating more sustainably at home.
For example, we have already reduced our carbon footprint from direct operations in the UK by 67% since 2015.
This includes producing the Mars bar in a factory that sources 100% renewable electricity.
We’re planning to do more, though, and next year we’ll be removing a million miles from the roads through a new logistics programme. That’ll mean we’re able to deliver your Mars bar to your local shop in a more sustainable way.
A chunk of the Mars bar’s emissions is from our agricultural supply chains.
To reduce these emissions, we’re taking decisive action to tackle deforestation, address land use and transform how we source raw materials.
As a result of supercharging our efforts to sustainably transform supply chain agricultural practices, namely cocoa and cows (and their burps!), the Mars bar will see a carbon footprint reduction of over 20% in the UK, Ireland and Canada by 2023. This includes using satellite data to geomap cocoa farms and accelerated partnerships with suppliers to produce dairy more sustainably.
For example, by the end of 2022, 100% of our suppliers providing dairy for the Mars bar will have a program to reduce their on-farm greenhouse gas impacts .That’s everything from improving feed to using low emission manure application technology (it really is a thing!).
Any emissions that cannot be eliminated will be offset by high quality carbon removal credits based on climate solutions like reforestation and land restoration.
We will work with an independent auditor to certify the Mars bar as carbon neutral and will be adhering to the PAS 2060 standard for carbon neutrality, which provides radical transparency and is widely considered to be the leading standard of carbon neutral specification.
We’re proud that the Mars bar will be carbon neutral in the UK, Ireland and Canada by 2023, but we’re clear that the job isn’t done, and it is certainly not time to down tools.
We know that we must continue to make purposeful climate interventions. And we know that to create a world tomorrow where the planet is healthy, we must continue to take bold action. And we will.
Adam Grant,
General Manager, Mars Wrigley UK
For further information on Mars, Incorporated’s climate commitments and Sustainable in a Generation Plan, visit www.mars.com/sustainability-plan
