Chocolate firm Mars has reportedly promised to shell out nearly $1 billion over the next few years in an effort to fight climate change.
The confectionery giant, worth $35 billion, on Wednesday launched its "Sustainability in a Generation" plan, which aims to reduce carbon footprint of its business and supply chain by more than 60 percent, by the year 2050, according to reports.
"We've been increasingly worried about overall progress on the big issues, whether that's climate change or solving poverty," Mars' chief sustainability officer, Barry Parkin told Business Insider.
"There are obviously commitments the world is leaning into but, frankly, we don't think we're getting there fast enough collectively. We're trying to go all in here," Parkin added.
The firm's CSO said that there will be grave consequences if people do not act now "the planet warming, more extreme weather events, and that causing significant challenges and hardships in specific places around the world, whether that's oceans rising or crops not growing successfully."
"We're a food business, which is based on agriculture so we care a lot about the farmers who supply us around the world. It's towards 1 million farmers around the world who produce raw materials for us," he said.
"Climate science says many of those are going to be challenged as the world gets warmer. We care about this both on a societal level but also on a business level," Parkin said.
The investment commitment made by the firm is timely as it comes ahead of the Climate Week and the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York late in September. Reports state that the food giant chose this time to announce its plan to prompt other firms across the world to take similar measures to save the environment.
Mars CEO Grant F Reid, in a statement released on Wednesday, said that "the engine of global business — its supply chain — is broken, and requires transformational, cross-industry collaboration to fix it."
"It's time for companies to accelerate their game and work together, and work together with governments and civil society. This is a world issue and it requires all actors to work together," Business Insider quoted Parkin as saying.
Mars was among the firms which had signed a letter urging the United States President Donald Trump to reconsider his decision to withdraw from the historic Paris Climate Agreement in June.
The firm said that it will endeavour to meet its environmental commitments charted out by the Paris deal regardless of what politicians decide.
