Hershey Company
At a Glance
Industry
Consumer Packaged Goods
Project Types
Goals/Targets, Supply Chain, Sustainability and Energy Management Strategy
Year
2018
Location
Hershey, PA
Summary
Harini Rengarajan helped the Hershey Company update its current sustainability goals so that they are in line with the Science Based Targets methodology.
Goals
The Hershey Company wanted to explore the idea of updating its current climate goals to be in line with the Science-Based Targets Initiative (SBT). Before doing so, the company needed to first conduct a thorough feasibility analysis to better understand what this target would look like for Hershey’s, and how it could incorporate Scope 3 emissions into it – the emissions from the thousands of suppliers in its agricultural supply chain. Harini Rengarajan was hired to determine how to best build a scope-3 inventory and develop an ambitious emissions reductions target that aligns with the latest climate science.
Solutions
Rengarajan focused on the two projects: building a GHG inventory and conducting SBT modelling.
Developing a GHG inventory. To understand Hershey’s business activities, recognize internal and external stakeholders and identify different leadership of various operations, Rengarajan collected data from various departments within the organization. After laying out the basic inventory framework, she collaborated with the internal teams to both understand the type of data that exists and to obtain the exact format of data for populating the inventory framework. Once she had the necessary emission factors – specific to the company’s specialized set of ingredients and services – Harini arrived at a ballpark figure for Hershey’s total GHG emissions.
SBT modelling. Rengarajan studied six SBT methodologies in order to pick the one most suited for Hershey’s. After running models, she arrived at a range of targets that would fit all of Hershey’s objectives. She used a combination of parameters/criteria, including timeframe, level of ambition, capabilities, internal alignment and thoughts, to arrive at a Science-Based Target.
Potential Impact
Rengarajan gave The Hershey Company a detailed list of next steps for calculating its total Scope 3 emissions in a more precise manner, as well as a roadmap for aligning targets with the SBT initiative.