Sir Kensington's Unveils Impact Targets with Focus on Sustainable Agriculture, Responsible Packaging, and Team Impact
New Targets Commit to Continuous, Measured, Long-Term Improvement
NEW YORK, Aug. 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Sir Kensington's, best known for making premium condiments and dressings, today announced it has set initial impact targets focused on sustainable agriculture, responsible packaging, and team impact. Two years after becoming a Certified B Corporation, Sir Kensington's underscores its commitment to continuously measure and improve on its efforts for the betterment of all stakeholders.
"We have a role to play in leaving the world of food better than we found it, and these goals represent that responsibility," says Scott Norton, CEO and Co-Founder of Sir Kensington's. "The truth is that we have an unavoidable effect on the world and people around us. As our business grows, our impact grows too, and the time has come to broaden our business goals with all stakeholders in mind. We have a long way to go, though we're excited to take an important step forward with these commitments."
As a company whose mission it is to reimagine ordinary and overlooked foods with fearless integrity and charm, Sir Kensington's believes it also has a responsibility to consider the overlooked people and resources in its value chain. The company's sustainability efforts reach towards a more traceable, ethical, and sustainable supply chain aligned with the responsibility it has to society. After a thorough process involving a materiality assessment, stakeholder conversations, and supply chain analysis, Sir Kensington's set the following initial impact targets:
Supporting Sustainable Agriculture
While not a perfect proxy for sustainability, 'organic' certification is a label for food that has been produced using practices that promote ecological balance and biodiversity, without the use of synthetic chemicals. Fewer synthetic chemicals means it's safer to consume, safer for the people who grow and harvest ingredients, and safer for soil and surrounding waterways. Expanding its use of organic ingredients builds on the company's long-held commitments to using 100% Non-GMO Project Verified ingredients and 100% Certified Humane® Free Range eggs. (Read more at: https://www.sirkensingtons.com/sourcing.)
Target: Double the volume of certified organic ingredients by 2023.
Progress: As of 2019, 15.7% of total ingredient volumes were certified organic. Currently, one product in Sir Kensington's portfolio, Organic Mayonnaise, is fully certified organic.
To achieve this goal, Sir Kensington's is currently working to transition all eggs used in its products to certified organic, while maintaining its Certified Humane® Free Range commitment, for an even higher standard egg. As part of its broader sourcing strategy, the company is also identifying opportunities to carry the Fair Trade certification beyond its sweeteners to other at-risk product categories.
Using More Responsible Packaging
As a packaged foods company, Sir Kensington's acknowledges that packaging can create unintentional harm. By measuring recyclability, increasing recycle rates, and sourcing recycled content, Sir Kensington's seeks to address the potential impact at each stage in its packaging design process and take a 360-degree approach to the plastic challenge. (Read more at: https://www.sirkensingtons.com/packaging.)
Target: Achieve 100% recyclable and 100% recycled content in rigid plastics and fiber (e.g. paper labels and corrugate) by 2022.
Progress:
- Rigid Plastics: Sir Kensington's is currently using 3.5% post-consumer recycled (PCR) plastic by weight and is projected to reach 21.5% by November 2020.
- Fiber: The company currently estimates that 84.8% recycled content is used for corrugate by weight.
As a subsidiary of Unilever, Sir Kensington's packaging targets also contribute to Unilever's sustainable packaging goal to halve its use of virgin plastic in packaging and to collect and process more packaging than sold by 2025.
Establishing Impact-Aligned Team Incentives
In order to use business as a force for good, every leader and individual must consider environmental and social responsibility as part of their jobs. By aligning incentives with impact goals, Sir Kensington's is empowering all team members to contribute to the continuous improvement of the company's sustainability efforts. (Read more at: https://www.sirkensingtons.com/culture.)
Target: Link performance incentives for 100% of team members to sustainability and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) indicators by the end of 2020.
"These goals are a product of our broader impact strategy, which seeks to operationalize sustainability in the business by keeping our purpose and values at the center of everything we do," said Rebecca Gildiner, Director of Impact Strategy for Sir Kensington's. "One of our core values is to act with honor even when no one is looking. That's why we continue to work behind the scenes to improve our DEI practices, expand our values-led sourcing to all ingredients, increase investments in our communities, and more. We know we can amplify this work by bringing in others and, by publicly committing to these targets, we hope to create more of a dialogue around our impact. We encourage our eaters to hold us accountable and push us to always strive to be a better company."
Sir Kensington's priorities are guided by the Director of Impact Strategy and its six-member Integrity Board. The Integrity Board, which includes external sustainability experts and Unilever business partners, was founded in 2019 to build better governance structures around impact, help champion Sir Kensington's initiatives, and ensure rigorous measurement for its sustainability targets.
This year marks Sir Kensington's ten-year anniversary. The company was not founded on a social mission, but it quickly recognized that its participation in the existing food system mandated it hold itself accountable for its impacts and acknowledge its shortfalls. In 2017, Sir Kensington's joined the Unilever family of brands, which further enabled the business to invest in its sustainability efforts and formalize its measurement capabilities. In 2018, Sir Kensington's became a Certified B Corp, codifying its mission into the company's corporate charter.
"Sir Kensington's sustainability targets represent our commitment to the fact that in addition to creating products and profits, a business should be conscious of its societal impact," said Jostein Solheim, Executive Vice President of Foods and Refreshments for Unilever North America and member of Sir Kensington's Integrity Board. "The company's goal is to both do good business and promote business that does good – a combination that's all the more important as it scales. Unilever celebrates Sir Kensington's commitment to its mission and is proud to have the company in our Sustainable Living portfolio."
To learn more about Sir Kensington's impact strategy and targets, please visit the new impact-focused portion of its website: www.sirkensingtons.com/impact.
About Sir Kensington's:
Sir Kensington's is a leading provider of premium condiments and an integral offering across retail, ecommerce and foodservice in the U.S. Since its founding in 2010, Sir Kensington's has been on a mission to reimagine the most ordinary and overlooked foods with the highest quality ingredients. Every ingredient is entirely non-GMO, and every egg sourced is Certified Humane® Free Range. In 2017, Sir Kensington's was acquired by Unilever and, in 2018, the company became a Certified B Corporation. Today, its award-winning portfolio includes ketchup, mayonnaise, mustard, vegan mayo, a line of globally-inspired everything sauces, and salad dressings. Each product is rooted in the company's uncompromising values that deliver a superior taste that defies expectations. For more information on Sir Kensington's, kindly visit http://sirkensingtons.com or follow along @sirkensingtons.
Media Contacts:
Zach Seely
Director of Marketing and Communications, Sir Kensington's
[email protected]
SOURCE Sir Kensington's
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