Associated Press
One of Mondelēz's most iconic brands is Oreo.
- Mondelēz International is the owner of billion-dollar snack brands like Nabisco and Cadbury.
- It announced Tuesday it will make all packaging for all of its brands recyclable by 2025 and will eliminate 65 million kg of packaging by 2020.
- This article is part of Business Insider's ongoing series on Better Capitalism.
Mondelēz International, maker of iconic snack brands like Nabisco and Cadbury, announced Tuesday that it will be making all packaging of its 52 brands recyclable by 2025.
Mondelēz sells products in 165 countries, and working toward this goal will also lead to the elimination of a total of 65 million kg of packaging due to redesigns since 2013. Upcoming redesigns will also more clearly feature information on recycling.
Christine Montenegro McGrath, the company's chief sustainability officer, told Business Insider that this announcement is the first major addition to the new long-term growth strategy launched by CEO Dirk Van de Put in September.
"We've been working with our suppliers to understand what's possible with new technologies, to make all of the packaging recyclable, and so that's where we felt that as part of this strategy coming out with a new set of goals for 2025, that this is the perfect time to do that," Montenegro McGrath said. She noted that there will be more large-scale, long-term announcements made next year.
Aside from the environmental benefit and lower packaging costs, the initiative is a response to customer research that Mondelēz has been conducting since the year before its launch in 2012, after spinning of from Kraft Foods Inc.
"What they really care about is understanding what's in the products, where do the ingredients come from, are they locally sourced or not, and we hear a lot about what's the purpose that brands have?" Montenegro McGrath said.
Therefore, sustainability initiatives like the packaging reduction are treated with utmost importance to Mondelēz's long-term growth plan, as a way of defining a purpose beyond selling their snack brands, and thus retaining and gaining customers with the prevailing purchasing habits.