Soup business makes CSR a key ingredient

Campbell Soup Company, the US convenience food manufacturer, is to make corporate responsibility part of its overall business strategy.

The New Jersey-based Fortune 500 business, which has an annual turnover of almost $7billion (£3.6bn) and factories in 20 countries, says that it will make ‘an express commitment to corporate social responsibility as a central component of our strategic plan’.

As a result, it is recruiting for the new role of vice-president of corporate social responsibility, who will produce an ‘overarching strategy’, with targets, policies and programmes. Immediate priorities will be to assess the environmental impact of Campbell’s operations, and possible money-saving sustainability measures in water use, waste treatment, energy use and packaging. The role also covers diversity, corporate governance and community engagement.

An important issue for the company, especially in North America, is obesity. Two years ago it signed up to a food industry deal, brokered by former president Bill Clinton and the American Heart Association, under which it agreed to set guidelines for fat, sugar, sodium and calories for snack foods sold in schools. It has also removed trans fats from some products.

The company has a code of business conduct and a community programme, but has otherwise kept a low profile, beyond its Stamp Out Hunger! programme, which collects gifts of non-perishable foods for distribution to poor communities in the US. It has not endorsed the UN Global Compact, nor does it produce an annual corporate responsibility report.