You might read a headline like the one above and from the perspective of the United States think, “Nice enough, but what does a global rating have to do with me?” There is a famous sarcastic rhetorical question, “What, do you want a cookie?” It is often used when someone has done something unimpressive or unsurprising.
This is great question for Americans to ask when you consider we are the world leaders in chocolate-chip cookie consumption! An estimated 7 billion chocolate-chip cookies are devoured in the U.S. each year. 1 Maybe a cookie is the best illustration for Ecovadis Gold in the United States.
The Hershey Company began in 1894, forty-five years after the founding of Freudenberg (the parent company of Klüber). By 1900, Hershey was selling its famous candy bar. It now holds approximately 25% of the total chocolate share within the U.S., which includes the iconic chocolate chip. A great American success story you might say, but not possible without cocoa grown throughout the world. Global sustainability is the only way for chocolate chip cookies to maintain their place in children’s lunch boxes and dinner tables across the country. Here is how the Hershey Company explains it, “We rely on practices such as independent verification, sourcing visibility and impact studies as key levers to monitor, assess and provide affirmation on the efficacy of our actions.”2
Ecovadis is how Klüber independently verifies our sustainability efforts toward the Environment, Labor & Human Rights, Ethics and Sustainable Procurement. This transparent, unbiased approach enables Klüber to approach our global business with confidence in the efforts we take toward sustainability. So, a cookie is not just a cookie, and Ecovadis is not just a label; it is a commitment to sustainability echoing throughout global supply chains. Klüber is pleased to announce our third year of achieving Ecovadis Gold.
1Response generated by Copilot, an AI language model developed by OpenAI
2 Hershey, The Goodness Inside, 2022 ESG Report