Key takeaways:
- Snack giants like Mondelēz, PepsiCo and Nestlé are doubling down on ESG reporting whilst Trump tries to roll again disclosure guidelines.
- The experiences function credibility armor in a market the place shoppers, traders and regulators demand proof of progress.
- For Large Meals, ESG is now not philanthropy or optics – it’s survival in a world credibility conflict.
When Mondelēz Worldwide dropped its 2024 Snacking Made Right report earlier this month, the standard metrics rolled out: 40,000 volunteer hours; $48 million in donations; catastrophe reduction from Brazil to Ukraine; and a string of mentoring and meals financial institution tasks. On paper, it’s textbook ESG – the polished proof the Oreo and Cadbury maker’s greater than only a snack machine.
However the timing issues as a lot because the content material. This report landed in the identical 12 months Donald Trump returned to the White House promising to dismantle ESG frameworks, rolling again Division of Labor guidelines that allow pension funds weigh social and environmental components and freezing new SEC disclosure necessities.
Towards that backdrop, Mondelēz’s shiny disclosure reads like defiance. The corporate’s not ducking ESG – it’s leaning into it.
The ESG report no one requested for
That posture’s not distinctive. Throughout the sector, Large Meals’s making ESG experiences central to its public positioning, even because the political local weather within the US shifts hostile.
Nestlé’s newest Creating Shared Value report runs to greater than 300 pages, brimming with commitments on cocoa sourcing, vitamin reformulation and water stewardship. PepsiCo’s ESG Summary is heavy with regenerative agriculture targets and packaging pledges. Unilever retains framing its portfolio round ‘brands with purpose’, regardless of scaling again some targets after shareholder pushback.
These experiences aren’t simply window dressing for traders anymore. They’ve develop into reputational armor in a world the place shoppers, activists and regulators interrogate each omission. That’s why Large Meals retains producing them, whilst Trump’s administration rolls again disclosure necessities. Firms know the numbers matter lower than the posture – and the posture issues to traders as a lot as buyers.
That’s the opposite fact: Wall Road and world capital markets haven’t deserted ESG. BlackRock, State Road and different asset managers nonetheless demand disclosures, whereas Europe pushes forward with necessary CSRD guidelines and the ISSB’s new requirements go world. Even when Washington backs off, Brussels and Singapore are shifting the alternative means.
Trump might name ESG a rip-off, however snack makers are performing like the alternative’s true: that in as we speak’s market, ESG’s survival.
Cookies, cocoa and contradictions
In fact, the contradictions are evident. Mondelēz needs credit score for funding regenerative agriculture in Estonia and small-shop financing in Colombia, however its core portfolio’s nonetheless Oreos, Ritz and Milka bars. Nestlé boasts about tackling child labor in cocoa, but lawsuits and watchdog reports continue to question whether its supply chain is free of abuses.
PepsiCo’s soil carbon pledges sound bold, but traders and campaigners have pressed the company on how those gains balance with the scale of its snack portfolio, particularly after revisions to a few of its local weather and plastic targets.
Unilever’s glossy narratives about climate action and circular packaging additionally face scrutiny, with analysts pointing out that some of its environmental targets have been scaled back in recent years. Hershey and Mars spotlight fair-trade schemes and cocoa group applications of their experiences, but ongoing litigation and NGO critiques proceed to raise questions about child labor risks in West Africa.
Even Common Mills and Kellogg’s – each lively in regenerative agriculture pilots across the US Midwest – face questions from impartial screens about whether or not pilot applications can truly offset the footprint of sprawling packaged food portfolios.
That is the paradox ESG experiences can’t resolve. The tales are actual – farmers do get entry to carbon markets, staff do clear rivers, catastrophe victims do obtain assist. However the scale of these efforts is all the time measured towards the dimensions of world meals empires, and the maths not often balances.
From checkbooks to tradition wars
One clear shift throughout Large Meals’s the pivot from donations to tradition. Mondelēz has practically tripled its volunteering hours in three years. PepsiCo’s report facilities on provider partnerships and regenerative farming quite than charitable giving. Nestlé highlights vitamin reformulation as a core enterprise perform, not a facet challenge. Unilever retains placing staff and ‘manufacturers with function’ on the heart of its narrative.
Additionally learn → The snackdown: Europe dithers while chocolate-linked deforestation grows
Strip again the spin and the message is straightforward – ESG’s now not additional credit score. It needs to be baked into the tradition, not bolted onto the steadiness sheet. That’s the one means these firms imagine they will face up to scrutiny and hold justifying their place within the public’s weight-reduction plan.
It’s additionally a defensive transfer. By politicizing ESG, Trump might have made it more durable for firms to cover behind compliance. If the federal government says ESG’s irrelevant, then each shiny PDF turns into a voluntary act and the query turns into: do you imagine us?
Snackdown verdict: Survival, not advantage
So what does Mondelēz’s report actually inform us? That the Oreo maker is aware of it could possibly’t retreat, even when Washington alerts that ESG’s out of vogue. That it sees credibility as a extra treasured commodity than regulatory reduction. And that it, together with Nestlé, PepsiCo, Unilever and the remainder of Large Meals, is treating ESG not as philanthropy however as contested terrain within the combat for belief.
Trump might want ESG gone. However Large Meals is aware of higher. In a world of fragile client loyalty, relentless investor stress and tightening world regulation, strolling away from ESG can be extra harmful than leaning in. That’s why the snack giants are nonetheless publishing shiny experiences, nonetheless stacking up volunteer hours, nonetheless betting on regenerative farming and packaging pledges.
As a result of in 2025, ESG’s not about advantage. It’s about survival.
ESG scorecard, 2024
The numbers inform their very own story, proving that Large Meals’s not retreating from ESG however doubling down.
Mondelēz experiences 91% of the cocoa in its chocolate manufacturers sourced by way of Cocoa Life, practically 178,000 farmers educated in good agricultural practices and 10.6 million shade timber distributed in 2024. Workers additionally racked up 40,000 hours of volunteering, a bounce from 29,000 in 2023.
PepsiCo has put 3.5 million acres into regenerative farming, reached 89% renewable electrical energy in its personal operations and claims to have replenished 24 billion liters of water in high-risk areas. It additionally says 67% of its drinks are below 100 energy per 12 oz serving and 77% of snacks now meet sodium objectives.
Unilever logged €60.8 billion in turnover final 12 months, however nonetheless devoted house in its annual report back to emissions targets, round packaging and sustainable sourcing.
Hershey and Mars proceed to increase group growth and cocoa certification applications, whereas Common Mills and Kellogg’s are piloting regenerative agriculture throughout the US Midwest.
Collectively, the experiences look spectacular. Collectively, in addition they present why Trump’s dismissal of ESG as a ‘woke rip-off’ misses the mark – for the snack giants, these disclosures aren’t optionally available. They’re survival methods in a world credibility conflict.
