By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media
Mars, known for famous snack brands like M&M’s and Snickers, is putting its money where its mouth is while taking a bold step toward tackling its agricultural emissions. The company has unveiled a Sustainability Investment Fund of up to $250 million, designed to accelerate innovation across its supply chain, with a major emphasis on agriculture. Mars plans to deploy capital to back both individual companies and funds that align with its sustainability goals.
The fund was announced alongside Mars’ 2024 “Sustainable in a Generation” report and is structured around three key categories: Advanced Agriculture, Innovative Ingredients & Raw Materials, and Next Generation Packaging. Across these themes, Mars will target “technologies that reduce the emissions associated with agricultural inputs in our products” as well as lower emission or ‘better-for-you’ alternatives to existing ingredients used in our products.” To bankroll its ambitions, Mars is putting its own massive balance sheet to work, with a strategy to back startups, technologies and innovations in areas like low‑emissions agriculture, climate-smart sourcing and circular packaging.
Mars says that over 70 percent of its greenhouse gas emissions come from agriculture and ingredients. The company plans to use the fund to back emerging solutions that can lower that massive carbon footprint, such as digital on-farm tools, more efficient fertilizer tracking, satellite monitoring for land use and data-driven yield forecasting. The fund will also help Mars explore sourcing ingredients for its food products from regions with a smaller carbon footprint.
Mars Chief Sustainability Officer Alastair Child said the company is embedding societal goals into business decisions, emphasizing that decarbonization must happen at scale and across the value chain. The move comes as Mars has already made notable progress on sustainability. Since 2015, the company has cut emissions by more than 16 percent while increasing revenue by nearly 70 percent, to an estimated $55 billion. This new capital injection is intended to keep that momentum going while making Mars’ supply chain more resilient and climate-smart.
Mars CEO Poul Weihrauch highlighted the role startups and innovative technologies are playing in the company’s progress, underscoring that the corporate giant is serious about transforming the way it sources and produces the ingredients behind its niche product lineup. Weihrauch stated, “Looking ahead, there will be setbacks – and we must be unafraid to say so – but we will stay focused on making progress, growing our business and reducing the impact we have on the planet by helping everyone thrive.”
The fund is part of a broader push for environmental change, involving collaboration with governments, farmers and industry partners. It reflects a growing realization that decarbonizing agriculture won’t be achieved with off-the-shelf tools alone and will instead require sustained investment in emerging technologies and systems, and Mars is betting that a dedicated $250 million is a good place to start.
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