Danone among six global environmental leaders in 2019

16 / 02 / 2020

By Marwa Nassar - -

Danone is among six companies named by CDP as global environmental leaders in 2019 in recognition of their leading efforts in tackling climate change, fighting deforestation and protecting water cycles.

The six firms are Danone, Firmenich SA, HP Inc, L’Oréal, Unilever and UPM-Kymmene Corporation.

CDP’s annual A List names the world’s most pioneering companies leading on environmental transparency and performance.

By scoring companies and cities, CDP aims to incentivize and guide them on a journey through disclosure towards becoming a leader on environmental transparency and action. In 2019, over 8,400 companies and 920 cities, states and regions disclosed through CDP.

Danone obtained a ‘triple A’ score by CDP in recognition of its leading environmental efforts, namely in tackling climate change, fighting deforestation and protecting water cycles.

This prestigious distinction acknowledges Danone’s unique commitments to being a game-changer and to fostering positive environmental solutions, in line with its ‘One Planet. One Health’ vision.

Being included in these three prestigious lists is a great recognition of Danone’s environmental actions and progress towards its ambition of becoming carbon neutral, achieving zero deforestation in its supply chain and protecting water cycles. It also demonstrates the high degree of transparency of Danone’s reporting.

Emmanuel Faber, Chairman and CEO at Danone, declared: “We are very proud to get a ‘triple A’ score by CDP, which is truly helping organizations build a more sustainable economy by measuring and understanding their environmental impact. I would like to thank our teams for this great achievement, which acknowledges the resilience of the model we are building through our ‘One Planet. One Health’ business model, in a transparent way. This encourages us to keep working with partners to drive change and better take into account major positive and negative externalities that are both crucial and available to finance a radically more inclusive, multidimensional and resilient growth.”

Paul Simpson, CEO of CDP, said: “Congratulations to the companies that achieved a position on CDP’s A Lists this year, for leading in environmental performance and transparency. The scale of the business risks from the climate emergency, deforestation and water insecurity are vast – as are the opportunities from addressing them – and it’s clear the private sector has a vital role to play at this critical time. The A List companies are leading the market in corporate sustainability, tackling environmental risks and setting themselves up to thrive in tomorrow’s economy.”

As part of its journey towards carbon neutrality on its full value chain by 2050, Danone set intermediate carbon reduction targets for 2030 which were officially approved by the Science-Based Targets initiative in 2017.

Danone’s strategy is based on reducing emissions, transforming agricultural practices to sequester more carbon in the soil, eliminating deforestation from its supply chain in key commodities, and offsetting the emissions that remain.

Danone recently strengthened its commitments through the signature of “Business Ambition for 1.5°C” pledge, alongside 190 other institutions. This represents a significant acceleration of the company’s greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) direct and indirect emission reduction targets, across its extended value chain.

Danone brands are also taking tangible action to accelerate their journey towards a balanced footprint of zero net carbon emissions. Within the Danone Waters division, four major brands have already committed to becoming carbon neutral in the coming years: evian by 2020, Lanjarón and Volvic by 2025 and Font Vella by 2030.

Danone remains fully committed to eliminating deforestation on key commodities in its supply chain by 2020.

In 2019, Danone along with 18 forward-thinking companies and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) launched a business-led coalition – “One Planet Business for Biodiversity” (OP2B) – to protect and restore biodiversity within its supply chain and portfolios of products, with the aim to eliminate deforestation, enhance the management, restoration and protection of high-value natural ecosystems.

Danone began its journey to protect water cycles more than two decades ago, by partnering with the Ramsar convention on wetlands in 1998.

Today, Danone is supporting locally-adapted solutions to water quality, quantity and access both in its operations and its value chain. It has adopted a water stewardship strategy focusing on 4 pillars; water in operations, protecting ecosystems, promoting sustainable agriculture and increasing access to safe drinking water for populations.

To continue its transparency efforts, Danone is going to join The FSB Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), which develops voluntary, consistent climate-related financial risk disclosures for use by companies in providing information to investors, lenders, insurers, and other stakeholders.