Mars launches sustainable investment fund

Mars says it continues to succeed in decoupling the company’s growth from greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, the food company is launching an investment fund to boost sustainable initiatives.

250 million dollars

While Mars’ annual net sales have grown by 69 % since 2015 to around fifty billion euros, its carbon footprint has decreased by 16.4 % over the same period. Much of the progress is due to intensive agricultural partnerships: more than sixty projects are currently underway in 29 countries, aimed at improving farmers’ livelihoods and strengthening their farms and farmland for future generations.

In the company’s new sustainability report, Mars announces it Mars is launching the Mars Sustainability Investment Fund to encourage further progress. Designed to foster innovation and growth, this fund will invest 250 million dollars in providing capital to companies developing cutting-edge solutions that address key industry sustainability challenges.

“Address resilience challenges”

The investment fund will focus on three areas:

• advanced agricultural technologies to reduce emissions from agricultural raw materials in Mars’ products

• innovative ingredients and raw materials that offer more emission-friendly alternatives to existing ingredients in Mars products

• and next-generation packaging designed with circularity in mind, focusing on recyclable, compostable or alternative replacements for flexible plastics

“I’m pleased to see our continued ability to decouple our business growth from our carbon footprint while simultaneously investing in innovation and getting behind start-ups that will be creating new solutions and advance breakthroughs to help companies address resilience challenges, ” CEO Poul Weihrauch said.