General Mills Releases 2012 Global Responsibility Report: Measuring Your Way to CSR

Posted on Apr 9, 2012 in Corporate Social Responsibility | 4 comments

By Catherine Gunsbury, CSR Director, General Mills

While the idea of corporate social responsibility (CSR) has evolved considerably in recent years, General Mills has long held the belief that doing “well” for our shareholders goes hand in hand with doing “well” for our consumers, our communities and the planet.

For us, being a trusted corporate citizen is the bedrock of our business, expressed clearly not only in our values and our mission of Nourishing Lives, but in our practices every day.

As the world’s sixth-largest food company, we leverage our innovation, know-how and scale to grow our business. We also recognize the opportunity to create value not only for our shareholders, but for our consumers, employees, customers, communities and the environments in which we operate. We work under the premise that a small action on our part can have a big impact elsewhere.

And we strive to make that impact a positive one.

Our recently released 2012 Global Responsibility Report is a testament to everything we vouch for and aspire to. Besides highlighting our actions, goals and performance in the key areas of health, environment and community, this Report serves as a constant guide in bettering our processes and managing our impact holistically.

Making Lives Healthier, Easier and Richer

We like measurements. What is measured generates results, and we use metrics not only run our business, but also manage progress toward ambitious CSR goals. Take health, for example.  As a food company, we are committed to creating products that make lives healthier, easier and richer.

To deliver on this goal consistently, we established the Bell Institute of Health and Nutrition in 1998 and the Health and Wellness Center of Excellence in 2005. We also began to systematically measure improvements to the health profile of our products in 2005, setting specific goals to reach.

We call this our “health metric.”

Continue reading on CSRwire.

Please register to download General Mills’ 2012 Global Responsibility Report