Hershey's Third CSR Report Reveals Company Ahead of Schedule for Goals

NEW DELHI, May 7, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- The Hershey Company (NYSE: HSY) today issued its third Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report, highlighting how the company has delivered substantial progress against its wide-ranging CSR goals. From environmental sustainability to ethical sourcing, the company achieved many of its CSR goals years early. As a result, the company has set several new environmental targets in its third report. The company also announced its updated CSR framework to guide its CSR efforts in the future.

The report outlines how the company completed 60 percent of its published goals and discusses its progress against the remaining 40 percent, which are on track to be completed on time. Recent achievements include surpassing four environmental targets early and exceeding its year-one cocoa certification goal.

"Since our original goals were set, we have learned a lot about where we could make a difference and what would make the most impact where it matters," said John P. Bilbrey, President and CEO, The Hershey Company. "Our CSR strategies have evolved, and the updated framework we share in this report reflects how our company values guide the way we work, and how our CSR efforts have matured, become more focused and better aligned with our business."

As a result of the substantial progress made against our environmental priorities, the company has established new 2017 goals with 2013 as the baseline. Reducing the company's environmental impact will play an important role in the company's ability to achieve $10 billion in annual revenue by 2017. Hershey's new environmental targets to be completed are:

• Reducing greenhouse gas emissions by an additional 10 percent
• Attaining zero-waste-to-landfill status at an additional two plants
• Attaining a recycling rate of 90 percent
• Reducing waste by an additional five percent
• Reducing emissions by an additional 15 percent
• Reducing absolute water use an additional 17 percent
• Competing a minimum of 25 packaging sustainability initiatives, resulting in the cumulative elimination of 16 million pounds of packaging material

Sharing Goodness

In the report, the company unveils its evolved CSR framework – "Hershey Shared Goodness: Good Business, Better Life, Bright Future."

Hershey Shared Goodness guides the report and is built on the company's belief that operating ethically and effectively is simply Good Business. The knowledge, capabilities and financial resources of strong and sustainable business operations enables the company to contribute to a Better Life for its employees, consumers, communities, and, ultimately, a Bright Future for children in need. The company's newly focused CSR approach complements the company's disciplined vision for business growth.

"Our bold, aspirational goals have enabled our people and business to grow significantly," added Bilbrey. "The same can be said for CSR. It was time to evolve how we were managing our CSR initiatives and engaging our stakeholders. Hershey Shared Goodness directly reflects Milton Hershey's founding principle of 'doing well by doing good,' and positions us for greater growth today and into the future."          

At the core of The Hershey Company's strategy is the  simple vision of bringing goodness to the world through great tasting snacks one smile, one moment and one person at a time. For more than 100 years, the Hershey name has meant more than a delicious treat, it has been a commitment to operating fairly, ethically and sustainably for consumers, customers, employees and the community.

Hershey has been recognized externally for its citizenship work. In 2013, Hershey was selected to both the Dow Jones Sustainability World and North America Index as one of only 13 companies from the Food, Beverage and Tobacco Industry in the World Index. The company ranked in at least the 90^th percentile in each of the three categories of Economic, Environmental and Social Criteria.

Hershey's new full CSR report follows the new GRI G4 guidelines. GRI is a widely used standard that provides companies and organizations with a common framework to measure and report on sustainability performance.

About Hershey India Efforts

With an unprecedented growth pace in the region, The Hershey Company and its employees are working at full speed to bring the best products to the market. At the same time, the Hershey team has not forgotten their mission and commitment to the countries where they operate. In India, members of Hershey joined the Corporate Challenge of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon (SCMM)-2014. Corporate Challenge is a category specially designed for companies who wish to sponsor employee teams to participate in the SCMM and raise funds for charity. The Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon is India's largest charity platform for non-profit organizations to raise funds for their projects. Hershey India participated in Corporate Challenge category through Company's charity partner "United Way Mumbai." A donation of INR 2,75,000 was raised to be used by United Way Mumbai towards child education or mid-day lunch.