General Mills, the Cheerios-to-Yoplait maker, has finalised a goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions across its supply chain.

The US group has had targets in place since 2005 for emissions from its own operations and said last year it would expand its efforts to include its suppliers, with a focus on upstream agriculture, without setting a specific target.

The company yesterday (31 August) announced a goal of cutting emissions "from farm to fork to landfill" by 28% – against 2010 levels – over the next ten years.

"Climate plays a significant role in the long-term viability of our business. For example, changes in climate have an impact on weather conditions such as drought, floods and excessive heat, all of which can decrease yields on our raw materials like corn, oats and wheat," Jerry Lynch, vice president and chief sustainability officer at General Mills, said.

"We worked closely with Business for Social Responsibility to calculate a science-based goal. And by this I mean that we did not approach this asking ourselves what could we do to reduce our carbon footprint? Rather, we asked ourselves: what does science tell us our role is in preventing the worst impacts of climate change?

"Looking beyond 2025, our long term aspiration is to achieve sustainable emission levels in line with scientific consensus by 2050. That consensus tells us that the average global temperature increase must remain below 2°C (3.6°F) in order to safeguard the well-being of people and the planet for future generations."

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