ADM's Sustainability Leadership: Award-Winning Initiatives in the Food Industry

ADM's Sustainability Goals and Commitments

ADM's sustainability goals include reducing water withdrawal by 10% and increasing low-carbon energy use to 25% by 2035. Their 2023 Corporate Sustainability Report outlines objectives for GHG reductions, regenerative agriculture, and no-conversion commitments, emphasizing progress in feeding the world, protecting nature, and enriching lives.

"In 2023, ADM refined two of its Strive 35 commitments to more meaningfully drive progress: ADM aims to reduce its absolute water withdrawal by 10%, from a 2019 baseline, by 2035, and ADM aims to increase its use of low-carbon energy sources to 25% of total energy used by 2035." --- (ADM, sec filing, 2024/Q1)

"ADM recently announced details for its objectives of greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions, regenerative agriculture and no-conversion commitment through its 2023 Corporate Sustainability Report, detailing activities spanning three core focus areas of feeding the world, protecting nature and enriching lives." --- (BG, press release, 2024/05/30)

"ADM (NYSE:ADM) today released its 2023 Corporate Sustainability Report, highlighting an extensive array of accomplishments, initiatives and goals that are helping drive the company's progress and growth." --- (ADM, press release, 2024/05/14)

"We made progress on each of these priorities in the first quarter. Our efforts to manage through the cycle highlight ADM's ability to mitigate challenging headwinds while building structurally on enduring global trends, such as sustainability." --- (ADM, earning call, 2024/Q1)

"ADM's full list of sustainability commitments can be found in its 2023 Corporate Sustainability report." --- (ADM, press release, 2024/05/21)

Technological Innovations in Sustainability

ADM is leveraging agritech innovations, optimizing plant and business processes, and enhancing supply chain efficiency to drive sustainability. Their focus on low carbon intensity feedstocks in renewable diesel and commitment to solving nutritional and sustainability challenges underscore their technological advancements in sustainability.

"To meet the rising demands for sustainable agriculture, agritech innovations are accelerating." --- (ADM, press release, 2024/05/17)

"As Juan mentioned during the remarks, we have more than 1,200 initiatives, but they can be grouped into substantial areas or themes of effort and focus, working on plant process optimization, working on business process optimization, also very important on supply chain and demand fulfillment , which is part of the challenges that we've had in Nutrition." --- (ADM, earning call, 2024/Q1)

"So in some part of the sectors, it's more like self-help. In other parts, it's more innovation driven." --- (ADM, earning call, 2024/Q1)

"Crushing saw good demand with lower North American meal exports. In Refined Products and Other, despite strong global demand for oil and biodiesel, margins were limited by oil values, particularly in North America, due to low carbon intensity feedstocks competing in the renewable diesel market." --- (ADM, sec filing, 2024/Q2)

"From the seed of the idea to the outcome of the solution, we give customers an edge in solving the nutritional and sustainability challenges of today and tomorrow." --- (ADM, press release, 2024/04/11)

Partnerships Enhancing Sustainability

ADM's sustainability efforts are bolstered by partnerships with industry players, nonprofits, and governments, leveraging collective action to drive progress. Procter & Gamble's approach includes acquiring technologies through partnerships when scaling independently isn't feasible, highlighting the critical role of collaboration in enhancing sustainability.

"This means that we intend to be a leader in using AI to support our marketing agenda and enhance overall operational effectiveness, which means we're embracing the need to take risks, responsibly experiment with AI across our system and build on what we learn to drive scale. In parallel, we're also investing in solutions and making progress through collective action with industry partners, nonprofits and governments to create a better shared future." --- (KO, event transcript, 2024/05/01)

"The way we deliver sustainability is easily described as 3 pillars: reducing our own footprint gaining technologies that we have in the marketplace when we can't scale them ourselves and monetizing them like polypropylene recycling for example. And the" --- (PG, conference, 2024/05/14)

"From creating new products and brand extensions to the development of more sustainable packaging to more efficient equipment and the use of technology to improve our business, we believe innovation is a key enabler in creating value." --- (KO, event transcript, 2024/05/01)

"But longer term, we think that the broader value proposition of the Coca-Cola Company is staying very focused on what we do best, and having a balance sheet then that's designed to support what we do best, working in partnership with great partners around the world, is the recipe for us to ease and exceed our long-term growth model." --- (KO, earning call, 2024/Q2)

Impact on Supply Chain Sustainability

ADM's collaboration with Bayer aims to create a resilient, sustainable supply chain with a lower carbon footprint, highlighting the importance of a committed value chain approach. Additionally, ADM's focus on low carbon intensity feedstocks and the use of used cooking oil are key elements in their supply chain sustainability efforts.

"We're looking forward to working with Bayer to promote an economically attractive model, where business and farmers can work together to build a more resilient, sustainable supply chain with a lower carbon footprint. Lionnel Alexandre, Carbon Business Lead, EMEA for Bayer, said, 'Developing a project with ADM in Europe on regenerative agriculture has a strong meaning for us as it showcases the importance of building a robust and committed value chain approach, where all players work for a common goal.'" --- (ADM, press release, 2024/06/13)

"And it's about Planet, which is about fostering a more sustainable supply chain that some of our customers really need and will rely on. Just some examples for you." --- (SYY, event transcript, 2024/05/22)

"Increased industry capacity pressured Crush margins and increased supply of competing low carbon intensity feedstocks affected margins." --- (ADM, sec filing, 2024/Q2)

"Crushing results were lower than the prior year quarter as global soy crush margins moderated due to more balanced supply and demand conditions and lower oil values caused by an increase in imports of used cooking oil." --- (ADM, sec filing, 2024/Q2)

Comparing ADM's Initiatives with Industry Peers

ADM's sustainability initiatives are robust, with a global distribution of projects and significant progress, positioning them ahead of schedule. In comparison, peers like Bunge focus on low carbon intensity feedstocks, while Kraft Heinz emphasizes innovative, sustainable products and data-driven sustainability strategies.

"Good morning, everyone. I was hoping to maybe drill in on some of the cost and productivity initiatives that you have underway right now." --- (ADM, earning call, 2024/Q2)

"There are projects going on kind of around globally. So some of the low CI feedstocks that have been moving around the globe as projects get developed, then demand develops in country or in continent." --- (BG, earning call, 2024/Q1)

"But I also tell you that we're not done. If I think about the changes we have just made over the last 6 months, we created a Chief Growth Officer as a company in order to make sure we invest behind a brand growth system that allows us to make sure that we are looking at what is the data driven decision to how we best deploy our marketing dollars, so we have the right returns. And also how do we make sure we have the right sustainability" --- (KHC, conference, 2024/05/30)

"So but overall, I think good distribution of projects around the four geographies and the three businesses, and again, catching momentum when you have a big organization that you need to promote all these activities, so not everybody starts at the same time, so we feel very good by being on track, and again, we think ahead of schedule for our $500 million over two years." --- (ADM, earning call, 2024/Q2)

"named one of the world's Top 50 Most Innovative Companies by Fast Company. But more importantly, we are expanding the choices we offer our consumers so that they don't have to sacrifice, whether it's providing greater value through multipacks, plant-based options such as our newly released NotCo Mac & Cheese or expanded the choices in our iconic brands such as Zero Sugar Heinz Ketchup." --- (KHC, earning call, 2024/Q1)