The brand name Kraft probably conjures up images of American cheese, prepared in individual plastic wrapped slices, awaiting application onto the open face of a soon-to-be devoured sandwich. Or perhaps you’ll call to mind the notoriously bright blue boxes containing macaroni-and-cheese comfort food goodness. Both of these are correctly associated with the Kraft brand name, but there’s far more to the Kraft story: also part of the company’s portfolio are Crystal Light and Corn Nuts, Oscar Meyer and Tombstone Pizza, Jell-O and Maxwell House.
If this sounds like a surprisingly diverse and broader product line-up than you’d have otherwise thought, it may help to be reminded that Kraft Foods is the US’s largest food product company, and the second largest in the world.
Founded in the 1920s, Kraft has since grown into a global powerhouse, developing products and acquiring companies to build Kraft into a family of dozens of readily recognizable household brand names. And while Kraft Foods is firmly established in our fridges and pantries, the company’s most recent corporate sustainability report strongly suggests Kraft’s interest in being firmly established in the public mind as a progressive company — one keen to do right by their customers, suppliers, shareholders, employees and the world at large.
Kraft’s current sustainability initiatives, as detailed in the company’s sustainability report (link to pdf), comprise multiple interlocking topics including nutrition, food safety, environmental impacts and workplace culture. Some of the company’s most recent metrics suggest a level of success that is no doubt prone to cheese off the competition:
People
- 43 percent of salaried employees and 35 percent of company management are women;
- Kraft actively partners with CARE, US AID and World Economic Forum to target improving the economic status of small agricultural producers whose harvests make their way into Kraft products;
- Kraft works with US and foreign governments to identify and end hidden child labor practices among associated suppliers around the world.
Planet
Since 2005:
- Packaging materials have decreased by 174 million pounds, and 50 million miles have been cut from the companies transportation network;
- Waste generation has dropped 30 percent, water use has dropped by 32 percent;
- Energy use has dropped by 15 percent, greenhouse gas emissions have dropped by 17 percent.
Profit
- The woes and pitfalls of the financial services industry was Kraft’s gain: American International Group(AIG)’s collapse took it out of the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 2008; Kraft took AIG’s place as one of the 30 bellwether stocks that comprise the world’s most closely monitored stock index;
- During the last year, Kraft earned approximately $15 billion in profits from revenue totaling more than $40 billion.
Have a look at the company’s sustainability report — it’s pretty thorough and encouraging — and maybe even let them know what you think about their efforts and how they are communicating them by participating in a brief survey. There’s far more to Kraft than the sliced cheese; there’s also solid evidence of a company that is firmly set on retaining a place of prominence while keeping a responsible, creative corporate culture at the helm of driving sustainability-minded decisions.
Read more Dollars & Sense.
Photo by srboisvert via Flickr.