Overview of Environmental, Social, and Government Reporting in the Food Industry: Past, Present, and Future

Abstract

This UM-SEAS team partnered with the Kellogg Company to assess material ESG risks in agricultural commodity sourcing associated with a growing business in its portfolio. Expectations and scrutiny are growing for public companies’ evaluation, disclosure, and mitigation of ESG risks, especially for high-impact business operations like ingredient sourcing. To meet this scrutiny – and, to respond effectively to growing challenges resulting from climate change and other systemic sources of ESG risk - public companies must understand how to link ESG risk assessment with ESG performance and disclosure. This understanding will better enable them to build and execute ESG strategies that mitigate risks in their business operations (in this case, in their ingredient sourcing) and support credible ESG reporting and disclosure. As a companion to the team’s ESG assessment of select agricultural commodities key to Kellogg Company, the team also evaluated the current state of play for: • How ESG reporting expectations are evolving • How well the most widely adopted frameworks for voluntary ESG reporting (GRI and SASB) map to KPIs (key performance indicators) for ESG risk in agricultural commodity production • What actions could be taken to reconcile gaps between how ESG risk and ESG performance are measured for agricultural commodities to enable more effective and holistic strategies to respond to critical ESG issues in the field and in supply chains