Hershey Company – Stephanie Shekels – 2024
SummaryStephanie Shekels supported Hershey’s climate supplier engagement, which is a key part of its strategy to achieve its scope 3 science-based GHG emissions reduction target.GoalsThe Hershey Company committed to the Science Based Targets Initiative (SBTi), setting a near-term target to reduce its absolute scope 3 GHG emissions by 30% by 2030 from a 2018 base year. Based on guidance from SBTi, Hershey revised its emissions targets into FLAG and non-FLAG sources. Hershey enlisted EDF Climate Corps fellow Stephanie Shekels to support the supplier engagement strategy to reduce emissions from major non-FLAG emissions categories such as packaging and upstream processing in addition to supporting reductions in key ingredient categories.SolutionsStephanie supported the climate supplier engagement strategy for packaging, upstream processing, corn, wheat, and peanuts through the following steps: – Analyzed Hershey’s scope 3 GHG accounting approach and emissions for key material and ingredient categories to identify key emissions drivers and opportunities to integrate supplier-specific data into its GHG inventory. – Conducted a climate maturity analysis of Hershey’s suppliers to understand key trends, opportunities, and challenges in supplier and industry emissions targets. – Developed estimates for suppliers’ contribution to Hershey’s footprint and emissions reduction potential to support climate maturity and prioritization assessment.Potential ImpactSuppliers are critical partners for Hershey to achieve its scope 3 targets, and Hershey seeks to understand new ways to account for emissions in its value chain that more accurately reflect its suppliers’ emissions and the actions they are taking to achieve their own emissions targets. Stephanie’s work helped inform Hershey’s strategy to engage suppliers and better understand the carbon footprint of materials it buys, how it can integrate supplier data into its accounting approach, and how suppliers’ emissions targets contribute to Hershey’s own scope 3 goals.
